The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection today denied the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association’s request for continued tax breaks
September 17, 2007 by savvyplanners.com ·
Monday, September 17, 2007 — The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection today denied the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association’s request for continued tax breaks for the public boardwalk pavilion area on which the Association has banned gay civil unions.
Ocean Grove couple was denied use of pavillion
September 15, 2007 by savvyplanners.com ·
Civil union ceremony set for pier
Posted by the Asbury Park Press BY BILL BOWMAN
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU
OCEAN GROVE — Sunday will be a “dream come true” for an Ocean Grove couple when they hold their civil union ceremony on the fishing pier.
Janice Moore, 70, and Emily Sonnessa, 77, will hold their ceremony at 3 p.m. Sunday in front of about 60 relatives and friends, Moore said. The ceremony will be officiated by Neptune Deputy Mayor Randy Bishop.
The couple is one of two battling the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association over its refusal to allow same-sex civil unions in the boardwalk pavilion. The association maintains that the pavilion is a religious structure, while Ocean Grove’s gay community and its supporters say it is a public area.
“I am so excited,” Moore said. “I can’t believe that we ever lived to see this come into effect, these (civil union) laws. And I’m so grateful to God that if we have any young ones in the family who grow up, and they happen to be gay, they don’t face these problems. Maybe we can make their path easier in life.”
Moore and Sonnessa have been together for nearly 38 years, Moore said.
Task Force, Inc., urges California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign marriage equality bill
September 11, 2007 by savvyplanners.com ·
PRESS RELEASE
Task Force, Inc., applauds California Legislature’s passage of measure and the work of state partner and bill sponsor, Equality California
Second time in two years the Legislature has passed a bill that would grant same-sex couples the right to marry
WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 — The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Inc., is urging California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign a marriage equality bill passed Friday by the state Senate. With a 22-15 vote, the Senate approved AB 43, authored by Assemblymember Mark Leno and sponsored by Equality California (EQCA). The Assembly passed the bill on June 5 with a 42-34 vote. This is the second time in two years that the California Legislature has passed a bill that would give all couples equal access to a marriage license. The governor has until Oct. 14 to act on the bill.
Statement by Matt Foreman, Executive Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Inc.
“The California Constitution is clear: Everyone is equal under the law, and that’s just what this bill does — grants equality to all couples. For far too long, too many California families have been placed in harm’s way because they lack the full, fundamental protections they deserve. Governor Schwarzenegger can rectify this inequality by stepping up and signing this bill the moment it lands on his desk.”
Statement by Thalia Zepatos, Organizing & Training Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Foundation
“One thing is clear — marriage equality is inevitable in this state — it’s only a question of time before the courts, the Legislature and the people of California all unite around this basic principle of equality. We are looking to Governor Schwarzenegger to be a leader and get out in front of where the people are already going.
“We commend the staff and leaders of Equality California, Assemblymember Mark Leno and all the allies and legislators who’ve worked so hard to support this bill.”
About the Task Force’s work in California:
Through its partnership with EQCA, the Task Force has been working to build support for the freedom to marry in California. The Task Force has five full-time organizers in California who have helped establish a coalition of more than 45 organizations that support marriage equality. Since 2004, the Task Force has spent more than $500,000 in organizing, training and supporting these efforts.
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The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Inc. (“NGLTF, Inc.”), founded in 1974, works to build the grassroots political power of the LGBT community to win complete equality. We do this through direct and grassroots lobbying to defeat anti-LGBT ballot initiatives and legislation and pass pro-LGBT legislation and other measures. We also analyze and report on the positions of candidates for public office on issues of importance to the LGBT community. NGLTF, Inc., is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation incorporated in New York. Contributions to NGLTF, Inc., are not tax-deductible.
Transgender pastor’s new test of faith
September 9, 2007 by savvyplanners.com ·
via the LA TIMES, By Stephanie Simon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
A United Methodist council’s decision on whether to accept him could have political implications too.
BALTIMORE — The Rev. Ann Gordon stood in front of her United Methodist congregation last fall and announced that she was now he.
Surgery and testosterone had transformed Ann into the Rev. Drew Phoenix — still as liberal and laid-back as always, but now legally male. Most in the small congregation accepted their pastor’s transition; they even threw him a renaming party, complete with birthday cake.
But when Phoenix, 48, was reappointed to another year of ministry this spring by his bishop, it sparked a protest in the United Methodist Church.
