9 posts tagged “gay”
This morning I discovered that Vox has removed the filth from the lesbian tag feed. My thanks to those of you who sent feedback.
If you track the tag 'lesbian' in your Vox Watch (link corrected), you'll have noticed recently there is a plethora of newly created sites for the specific purpose of promoting exploitive pornography. I have used the Vox feedback function several times requesting this to be cleaned up with no response whatsoever. Oddly enough, when I complained about similar sites tagged 'archaeology' those were removed immediately.
Please help me tell Vox to clean up the mess so we can enjoy reviewing lesbian topics without wading through filth.
Bruce at the Daily Dish writes: "...from the state's point of view, there should be civil unions for
everyone. The question of whether such unions constitute a "marriage"
is none of the state's business."
In the state of Washington, today marks the first day that same sex couples can register as domestic partners.
The new domestic-partnership law goes into effect Monday, with couples able to register in person starting at 8 a.m. in Olympia. The law creates a public registry and will provide same-sex couples with the right to visit their partner in the hospital, participate in medical decisions, authorize organ donations and administer estates, among other provisions.
There's an ox being gored in Orange County, California and it exposes a huge gap between domestic partnership laws and marriage.
Ron Garber knew his former wife was living with another woman — and had taken her last name — when he agreed to pay her $1,250 a month in alimony.
What he didn't know was that the two women had registered with the state as domestic partners under a law that was supposed to mirror marriage law, Garber said.
State marriage laws say that alimony ends when the former spouse remarries, and Garber reasons he should be off the hook, given that domestic partnership is akin to marriage. But an Orange County judge has decided that registered partnership is cohabitation, not marriage, and that Garber must pay.
"This is not about gay or lesbian," Garber said. "This is about the law being fair."
The case, which Garber intends to appeal, highlights gaps between the legal status of domestic partners and of married couples, an issue the California Supreme Court is considering as it ponders whether to legalize same-sex marriage.
Proponents of same-sex marriage typically argue that gay couples will not have the full rights of heterosexuals until they too can marry. The Orange County case, however, shows how heterosexuals can be the collateral damage of the lesser legal status of domestic partnership.
If spousal support does not end with domestic partnership, "heterosexual men are the ones whose ox is being gored more often than not," said San Francisco family law attorney Diana Richmond.
Says Andrew Sullivan: "The answer is to grant us all the same rights and responsibilities of civil marriage: good for marriage, good for families, good for gays, good for straights, good for kids."
Says Paul at Right Side of the Rainbow: "The reporter doesn’t ask Garber’s ex-wife the question I would ask: Why do you think you’re entitled to have your muffin and eat it, too? As a lawyer for Lambda Legal notes, this isn’t unequal treatment. “It is better treatment …”
And does the ex-wife’s new partner have no pride? She can’t provide for her woman?"
At the Independent Gay Forum, Stephen H. Miller asks Who's The Bigot? over the call to boycott Scientologist John Travolta's role in Hairspray playing "Edna as a woman, not as a drag queen pretending to be a women."
Think what you will about Scientology (and I don't think about it too much), it hasn't by any stretch been in the forefront of the religious right's political anti-gay campaign. So what to make of the call to boycott Hollywood's latest version of "Hairspray" because it stars John Travolta, a prominent Scientologist? What's next, calls to boycott movies with devout Southern Baptists, Mormons or Catholics (which, if you buy the "logic" of this campaign, would actually make more sense)? In fact, the whole thing smacks of a cheap stunt, or at least narrow-mindedness—which, ironically, is what "Hairspray" is dissing.
A bit more from Andrew Sullivan:
I argued that a conservative position on gay rights would leave private discrimination and prejudice alone and change only the government's stance so that all citizens are treated equally by the state, even if they are subject to discrimination by private entities.
On this point I have to disagree somewhat with Mr. Sullivan. Although he speaks of a "conservative" view, what he describes is the libertarian view. The conservative view seems to be to aggressively suppress/curtail/eliminate gay rights as altogether. Mr. Sullivan, in making this statement, indirectly and erroniously infers that conservatism and libertarianism are the same thing and that is an inference libertarianism can do without.
Republicans -- right-wing conservative Republicans, who have blazed a trail of hatred and bigotry against gay people for 20+ years -- are positioning themselves as the alternative for gay people tired of Democratic duplicity.
The mind boggles. The jaw drops. The eyes cross.
How desperate can the Republicans get, as their party continues to crumble into dust?
...to Former American Family Association columnist Joe Murray for speaking out against homophobia and hypocrisy.
Hat tip: Amberglow's blog
Public universities, state agencies and local governments in Michigan cannot offer health insurance to the partners of gay and lesbian employees, an appeals court ruled Friday.
The court found that a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage had the effect of outlawing benefits for domestic partners. The amendment, approved by 59% of voters in 2004, states that only "the union of one man and one woman" is valid in Michigan, "as a marriage or … for any purpose."
During the 2004 campaign, backers of the amendment repeatedly said it would not be used to take away domestic-partner benefits. "Nothing that's on the books is going to change," Kristina Hemphill, a campaign spokeswoman, told the Detroit News a week before the election.
After the amendment passed, state Atty. Gen. Mike Cox, a Republican, issued a legal opinion that public employers could no longer offer benefits to same-sex couples. The American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of 21 gay and lesbian couples.
Friday's ruling rejected the ACLU's arguments, holding that the amendment clearly prohibited employers from recognizing same-sex unions.
More here
This redefines for me the meaning of the word outrage!
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Embattled national evangelical leader the Rev. Ted Haggard claims gay pay-for-sex charges against him likely are political retribution for his outspoken campaign in support of a proposed state ban on gay marriage.
Haggard, a married father of five, who resigned yesterday as president of the 30-million member National Association of Evangelicals, insists that charges that he had a three-year sex and drugs tryst with a male escort are untrue.
"I am voluntarily stepping aside from leadership so that the overseer process can be allowed to proceed with integrity," Haggard said in a statement. "I hope to be able to discuss this matter in more detail at a later date. In the interim, I will seek both spiritual advice and guidance."
Haggard also gave up his post in the 14,000-member New Life Church while a church panel investigates the charges.
The acting senior pastor at New Life, Ross Parsley, meanwhile, told KKTV-TV of Colorado Springs that Haggard admitted that some of the accusations were true, but did not specify which ones.
Honestly, I thought I had a better handle on what goes on in evangelical circles but I had never heard of the Rev. Ted Haggard before this story broke. I don't know or care if he's guilty of what he's been accused. Being a pastor doesn't make one immune to temptation and it shouldn't surprise or disappoint anyone when a pastor is caught in sin. They are human after all. God, if he exists, is the only one in a position to hold pastors to a higher standard if he wishes -- no human being is.
It's not beyond possibility that he's guilty. The said political retribution is also likely. People in the gay community aren't anymore above playing dirty with the gay marriage issue than a pastor is above sinning.
What strikes me about this story is that Haggard resigned. Bravo! It's tragic that it was necessary but it was absolutely the right thing to do. Jimmy Swaggart and others have a lot to learn from this man's example.
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