Gay groups join election push
Ben Townley
Gay.com UK


Lesbian and gay rights campaigners have joined the growing call for a higher turnout at this week's elections, as the threat of a British National Party (BNP) victory looms large.

Veteran campaigner Peter Tatchell is leading the push, in a bid to encourage more LGBT people to vote on Thursday June 10th and stop right wing extremists grabbing seats from disillusioned voters in the local, European and London elections.

It follows an increased fear that parties such as the BNP, which represent racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic policies amongst others, could be on the verge of a break through at the polling booths, as voters desert the main parties or voting at all.

A recent poll suggested that 5% of those planning to vote in London, would vote for the BNP - exactly the amount needed for the party to gain a seat in the London Assembly.



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Coalition asks federal court to halt gay marriages in Mass.
The Associated Press


BOSTON -- A coalition of conservative groups and lawmakers asked a federal appeals court today to stop gay marriages, saying the state's highest court overstepped its bounds by changing the traditional meaning of marriage when it cleared the way for same-sex couples to wed.

Gay marriages began in Massachusetts on May 17, after the Supreme Judicial Court ruled it was unconstitutional to deny licenses to same-sex couples.

The groups urged the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to put an immediate stop to the weddings, arguing that only elected lawmakers -- not judges -- have a right to define marriage and that any change in that traditional definition should be left to a vote of the people.

In March, lawmakers narrowly approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriages and establish civil unions. However, that proposal must survive another vote of the Legislature, and won't go before voters until November 2006, at the earliest.


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‘Wife’ goes home a winner
BY HEDY WEISS Theater Critic


The 2003-2004 Broadway season was, to put it mildly, a wildly eclectic year. And the 58th annual Tony Awards, presented Sunday night at Radio City Music Hall, only underscored this fact.

The top prize for best play of the season went to Doug Wright's "I Am My Own Wife," the one-man (40-character) chronicle of the life and times of a German transvestite who managed to survive the second half of the 20th century. The show had an important pre-New York run in Chicago, and will return here early next year, with Jefferson Mays, whose tour de force performance earned him a Tony for best leading actor in a play, reprising his role.