AG: Governor preparing legal case regarding out-of-staters
The Associated Press
By JENNIFER PETER Associated Press Writer

BOSTON (AP) - Attorney General Tom Reilly said Thursday that he expects Gov. Mitt Romney to refer a "handful" of cases to his office involving marriage applications issued this week to gay couples from outside Massachusetts.

Earlier this week, Romney's office demanded copies of all applications issued by clerks in Worcester, Springfield, Somerville and Provincetown, four municipalities that openly defied the Republican governor's edict on denying licenses to out-of-state couples.

Reilly's comments came after administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the governor was contemplating seeking a court injunction barring clerks from continuing to issue marriages licenses to nonresidents.
Reilly declined to comment Thursday on whether he would take legal action against the clerks.


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Attorney general sues secretary of state over gay marriage vote
Associated Press

Jefferson City — The dispute over when Missourians will vote on a gay marriage amendment to the state constitution is heading to court.

Attorney General Jay Nixon sued Republican Secretary of State Matt Blunt today, seeking to force him to place the issue on the Aug. 3 ballot.

Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan quickly scheduled an initial hearing for later this afternoon. A Blunt spokesman declined to comment about the lawsuit.


Democratic Gov. Bob Holden on Wednesday called for an Aug. 3 election for the proposed amendment, which was passed last week by the Legislature. But Blunt, the state's chief election official, has refused to set an election date until he receives the actual amendment from legislators.


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Birmingham Quakers speak out for LGBT marriage rights
By BTL staff


BIRMINGHAM - The Birmingham Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, which is the Quakers, has issued a strong statement in support of same-sex marriage rights for couples in Michigan. They join their fellow Quakers in Michigan and around the country in supporting full equal rights for LGBT people.

"We advocate a single standard of treatment for all couples who wish to marry," stated the group in a release of their meeting minutes May 2. "The State of Michigan offers legal recognition of opposite-gender marriage and extends significant privileges to couples who legally marry. We believe that a commitment to equality requires that same-gender couples have the same right to marry. Based upon our beliefs, we request that the state of Michigan permit gay and lesbian couples to marry and share fully and equally in the rights, privileges and responsibilities of marriage."

The American Friends Service Committee, founded by the Quakers in 1917 to carry out service, development, social justice, and peace programs, is hosting a national conference this weekend in Ypsilanti;"Together in Faith, Journey Into Inclusiveness." The conference will bring together dozens of spiritual leaders of many faiths to discuss LGBT rights, their faiths, and how to reconcile real and perceived differences between the rights of LGBT people and their religious doctrines. For more information about the conference, go to www.afsc.org/lgbt/together-in-faith.htm.


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Coalition for a Fair Michigan urges voters to 'decline to sign'
Group announces effort to defeat homophobic petition drive across the state
By Jason Michael

DETROIT - As the first same-sex couples were married in Massachusetts on Monday, May 17, activists in Michigan were rallying to defeat a petition drive aimed at adding language banning equal marriage rights to the state's constitution.

"Today Massachusetts issued its first marriage licenses for same-sex couples," said Beth Bashert, co-chair of the Coalition for a Fair Michigan, at a press conference outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Building in downtown Detroit. "Here in Michigan, we are bracing for a backlash around this proposed amendment. Today in Massachusetts, more families than ever have access to many of the 1,000 or more rights and responsibilities that come with civil marriage. Here in Michigan, no same-sex couples are getting married, yet we're bracing for a backlash."

Fair-minded Michiganders thought the battle was over when the amendment, proposed by Sen. Cropsey (R - Dewitt), failed to win a two-thirds majority in the Michigan legislature earlier this year. But now, a group of right-wing radicals have launched a petition drive to get the issue put to a public vote. The CFM press conference was called to announce their campaign to defeat the petition drive, which they call Decline to Sign.

"Michigan has three laws already on the books, strong laws prohibiting marriage for same-sex couples," said Bashert. "So why, then, are people going door to door asking people to sign a petition to amend our state's constitution to further prohibit civil marriage rights for same-sex couples? Reasonable people do not support these efforts. Reasonable people know that this is a misuse of our constitution and reasonable people will refuse to sign these petitions. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors: do not sign. Decline to sign these cruel petitions."



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Priest won’t remove name from letter on gays
By Lawn Griffiths, Tribune

A retired priest has informed Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted that he will not withdraw his name from the "No Longer Silent Phoenix Declaration," a letter signed by Arizona clergy calling for full inclusion of gays and lesbians in religious and community life.

The decision puts the Rev. Andre Boulanger of Phoenix at odds with church teachings and subject to discipline.

In April, Olmsted, leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, ordered nine diocesan priests to remove their names from the letter developed by No Longer Silent/Clergy for Justice in January 2003 and signed by 120 pastors.

To date, seven of the priests, five from the East Valley, have withdrawn their names in obedience to the bishop. A Peoria priest is the only other diocesan signer on the letter.


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Presbyterian moderator predicts gay clergy in church’s future


TOLEDO, Ohio--The Rev. Susan Andrews, head of the Presbyterian Church (USA), told the Toledo Blade that she believes the denomination eventually will allow the ordination of homosexual clergy.



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Brazilian Gay Activists and Political Leaders Meet to Strategize on UN Gay Rights Resolution

CURITIBA, BRAZIL, (LifeSiteNews.com) - From May 12 to 16, homosexual leaders and groups from all Brazilian states - and representatives from the government, NGOs and international funding agencies and the media - met together in Curitiba, Brazil, to debate major issues, Julia Severo a pro-family activist in Brazil reports to LifeSiteNews.com. The major discussion involved the "Brazil Without Homophobia" government program, the Brazilian resolution against discrimination based on sexual orientation in the UN, the approval of laws sympathetic to homosexuality in the Brazilian Congress, the influence of "homophobic religious fundamentalists" and allocation of funding for AIDS programs among homosexuals.

Severo, author of O Movimento Homossexual - an expose on the militant homosexual activist movement in the country, notes that the final paper of the meeting called for a plan to accomplish the following goals:
- Pressure the Brazilian government to guarantee the introduction of its Resolution on Non-Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation in the 61st meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights in 2005.
- Support the Brazil Without Homophobia government program, so that it may be completely implemented by the government before the end of the Lula administration.
- Mobilize gay groups to confront religious intolerance before November 2006.
- Pressure cities and states to allocate funding and guarantee prevention actions and assistance for HIV/AIDS among gays.


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Schools studying how to be safer for gay students
Location: Silver City
Source: AP

Schools around Silver City will be looking at ways to make themselves safer for gay students.

Members of a group called Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays have told the Silver school board that such students face harassment and other problems.

The board has voted (this week) to establish a task force to study ways to make schools safer for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students.

The panel will include representatives of the group as well as district personnel.