The denomination’s highest authority, the Judicial Council, will take up the case next month, deciding whether the church should accept transgender pastors. The decision will determine Phoenix’s future; it could also have political implications.
Presiding over the Judicial Council is Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general and a longtime lay leader of the United Methodist church. Democrats have objected to Holsinger in large part because of work he has done for his church over the years.
In 1991, Holsinger wrote a paper for the church describing gay sex as abnormal and unhealthy. On the Judicial Council last year, he supported a pastor who would not permit a gay man to join his congregation. Holsinger has also affirmed the church’s stance against openly gay and lesbian clergy.
The Senate has not yet scheduled a vote on Holsinger, though his confirmation hearing was two months ago. He has been asked to answer further questions in writing. In the meantime, Holsinger will handle several Judicial Council cases dealing with sexuality. Most prominent is the question of Phoenix’s right to remain in ministry.
The United Methodist Book of Discipline, which sets out rules for the denomination, does not address the issue of gender identity. But since it bans discrimination on the basis of gender — a point intended to ensure the equality of male and female clergy — Phoenix argues in a legal brief: “There is no basis for prohibiting my appointment . . . based on my identification as male.”
Behind that phrase — “my identification as male” — is a lifetime of longing.
Even as a young girl, Ann Gordon felt sure she was meant to be a boy. She played football every afternoon, clearing the snow off her yard in winter so she could practice the moves of her idol, NFL quarterback Roman Gabriel. One of her happiest moments as a teen was playing Joseph in a Christmas pageant and hearing the minister tell her: “Ann, you look handsome.”
She grew up thinking of church as forbidding — all about “obeying the big daddy in the sky.” But, to her surprise, she found herself tugged toward ministry after several years abroad with the Peace Corps. Five years ago, Gordon was assigned to lead St. John’s of Baltimore City.
Set on a residential street lined with brownstones — some painted bright pink or green — St. John’s serves a diverse slice of downtown. Within a few blocks, there’s a Korean newspaper, an African Braiding House, a sushi bar, and a kebab restaurant that serves meat slaughtered in accordance with Muslim law.
The church had absorbed none of that vitality when Gordon arrived. The congregation numbered fewer than a dozen. Gordon threw herself into bringing St. John’s back to life with the mantra: “We worship a radically inclusive God.”
She reached out to gays and lesbians, welcomed agnostics, opened the 100-year-old stone church to yoga, tai chi, antiwar lectures, even a screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Word spread about Gordon’s spirited services: how she invited questions as she spoke, making her sermons feel more like college seminars than a list of “Thou shalts.” How she emphasized themes of social justice, and organized her flock to help the poor.
Weekly services now draw at least three dozen — mostly well-educated white-collar professionals. On one recent Sunday, a check for $1,000 was tossed into the collection basket along with the usual array of rumpled bills.
Even with her success, however, Gordon felt empty, unbalanced, as if she were acting a part. In 2004, on a trip to the Alaskan coast, walking along what felt like the very edge of the Earth, she finally dared to ask herself what was missing. Then she found the courage to act on her answer.
Never during her eight-month-long transition did she question whether God would want her to renounce her femininity. She was sure God had intended her to be male; her woman’s body was meant to challenge her. And, perhaps, to push her church toward a fuller understanding of Christ’s love.
“Maybe this is my gift to the church. Maybe part of the reason I became pastor was this very moment,” Phoenix said.
He revels in his physical changes: His knuckles are hairy! His biceps bulge! But he also finds joy in a new sense of unity with his creator. “It’s like when you come back after a long trip, you collapse on the couch . . . and you just feel, ‘I’m home,’ ” he said. “I am who I am. God doesn’t make mistakes.”
Freedom to Marry Releases Candidates’ Guide
September 9, 2007 by savvyplanners.com ·
via 247gay.com
Following last week’s historic ruling in Iowa, in which a Polk County judge found no good reason for excluding same-sex couples from marriage, Freedom to Marry is releasing a new online publication, Candidates’ Guide on How to Support Marriage Equality and Get Elected.
The guide explains that candidates should support the freedom to marry not just because it is the right thing to do, but also because it is in their interest. The guide also makes the case, reinforced last week in Iowa, that the debate over ending marriage discrimination will not go away, and lays out for candidates how to stand on clear principle, make the case for ending exclusion and throw the challenge back at opponents.
“Candidates’ stand on ending the denial of the freedom to marry signifies a lot about their values, character, and authenticity,” Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry and author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality and Gay People’s Right to Marry, said in a statement. “To help them rise to fairness, it’s important that we create a space for more Americans and their elected representatives by talking about why marriage matters and the need to end exclusion.”
