Initiative to ban gay marriage on its way
A proposal to change the Oregon Constitution is out of the courts, and signature gathering to get it on the ballot could begin today
DAVE HOGAN


Signature gathering for an initiative to ban same-sex marriage could begin as early as today after the Oregon Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday.

The ruling sets up a passionate battle. Supporters have six weeks to collect 100,840 valid signatures, and opponents vow they'll do all they can to stop it from reaching the November statewide ballot.

If the proposal makes the ballot, the campaign to sway voters -- for or against -- is expected to be one of the largest and most expensive in Oregon this year. Gay-rights activists already estimate they'll have to spend more than $2 million to defeat it.

The court rejected a Wednesday request to reconsider its approval of the initiative's ballot title. That means the only obstacle remaining for the initiative is authorization by state election officials, which is expected today.

"We're off and running," said Tim Nashif of the Defense of Marriage Coalition, the campaign promoting the initiative. "We think we'll be cleared sometime (Friday) to collect signatures."


~

Houstonians rally for marriage equality
Outdoor event celebrates Mass. marriage and calls for equality in all states
By JOSEF MOLNAR


Marriage may not now be an option for gay couples in Houston, but a rally on Monday at City Hall celebrated the groundbreaking court ruling in Massachusetts that paved the way for the same-sex weddings that began in that state this week.

“Basic marriage equality is a right guaranteed to everyone of us under the Texas Constitution and under the Constitution of the United States of America,” said Bryan Chase, of Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund. “Hopefully, soon we will have judges with the courage and the vision to make it so everywhere, not just in


~

Congress that resists adding trans protections to workplace rights and hate crime bills. It’s the Human Rights Campaign
Gwen Smith
Friday, May 21, 2004


I HAD THE pleasure recently to walk up Rhode Island Avenue in Washington, D.C., and stand with several others in front of a large, glass-fronted building. In my hand was a sign that said, simply, “Ten Years of Exclusion.”

The building we were standing in front of had a large, burnished aluminum sign near the top — in the shape of an “equals” sign. Yes, the building is the office of the Human Rights Campaign.

We were proud to stand outside that building, attracting the attention of those behind the glass windows as well as many passers by. If anything, this was nothing more than yet another skirmish in a battle that has been brewing for a very long time; and a struggle that is heating up yet again.t

It will be of no surprise to many that there has been a long history of bad blood between the Human Rights Campaign and transgender rights activists. For the last decade — as transgendered people have fought to be included in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act — HRC has stood firm to the belief that adding “transgender” to this bill would weaken its chances of passage.


~

Salt Lake Couples Rally for Gay Marriages

(Salt Lake City-AP) -- Massachusetts is getting a toast from hundreds of Utah couples for the state's leaglized same-sex unions.

About 300 gay and lesbian couples gathered last night to celebrate Massachusetts' stance on the controversial issue.

The party was put on by the Steering Committee of Utah Human Rights Campaign.

Organizers say Massachusetts' unions are a small step, but a first step. They hope to build from there.

The Utah Steering Committee works with a variety of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight organizations.


~

How Gay Characters Have Come of Age
By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN

ost Americans are repelled by the mere notion of homosexuality," Mike Wallace asserts on a news special.

From 1967. Today, repulsion at the mere notion of homosexuality — or that way of phrasing it, at least — is a thing of the past.

Or so we will be told on Sunday. The archaic CBS clip, in which Mr. Wallace interviews an anonymous Gay Man whose face is decorously obscured by the leaves of a potted plant, has a reprise on Bravo as part of a documentary about social progress that doubles as an hourlong promo for another Bravo show, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." "TV Revolution: Out of the Closet" appears as the first installment in a harmless but self-congratulatory weekly series about how television has revolutionized everything in every possible way. (Next up: women.)

A bargain-basement history of TV is enlivened, a little, by a tender account of gay men and women in the media. Bedeviled by the usual "and lesbians" problem that tugs at every effort to talk about gay people as a coherent group, "TV Revolution" begins and ends with stories of homosexual men.


~

Blackmail charge not 1st for suspect
By Matt O'Connor
Tribune staff reporter

A Chicago man on probation for extortion was charged with threatening to expose a married man's homosexuality if he didn't meet blackmail demands, according to a criminal complaint made public Thursday.


~

Unitarian Universalists to present case for gay marriage
By BRIAN LEWIS
Staff Writer


While Mary Early-Zald believes her parents did a good job raising her, she thinks things may have been even better had her father been able to marry a man.

''My gay father raised very healthy children, although he was closeted for very many years,'' she said. ''Imagine how much healthier my parents' relationship would have been if my father had conceived of me with a surrogate mother and a male partner.''

Her parents eventually divorced, she said.

Gay marriage is a religious and spiritual issue for Early-Zald, who is a member of the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Nashville.