Gay fraternity wins UVa council's approval
By Kate Andrews  / Daily Progress staff writer
A national gay fraternity can come to the University of Virginia, thanks to a vote by the university’s Multicultural Greek Council.


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Gay Couple Gets Death Threats
Kansas City, MO --- A gay couple in Kansas City has their commitment ceremony at a nightclub, now they're getting death threats. The couple says, it's because of the venue they chose, there was no minister and the ceremony was on live TV. The day after the ceremony, Chris Wright and Jeff Kelley say the disturbing phone calls and emails started coming in. They say, they even received death threats. The couple says the threats are coming from the gay community.
The Wrights says this, in response to the concerns: They couldn't find a minister to perform the ceremony, and they didn't think anyone would show up, if they had it at a church. As for having it on live TV, they say, they didn't do it for the public.


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Anti-gay group plans protest at pastor's church
ELLENSBURG - Picketers from the Kansas-based radical anti-gay group Westboro Baptist Church plan to stage a protest on Easter Sunday outside the First United Methodist Church in Ellensburg, the most recent church of lesbian pastor Karen Dammann.



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Local gays, lesbians gather to support same-sex marriage
BY JULIAN PECQUET
Florida.
That struggle gained new momentum when Massachusetts' highest court ruled it unconstitutional for that state to define marriage as between a man and a woman. Soon after, a few communities across the nation issued marriage licenses to hundreds of couples. In Sarasota County earlier this year, six same-sex couples tried unsuccessfully to get marriage license applications. A group of 175 gays and lesbians filed suit in Broward County last month challenging the state law that prohibits same-sex marriage.
President George Bush has proposed a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
"For the first time in history, the U.S. Congress is contemplating whether to write discrimination into the Constitution," Bo Shuff, of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest advocacy group for homosexuals, told the gathering Wednesday.
Proponents of the ban say gay and lesbian advocates were the first to tinker with the laws, by getting activist judges to redefine age-old beliefs they say are held sacred by most Americans.
"They're saying, 'don't amend the constitution,' but then it's also the wrong thing to do to go through the courts," said David Canton, executive director of the nonprofit Florida Family Association in Tampa. "Now the ball's been thrown in their court, and they don't like that." Canton said the constitutional amendment is needed because if one state recognizes same-sex marriages, other states could be forced to recognize the unions.
Gay and lesbian advocates gathered Wednesday pledged to lobby against the constitutional ban by contacting state and national lawmakers. They also said they will encourage them to overturn laws in 38 states -- including Florida -- that define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. "I claim the right to decide what relationship I hold sacred," said Vonne New, a mother and lesbian activist with Equality Florida. "I don't understand how hurting my family is supposed to help the family."