After a month of discussion about whether candidates could or should avoid talking about marriage prompted by the Aug. 9 HRC/Logo presidential forum, August ended with the powerful marriage ruling in Iowa, a state which for many is an epicenter of presidential campaigns.
As Freedom to Marry noted throughout August in a series of articles, candidates, even those saying marriage is primarily “a state issue,” will continue to be pressed to talk about marriage discrimination.
The Candidates’ Guide offers assistance in answering questions such as why marriage matters, the difference between the freedom to marry and parallel or lesser legal mechanisms such as civil union and how to respond to opponents’ claims.
As the Harkin Steak Fry approaches on Sept. 16, with most of the Democratic presidential candidates scheduled to attend, and as Republican candidates so far have criticized the Iowa judge for doing his job, Freedom to Marry suggested candidates should use the new guide to be ready to discuss how court decisions such as the ruling for marriage in Iowa represent fairness for families and the American values the candidates profess.
The Candidates’ Guide on How to Support Marriage Equality and Get Elected is available on the Freedom to Marry website in pdf form. For further reading on last week’s Iowa court decision, visit Freedom to Marry’s Iowa decision information webpage.
Source: Freedom to Marry
© 2007 GayWired.com; All Rights Reserved.
Israeli Police Bust Neo-Nazi Ring
September 9, 2007 by savvyplanners.com ·
by The Associated Press
©365Gay.com 2007
(Jerusalem) In a case that would seem unthinkable in the Jewish state, police said Sunday they have cracked a cell of young Israeli neo-Nazis accused in a string of attacks on foreign workers, religious Jews, drug addicts and gays.
Eight immigrants from the former Soviet Union have been arrested in recent days in connection with at least 15 attacks, and a ninth fled the country, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, in the first such known cell to be discovered in Israel.
All the suspects are in their late teens or early 20s and have Israeli citizenship, Rosenfeld said. A court decided Sunday to keep them in custody.
“The level of violence was outrageous,” Maj. Revital Almog, who investigated the case, told Israel’s Army Radio.
Gang members were arrested in recent days, and a gag order on the case was lifted early Sunday.
News of the arrests came as a shock in Israel, which was founded nearly 60 years ago as a refuge for Jews in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust and remains a most sensitive subject. Any forms of anti-Semitism around the world outrage Israelis, and the discovery of such violence in the country’s midst made the front pages of newspapers and dominated talk on morning radio shows.
The gang documented its activities on film and in photographs. Israeli TV stations showed grainy footage of people lying helpless on floors while several people kicked them, and of a man getting hit from behind on the head with an empty bottle.
Police found knives, spiked balls, explosives and other weapons in the suspects’ possession, Rosenfeld said. One photo that was seized showed one suspect holding an M16 rifle in one hand and in the other, a sign reading “Heil Hitler,” he added.
Police discovered the skinhead ring after investigating the desecration of two synagogues that were sprayed with swastikas in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva more than a year ago, Rosenfeld said.
Police computer experts have determined they maintained contacts with neo-Nazi groups abroad, and materials seized include a German-language video about neo-Nazis in the U.S.
The group planned its attacks, and its targets were foreign workers from Asia, drug addicts, homosexuals, punks and Jews who wore skullcaps. In one case they discussed planning a murder, Rosenfeld said, without providing details.
Some of the victims filed official complaints with police, and other victims were identified after police viewed the films and photos.
In the past, there have been only isolated cases of neo-Nazi activity in Israel. “This is the first time that we’ve … arrested such a large number of individuals who are part of an organized neo-Nazi group,” Rosenfeld said.
Under Israeli law, a person can claim citizenship if a parent or grandparent has Jewish roots. Authorities say that formulation allowed many Soviets with questionable ties to Judaism to immigrate here after the Soviet Union disintegrated. About 1 million Soviets moved here in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Rosenfeld said all the suspects had “parents or grandparents who were Jewish in one way or another.”
Israel doesn’t specifically have a hate crimes law, and suspects in past cases have been tried as Holocaust deniers, he said.
The Anti-Defamation League, a U.S.-based group that fights anti-Semitism, condemned the neo-Nazi cell, but urged Israelis not to stigmatize the entire Russian immigrant community based on the acts of what appeared to be a marginal group.
