Survey: Gay marriages to be sought in 133 communities
By Raphael Lewis, Globe Staff  |  May 14, 2004

Bay State gay and lesbian couples will seek marriage licenses in at least 133 Massachusetts cities and towns in the weeks and months after same-gender matrimony becomes legal on Monday, according to an informal survey released yesterday by two gay rights groups.

Lesbian couples made up two-thirds of the survey respondents, whose names were culled from the mailing lists of the Freedom to Marry Coalition and MassEquality.

In all, 493 couples responded to the survey, which determined that same-sex couples will get married in virtually every region of the state. Sixty-six couples said they plan to marry in Boston, 39 in Cambridge, 19 in Somerville, 14 in Brookline, 12 in Newton, 11 in Arlington, and nine in Watertown, the survey indicated.



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Gay-marriage foes win ruling
Petitioners are poised to seek signatures after Oregon justices approve the ballot title for a bid to ban same-sex marriage
DAVE HOGAN

The ballot title for an initiative to ban same-sex marriage was approved Thursday by the Oregon Supreme Court, meaning the authors might be able to start gathering signatures next week.

While that only leaves about six weeks until the July 2 deadline, supporters say that's enough time to collect the 100,840 valid signatures they need. They're trying to place the constitutional amendment on the statewide ballot in November.


But first, the court must allow five business days for opponents to request reconsideration. Charles F. Hinkle, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon attorney who filed the challenge, said the group has not discussed whether to ask the court to reconsider its ruling on the initiative's ballot title.



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Same-sex couples seek equal rights
Michael Kiefer
The Arizona Republic

As the nation prepares for the first legal same-sex marriages in Massachusetts, four Arizona church ministers and a busload of same-sex couples will challenge Arizona's marriage laws by attempting to get marriage licenses today.

They want to break those laws, or at least bend them, just as activists have done in San Francisco, New York state and Portland, Ore. They want to see how the government and communities here and across the country respond, even as one Phoenix gay couple's quest to marry works its way toward the Arizona Supreme Court.

Borrowing a page from the civil rights movement, they will ride a bus from court to court today, expecting to be denied, because state law defines marriage as being between one man and one woman. Additionally, it is a misdemeanor for a minister or government employee to marry any couple without a marriage license issued by the government.


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Man pleads guilty to hate crime assault
AP

SAN FRANCISCO — A Walnut Creek man pled guilty Thursday for the beating of two women outside a gay poetry event two years ago in what authorities described as a hate-crime based assault.

Jack Broughton, 36, was sentenced to one year in jail to be served on home detention, three years probation and a 40-week period of anger-management counseling. He also was ordered to pay restitution to the victims and $500 to Community United Against Violence.

On Aug. 22, 2002, Broughton’s female companion, Jean Earl, began punching people while shouting anti-gay slurs at StudioZ.tv, according to police. After getting kicked out of the club, the pair allegedly beat a 34-year-old Oakland woman outside, sending her to the hospital with minor injuries. When the victim’s companion joined in, Broughton punched her also.


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Was a Dutch man deported because he is gay?
By Christopher Curtis

It had been over a week since they last saw each other and Christopher Robinette was doing his best to idle away the time while he waited for his lover, Edwin van den Bosch, who was being processed through immigration. Christopher had no idea things would go so wrong.

Christopher had driven in from Austin on May 7 to pick Edwin up from Bush Intercontinental in Houston. After the woman from immigration called and explained it would take a few hours to process his lover,

Christopher headed to the nearby Marriott, sipped a Foster’s and played pool. Working as an immigration consultant, Christopher understood how certain glitches in the system could delay these things.



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Diocese to bar same-sex 'marriage'
By Julia Duin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

One of the largest and most liberal Episcopal dioceses in the country is banning its clergy from solemnizing same-sex "marriages" in anticipation of Monday, when the Massachusetts Judicial Supreme Court has said homosexual couples will have the right to "marry."

    The decision was announced in a May 6 letter by Massachusetts Episcopal Bishop Thomas Shaw to clergy in the 79,000-member diocese, the country's third largest after Virginia (89,000) and Texas (86,000).

    "I have ... advocated for the full civil rights of gay and lesbian people and their families," Bishop Shaw wrote. However, "there is a contradiction between what our civil laws will allow and what our canons and the Book of Common Prayer state, which is that marriage in the Episcopal Church is between a man and a woman."

    This was a surprise decision because Bishop Shaw and his two assistant bishops openly support homosexual "marriage," as do a majority of Episcopal delegates who voted at a March 13 diocesan convention to approve the state Supreme Court's ruling.


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Lawmakers table Delaware gay rights bill again
Opponents claim bill would expose businesses to lawsuits
By JOE CREA

DOVER, Del. — A long-suffering gay rights bill remains bottled up in a committee here and will not be put to a vote this year, according to a Senate committee leader.

Delaware House Bill 99 would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing, employment, public works contracting, public accommodations and insurance. Sexual orientation, according to the bill’s definition, includes “heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual individuals.”

Sen. James Vaughn (D-Clayton), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he has no plans to put HB-99 up for a vote, claiming that the measure will “open up small businesses to lawsuits.”

“Jurors in a Superior Court would have jurisdiction over these small businesses,” Vaughn told the


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Legal Eagles Mount Religious Freedom Defense for Students
Jim Brown & Jenni Parker

A pro-family law firm is threatening to sue a New Hampshire school board if it refuses to recognize a Christian student club at a high school.

Officials at Spaulding High School in Rochester, New Hampshire, have barred sophomore Jessica Meserve from forming a Christian student club. Meserve was told that her club would violate the alleged "separation of Church and State." Meanwhile, the school allowed another student group, the Straight and Gay Alliance (SAGA) , to use school facilities for meetings and other events.


