ALP: No marriage, but equal de facto
By Stacy Farrar

A Labor government would make same-sex couples equal to de facto opposite-sex couples in terms of practical day-to-day rights, shadow Attorney General Nicola Roxon said.

But same-sex marriage is definitely not on the ALP’s agenda.

“We won’t change the Marriage Act to recognise same-sex marriage,” Roxon told Sydney Star Observer.

“Our priority is getting same-sex couples all of the recognition that other relationships have. We don’t see that there’s any reason to change the Marriage Act.”


~

CHURCH ASKS QUIT MINISTER TO STAY ON
RICHARD BRAMWELL

Senior church officials have refused to accept the resignation of a minister who was hounded out of Stoke-on-Trent by an anti-gay hate mail campaign. The Reverend Mike Hall handed in his notice last November and told Methodist leaders in London he wanted to stand down following the poison pen letters.

Senior officials met him in the capital earlier this month to discuss the way forward after declining to accept his decision to go.

Now they have confirmed the president of the Methodist Conference - the church's governing body - wants Mr Hall to stay.


~

Church rebels over gay dean
By Sophie Kummer

A conservative evangelical church in Barnet made history this week by refusing to pay its diocesan 'tax' in a rebellion against the appointment of an openly gay Dean of St Albans.

In what is thought to be an unprecedented step in the Diocese of St Albans, Holy Trinity Lyonsdown, a C of E church in Lyonsdown Road, New Barnet, is withholding its yearly quota of around £33,600 in protest against the appointment of Dr Jeffrey John, who was forced to stand down following a public outcry after his appointment as Bishop of Reading last year.

Canon John professes to live a celibate life, but as the new Dean of St Albans supports same-sex relationships.


~

HRC Charges Politics in Marriage Struggle
by Bob Roehr

The Human Rights Campaign fears that Republican politics aimed at discrediting Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry will bring about a vote on the antigay Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) as early as this summer. While condemning Republicans for playing politics with the issue, HRC acquiesced to the Democratic political strategy of not defending gays.

It is the same strategy that all three players adopted in years past that resulted in passage of the antigay military policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 1993, and the antigay Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996. Will there be the same outcome this time around?

HRC scheduled the May 4 telephone news conference with the gay press to inform and educate the community on the marriage amendment. President Cheryl Jacques criticized some media accounts that suggest that a vote on the FMA is vote unlikely this year; “We don’t see it that way at all.”

“I think [Republicans] are trying to spot Sen. Kerry, they are looking for the worst possible political time to put this on the floor and damage him, and put him in a tough position on a tough vote.” Jacques believes the timing will be after Massachusetts starts issuing marriage licenses to gay couples but before the Democratic National Convention in Boston this July.