Ferndale mayor, minister plan mass gay wedding


FERNDALE, Mich. (AP) -- Mayor Robert Porter and a minister plan to officiate at the mass wedding of up to a dozen gay couples outside City Hall next week to demonstrate support for legalizing same-sex marriage in Michigan.

Porter said he is taking part in the ceremony Wednesday afternoon at the request of the Rev. Mark Bidwell of the Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit, located in Ferndale.

The mayor said he hopes his presence sends a message that gay people should be allowed to marry legally.

"A strong commitment or marriage strengthens all communities," Porter told The Daily Tribune of Royal Oak. "I think it is discriminatory that gay couples are not allowed to marry."


~

City defies ban

ATTLEBORO -- Attleboro is believed to be one of just three communities still issuing marriage licenses to out-of-state gay couples, even as three other cities stopped this practice temporarily under pressure from the governor and attorney general.

Attleboro City Clerk Susan Flood said this morning she is continuing to issue licenses to gay couples from 11 states that have not adopted Defense of Marriage Acts that bar same-sex weddings.

Flood said is basing her decision to continue issuing the licenses based on legal advice from the city's lawyer, Robert Mangiaratti. To date, the city has issued licenses to about eight couples, Flood said, most of them from Rhode Island.



~

Flynn sues to halt gay out-of-staters as towns bow to AG
By Steve Marantz

Former Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn sued yesterday to stop Somerville, Worcester and Provincetown from issuing marriage licenses to out-of-state gay couples, even though they already had stopped.

     Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal group, filed suit on behalf of Flynn and businessman Thomas Shields.

     ``These town clerks have taken the law into their own hands,'' said attorney Glen Levy. ``If elected officials aren't required to be law keepers, society has opened Pandora's box to chaos and lawlessness.''

     But Provincetown selectmen had voted Tuesday to stop issuing licenses to out-of-state gay couples, following similar decisions by Somerville and Worcester.


~

French mayor vows to perform banned gay marriage
BORDEAUX, France, (AFP) -

The row over France's first gay marriage intensified Thursday after the state prosecutor in the southwestern city of Bordeaux said the ceremony which is due on June 5 will be illegal.

Bertrand de Loze gave formal notice that the marriage will be declared null and void a day after the bans for the wedding of shopworker Jean-Luc Charpentier and nurse Stephane Chapin were posted at the townhall of the suburb of Begles.

The mayor of Begles, Green party deputy and former television presenter Noel Mamere, stirred up nationwide debate last month when he declared his intention to celebrate the country's first homosexual marriage - forcing politicians and religious leaders to formulate a response.

Loze sent a fax to Mamere warning that "as a functionary of the civil state, you are forbidden to celebrate the marriage which has been announced.... It is important that as a person in whom public authority is vested you abstain from any initiative that will lead to a breach of the law."


~

Same-sex wedding prohibition backed

Congress should outlaw gay marriage with a constitutional amendment, Hamilton County commissioners opined on a 2-1 vote Wednesday. "(Gay marriage) is going to cost us money," Commissioner John Dowlin said. "I would imagine there's going to be more divorces, more child-support claims, more things of that nature. Plus, there's the issue of what do you do about medical insurance." Dowlin authored the resolution calling on Congress to pass an amendment that's been introduced defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Fellow Republican Phil Heimlich voted with him. Democrat Todd Portune voted against it. Gay marriage is not a matter the commissioners need weigh in on, Portune said*


~

NORTH DAKOTA: Group wants marriage defined in constitution
By Dale Wetzel
Associated Press


BISMARCK - A group plans to wage a petition campaign for a North Dakota constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of a man and woman.

Supporters of the move turned in a proposed amendment to Secretary of State Al Jaeger on Wednesday. He has until June 7 to review the ballot measure and approve it for circulation.

Massachusetts began licensing same-sex marriages earlier this month. Opponents of homosexual marriage have expressed fears that states which have not sanctioned the practice will be legally forced to accept marriages performed elsewhere.