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Transsexual(sic) loses discrimination battle
A transsexual(sic) banned from using a pub’s ladies’ has lost her legal fight to prove she was the victim of sex discrimination.

Megan Alexander, who completed a full sex-change operation(sic) six years ago was thrown out of Scaramouche in Perth, Scotland, in January 2000 after demanding the right to use the ladies' toilet.

Then owners Scottish & Newcastle said it had received complaints from other drinkers when Ms Alexander used the ladies' toilet and on the night in question manager Alan Doyle and other staff were forced to remove her after she became abusive.

Ms Alexander, formerly known as Malcolm, sued Scottish and Newcastle for £10,000, saying she had been "distressed and humiliated" by the incident.

But Sheriff Lindsay Foulis found in favour of Scottish & Newcastle and ruled that she had not changed sex in the eyes of the law as it stands.


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Gay marriage foes fear social and legal 'chaos'
By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Gay marriage opponents are about to find out if their worst nightmares will come true.

Just four days before Massachusetts begins implementing a court order to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, critics used a congressional hearing Thursday to predict widespread social and legal upheaval ahead.

U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., told a House Judiciary subcommittee if her proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage is not adopted, there would be a "social revolution unsought and unwanted by the American people."

But openly gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Musgrave's most outspoken critic on Capitol Hill, scoffed, saying similar predictions about "social chaos" never materialized after Vermont gave same-sex couples civil union rights.


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Conservatives To Screen Out Gay Positive Judicial Candidates
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

(Atlanta, Georgia) A conservative action group is screening all candidates running for judicial offices in Georgia demanding to know their positions on gay rights, abortion issues, and school prayer.

The Christian Coalition of Georgia announced Thursday it is sending out a survey to all candidates for state judicial offices.

One question, titled "Homosexual Conduct," asks whether candidates agree with the 2003 US Supreme Court decision striking down the Texas sodomy law.

The answers to the lengthy questionnaire will be compiled and sent to 250,000 homes, with 500,000 additional copies going to churches.


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Unity Club 
  - Stephanie Miller  
   
When is a club not really a club?  That's the question on the minds of many on the Rose Hulman campus.

Earlier this spring, a group calling itself the Unity Club asked to be officially recognized by the Rose Hulman Student Government Association.  The SGA turned down the group's request for the sixth time.
 
Their mission seems noble, to promote the acceptance of diversity.  And they just want to be recognized by the SGA.
 
RHIT Junior Odessa Goedert and Unity member says, "Unity is a group of students who have come together with the common interest of promoting tolerence on our campus and a place where individuals can be thenselves without fear of bigotry or hatered."

But some at Rose Hulman see it differently.  The argument against Unity, at least on the surface, doesn't seem to be about their connection to homosexuality and alternative lifestyles, but rather that they are more of a support group than a club with a defined purpose.


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Grand jury indicts duo on murder, other charges
By JAMIE SATTERFIELD, satterfield@knews.com

A Knox County grand jury has indicted a pair of alleged would-be robbers on charges they lured two men to a home for a promised sexual encounter and instead fatally shot one and tried to kill the other.

Joshua Eugene Anderson, 21, and Timothy Chad Canady, 24, are named in indictments issued Wednesday charging the pair with a slew of offenses, including first-degree murder, felony murder, attempted especially aggravated robbery and attempted first-degree murder.

Anderson and Canady are accused in the December 2003 slaying of Sampson Jonathan McGhee, 32, at Anderson's East Fifth Avenue home. The pair also is charged with trying to kill George England, who has testified he ran from the two and hid on a stranger's front porch until police arrived.

According to testimony at a preliminary hearing in January in Knox County General Sessions Court, Anderson and Canady met McGhee and England in what England termed the "gay block," an area around the West Knox News adult bookstore on Kingston Pike where homosexual men go to meet other men.


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Kid's sex change(sic) at six
From ANTONELLA LAZZERI
in Los Angeles

LITTLE Hallie Baker told her parents she would kill herself if she didn't get her way – but this was no childish tantrum.

For the six-year-old was begging her mum and dad to let her transform herself into a BOY.

And for the three years since then, Hallie has had her way, answering to the name Hal, while being treated as a lad at home and school.

Now "he" plans to start taking hormones at the onset of puberty to stop him growing breasts.


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House Committee Told Anti-Gay Amendment is 'Moderate'
by Paul Johnson
365Gay.com Newscenter

(Washington) Calling a proposed amendment to the US Constitution to ban same-sex marriage a "measured and moderate response" its author Thursday said  it was aimed at curbing "activist judges" not homosexuality.

Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colorado) told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution that it is a "biological fact that men and women are designed to complement one another." 

"In a very real sense it is impossible for a man to “marry” a man or a woman to “marry” a woman, and the very meaning of the word “marriage” necessarily contemplates a relationship between a man and a woman," Musgrave said.

Robert Bork, whose nomination as a Supreme Court justice was rejected by the Senate because of his radical viewpoints also testified before the committee today.


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Transsexual's(sic) story of assault attacked at trial
Defense says victim's statements don't match
By Michaelangelo Conte

The trial of a Jersey City man charged with sexually assaulting a transsexual (sic) in Bayonne continued yesterday with the attorney for the defense attacking her credibility by producing a marriage license on which she is listed as female.

"I'm not asking you what you consider yourself," defense attorney Jeff Mandel said during questioning. "When all is said and done, you know you are not a female."
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The 25-year old Bayonne resident, who has accused Travis Palmer, 40, of Cator Avenue, of sexually assaulting her and stabbing her in the face with a screwdriver in an alley last June 20, disputed Mandel's assertion.

"To me, I'm a female," she said.

"You've never taken the steps to legally change your sex," Mandel pushed on.

"That's nobody's business," the victim snapped back.