“The suspicion that immigrants to Israel could have been acting in praise of Nazis and Hitler is an anathema to the Jewish state and is to be repelled,” the statement read. “The tragic irony in this is that they would have been chosen for annihilation by the Nazis they strive to emulate.”
Amos Herman, an official with the semiofficial Jewish Agency, which works on behalf of the government to encourage immigration to Israel, said the phenomenon was not representative of the Russian immigration.
He called the gang a group of frustrated, disgruntled youths trying to strike at the nation’s most sensitive core.
“We thought that it would never happen here, but it has and we have to deal with it,” he said.
©365Gay.com 2007
Jamaica gay hate crimes proving deadly
September 9, 2007 by savvyplanners.com ·
Bigatory (sic) towards gay men and lesbians in Jamaica continues to be a growing problem.
In a contradiction to other Latin American countries, Jamaica is proving to be one of the highlighted anti-gay countries in the western hemisphere.
Newsweek has reported that close to 100 gay men and lesbians were targeted in more than 40 mob attacks in Jamaica from February to July this year. Attacks included the murder of four gay men, four lesbians being raped, and houses for two other men being set on fire.
One other highlighted attack took place on 14 February, where police authorities attacked an activist who was attempting to help three men cornered near a pharmacy by slapping him in the face and hit him with a rifle butt in the abdomen. It took authorities two hours to arrive at the scene after the initial incident was reported.
Major political outcry over gays and lesbians looks likely to continue for at least the immediate future in Jamaica, with current laws stating that anal intercourse is illegal, as well is the continual growth of evangelical Christian churches.
In a political campaign leading up to an election in 2001, the Jamaican Labour Party used the song Chi Chi Man; a song which celebrates the burning and killing of gay men.
Gay Marriage Approved in California, Again
September 9, 2007 by savvyplanners.com ·
Via truthdig
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YahooPosted on Sep 7, 2007
Arnold Schwarzenegger has until mid-October to put his pen where his mouth is on gay issues. For the second time, the California Legislature has passed a law that would make marriage in the state gender-neutral. The governor vetoed the first effort back during his more conservative phase.
The Human Rights Campaign’s Joe Solmonese warns Schwarzenegger to consider his legacy: “We urge Gov. Schwarzenegger to think about how the history books will remember this decision. He has an opportunity before him to be remembered as a courageous governor who stood up for equal treatment under the law for all families.”
San Francisco Chronicle:
For the second time in three years, the state legislature has approved a measure giving same-sex couples the right to marry in California, with [Friday’s] Senate vote split along party lines and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger expected to veto the bill as he did in 2005.
“Marriage is more than just a civil contract … it is different from domestic partners, it’s just different from civil unions—it means something,” said Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, who presented the bill and was also the first openly gay person to be elected to the legislature. “And because it means something, that’s why it’s been denied to us.”
The bill, AB43, is the third effort by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, to pass what he has termed a “gender-neutral marriage” bill. The act would amend the California Family Code to define marriage as a civil contract between two persons.
TAGS: california civil unions conservative gay gay marriage law rights schwarzenegger
Transgender men outraged over mall bathroom incident
September 9, 2007 by savvyplanners.com ·
Simon Adriane (left) and Sean Brochin
YouBy KOMO Staff
KATU-TV, Portland,OR
SEATTLE — Two transgender men say they’re the victims of discrimination after they were kicked out of a downtown mall for allegedly using the wrong restroom.
Trouble began when Simon Adriane and Sean Brochin needed to use the bathroom after watching a movie at Pacific Place mall in downtown Seattle.
Adriane and Brochin, who were both born female but consider themselves male, entered the men’s bathroom, which upset a man in teh bathroom.
But the mall claims the men were simply disruptive.
“He was screaming ‘you’re a woman, you can’t be in here!’” said Adriane.
“The first thing I thought is ‘oh no, not again.’ Because it happened many times in my life,” Brochin said.
Adriane tried calming the man.
“I said I’m not a girl, I’m just here to pee,” he said.
But the customer called security.
“Security was banging on the door and ordered us to get out,” Adriane said.
The security guard escorted the pair out of the bathroom and out of the mall.
According to the state Human Rights Commission, transgenders are protected and have the right to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with.
But the commission recommends they use the unisex or family restroom to avoid wrestling with gender issues. In this case, Adriane and Brochin said it was occupied.
Iowa Gay Marriage Applications Halted
September 1, 2007 by savvyplanners.com ·
By DAVID PITT –
Gay couples from anywhere in Iowa could apply for a marriage license from Polk County under Judge Robert Hanson’s ruling. (File)
CBS
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Same-sex marriage was legal here for less than 24 hours before the county won a stay of a judge’s order on Friday, a tiny window of opportunity that allowed two men to make history but left dozens of other couples disappointed after a frantic rush to the altar.
