Colorado Springs bishop clears up remarks on voting
By The Associated Press


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- Roman Catholic Bishop Michael Sheridan used his latest column Wednesday to clarify what he said were misunderstandings that he would deny people communion over how they vote.

Sheridan, head of the Diocese of Colorado Springs, wrote last month that Catholic politicians "may not" receive communion if they disagree with the church's stands against abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage and stem-cell research.

Unlike other U.S. bishops, Sheridan went further by saying Catholics who vote for such candidates should be held to the same standards. He did not write that he would refuse the sacrament to anyone based on how they vote.

However, Sheridan said, the church teaches that those who sin seriously must refrain from communion until they repent and confess.



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Gay school for tots row
By Liam Houlihan


PARENTS watching Play School with their infants were shocked to find there was much more than a bear in there this week.

In a move that has angered family groups, the home of Big Ted delved into the issue of lesbian parenthood without any warning.

The Monday episode told the story of a girl called Brenna going to a fair with her two mummies.

"I'm Brenna. That's me in the blue. My mums are taking me and my friend Meryn to an amusement park," the little girl says over images of her two mums smiling and waving while she and her friend played on a merry-go-round.


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N.M. attorney general derails marriage petition

ALBUQUERQUE (BP)--New Mexico’s attorney general, in a reversal, has declared that the state’s “gay-rights law” cannot be challenged by voters during this year’s general election.

Attorney General Patricia Madrid, in an opinion on the petition drive to place the issue on the November ballot, cited language in the state constitution that, “The people reserve the power to disapprove, suspend and annul any law enacted by the Legislature” except “laws providing for the preservation of the public peace, health or safety.”

The law, approved last year by the legislature and signed by Gov. Bill Richardson, took effect July 1, 2003, and was slightly revised during the 2004 legislative session. It extends the state’s Human Rights Act to cover “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”



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Judge who made gay marriage legal under fire
By Erik Arvidson,
Transcript Statehouse Bureau

State Rep. Phillip Travis, D-Rehoboth, has sponsored a bill that would only remove Marshall from the bench. Travis said that he didn't agree with Goguen's approach to remove all four justices who ruled in favor of gay marriage because it was Marshall who was chiefly responsible.

Travis, who is part of a group called the Article 8 Alliance, released a resolution that details the five counts of alleged judicial misconduct by Marshall, and which lays out the case for the "bill of address."

They accuse Marshall of attending two political events in 1999 and 2000 honoring gay and lesbian advocates, that Marshall "encouraged" lawyers for gay and lesbian couples to bring the lawsuit for the right to marry, and that Marshall "chased" media outlets to bring publicity to herself.


"Justice Marshall's decision was predetermined even before the case went to the SJC," Travis said, referring to the lawsuit brought by seven gay and lesbian couples. "The right thing for (Marshall) to have done when the case was kicked up to her court would be to have recused herself because of her past activity. I would have respected that."


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Crimes more violent against gays and lesbians: report

REGINA   - Gay rights activists in Saskatchewan say a new Statistics Canada report on hate crimes is disturbing.The report includes data from a dozen police departments across the country, including the Regina Police Service.

Ten per cent of nearly 1,000 hate crimes committed in 2001 and 2002 were against gays and lesbians. The survey also found that people who were targeted because of sexual orientation were more likely than any other group to suffer violent crimes.

"I find that very upsetting and chilling," says Duncan Campbell, a Regina gay rights activist.

"I think there's a kind of permission to hate gays and lesbians in our culture. If you look in our high schools, the first insult that someone will hurl, they'll say 'you're queer, or you're a fag,' and not all schools will stand up and say that's wrong, and it just breeds a culture of intolerance."

The survey also reported that Jewish people are the main targets of hate crimes such as vandalism and uttering threats.


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Church leads protest
By Sophie Kummer


Another parish church has followed the lead of Holy Trinity Lyonsdown in New Barnet, by terminating its yearly payments to the Church of England in protest at the appointment of Canon Jeffrey John as dean of St Albans.

The Rev Hugh Symes-Thompson, vicar of St Peter and St Paul Cranfield's Church near Bedford, said his church, which is also in St Albans diocese, had been encouraged by Holy Trinity Lyonsdown's action over the appointment of Canon John, who supports same-sex relationships.

Holy Trinity Lyonsdown, in Lyonsdown Road, caused ripples throughout the Anglican communion when it announced last month it would not be paying its annual quota of £33,600 to the C of E.

Mr Symes-Thompson vowed to withhold his church's £23,500 quota for 2004. "We are upset about the appointment for the same reasons at Lyonsdown and are taking a similar sort of action," he said. "I was thinking this might be a possible course of action and our PCC parochial church council took note of this after having read the story in the news, so we hope more parishes might do the same. We are encouraged, certainly, by Lyonsdown."


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Transgender trial wraps
Accused men face life sentencing in grizzly murder.
By Michelle Locke | Associated Press


HAYWARD -- A prosecutor asked jurors to find three men guilty of murder in the death of a transgender teenager, saying they acted coldly and deliberately and were not, as a defense attorney claimed, panicked by the shock of sexual deception.

"Eddie Araujo was a real human being. He laughed and he cried. He had friends and family who loved him," prosecutor Chris Lamiero said in his closing argument Tuesday. "In a matter of a few hours ... Eddie was tried and convicted and executed. He was not afforded an opportunity to appeal. He was denied the due process that these still-living men now ask of you."

Araujo, who was born male but lived as a woman, was beaten and strangled, prosecutors say, after her biological identity was revealed at a late-night confrontation in in October 2002.

Three men are on trial for Araujo's death, which was charged as a hate crime -- Michael Magidson, Jose Merel and Jason Cazares, all 24. A fourth man, 21-year-old Jaron Nabors, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and testified against the others.