At 2 p.m. Thursday, Judge Robert Hanson ordered Polk County officials to accept marriage license requests from same-sex couples, but he granted the stay at about 12:30 p.m. Friday. By then 27 same-sex couples had filed applications, but only Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan of Ames had made it official by getting married and returning the signed license to the courthouse in time.
In the front yard of the Rev. Mark Stringer, pastor of the First Unitarian Church of Des Moines, they become the only same-sex couple wed in the U.S. outside of Massachusetts, where some 8,000 such couples have tied the knot.
Stringer concluded the ceremony by saying, “This is a legal document and you are married.” The men then kissed and hugged.
“This is it. We’re married. I love you,” Fritz told McQuillan after the ceremony.
No more same-sex weddings will be recognized, and no more applications will be accepted, pending Polk County’s appeal of Hanson’s ruling to the Iowa Supreme Court, County Attorney John Sarcone said.
Hanson’s order had applied only to the county, but because any Iowa couple could apply for a license, people from across the state rushed to Des Moines, only to see fluorescent green signs explaining the stay and adding, “Sorry for the inconvenience.”
Lytishya Borglum and partner, Danielle Borglum, drove 2 1/2 hours from Cedar Falls, along with their 13-month-old daughter, Berlyn. They planned to apply in Polk County and told their pastor in Cedar Falls to be ready to marry them when they returned.
“(We) plan to take the application home and pray that things change. Even though it is a setback, it is a step in the right direction,” Lytishya Borglum said.
She said they would like to get legal status to gain more rights but added, “As far as we’re concerned, our marriage is between us and God. We’ve been married for three years — if you ask us.”
Accepting marriage licenses from same-sex couples has been illegal under a 1998 state law that permitted only a man and a woman to marry.
Hanson, ruling in a case filed by six same-sex couples who were denied marriage licenses in 2005, declared the law unconstitutional Thursday. He ruled that the marriage laws “must be read and applied in a gender neutral manner so as to permit same-sex couples to enter into a civil marriage.”
The marriage license approval process normally takes three business days, but Fritz and McQuillan took advantage of a loophole that allows couples to skip the waiting period if they pay $5 and get a judge to sign a waiver.
Other couples, even those who got an early start Friday, were out of luck. Katy Farlow and Larissa Boeck, students at Iowa State University, said they got to the county recorder’s office at 5 a.m., then sat in lawn chairs and ate snacks until the office opened at 7:30 a.m. They got their application in but didn’t get their license.
“This might be our only chance,” Farlow said. “We already knew we were spending the rest of our lives together.”
Hanson granted the stay after Sarcone filed a motion saying his ruling should be put on hold because lifting the ban was far reaching and would likely be overturned by the Iowa Supreme Court.
Hanson wrote that Sarcone’s arguments “do indeed constitute good cause for the issuance of the requested stay.”
Plaintiff’s attorney Dennis Johnson had argued that the county’s appeal probably would not succeed and disputed its contention that a reversal would throw any licenses issued into legal doubt.
He said a marriage license is valid until one or both of the spouses seek to have it dissolved or one dies, “regardless of changes in the law that may occur after the couple marries.”
The Iowa Supreme Court can refer the case to the Iowa Court of Appeals, consider the matter itself or decide not to hear the case. The flurry of activity in the courts prompted a quick response from some lawmakers. House Republican leader Christopher Rants called on Democrats, who hold a majority of seats in the Legislature, to respond.
“The Democrats should call a special session immediately to take up such issues and to introduce a marriage amendment for Iowa’s constitution,” he said in a statement. “House Democrats need to start leading or get out of the way.”
Language defining marriage as being between a man and a woman has been written into the constitutions of 27 states, according the National Conference of State Legislatures. Most other states have laws to the same effect; Iowa’s was approved overwhelmingly by the Legislature in 1998.
Gov. Chet Culver on Thursday issued a statement stating his opposition to gay marriage and said he would wait for the court process to play out before considering any push for legislative action.
“While some Iowans may disagree on this issue, I personally believe marriage is between a man and a woman,” Culver said.
Gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts, and nine other states have approved spousal rights in some form for same-sex couples.
Associated Press writers Henry C. Jackson, Amy Lorentzen and Nafeesa Syeed contributed to this report.
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