With new leader chosen, Canada's Anglicans turn to same-sex showdown
By Richard N. Ostling, Associated Press,


ST. CATHARINES, Ontario (AP) Having selected the most liberal of four candidates to be their new leader, delegates to an Anglican Church of Canada meeting turned to a disputed proposal that would give dioceses the go-ahead to perform church blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples.

''We are a church that fundamentally affirms love and justice,'' Toronto laywoman Phyllis Creighton, who supports the proposal, said during Tuesday's debate on the measure. Delegates will vote on it Wednesday night.

''There is hurt when everything else can be blessed, but not the lives of persons who, through their relationships, show that they are blessed,'' Creighton said.

But the Rev. Sean Murphy of Whitehorse, Yukon, said approval of the bill would defy ''the united and consistent testimony of Scripture that heterosexual marriage and abstinence in singleness is God's created order.''


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State ponders same-sex amendment
1st change of its kind in a decade
By Amanda York
Post Frankfort Bureau Chief

FRANKFORT -- The last two times Kentuckians changed the state constitution for social issues, they dealt with bingo cards and lottery tickets.

This fall Kentucky is one of five states -- including Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada and Utah -- where citizens will vote to write a ban against gay marriages into the state constitution. That number may rise to six if Ohio amendment supporters are able to gather the more than 300,000 signatures needed by Aug. 4 to get the measure on the Buckeye State's ballot.

It's been more than a decade since Kentuckians looked at changing the state constitution for a social issue. Charitable gaming was taken up in 1992 and the state lottery was approved in 1988.

Though both have social ties, each is also bound to revenue for churches, civic organizations and schools.


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Senator stands up for gay rights
By Samantha Maiden

LABOR'S Penny Wong made history as the nation's first Asian-born female senator, but she spoke yesterday from her experience as a lesbian as the ALP soul-searched over rights for same-sex couples to marry and adopt children.

Senator Wong stood in caucus to call for gay rights to be enshrined as a social justice issue, comparing the Howard Government's reform push to US laws banning interracial marriage in the 1960s.

While John Howard accused the ALP yesterday of conducting a "naked exercise in two-bob-each-way politics", in deciding to ban gay marriage but back same-sex couples adopting, Senator Wong's speech won plaudits from senior frontbenchers and colleagues alike.

However, Senator Wong told The Australian yesterday that while she had never hidden her sexuality, she did not believe her personal life was relevant to her abhorrence of Mr Howard's attack on gays.


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Lawmaker pushes for amendment
By: Shawn Flynn, News 14 Carolina


CHARLOTTE, N.C. – One Mecklenburg County Commissioner is fighting to make sure a Massachusetts law allowing gay couples to marry does not affect North Carolina residents.

An N.C. Senate bill was recently introduced that would put to a vote a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriages, and now Republican County Commissioner Bill James is pushing the Mecklenburg Board of Commissioners to adopt a resolution expressing support for the Senate Bill 1057 titled "The Defense of Marriage Constitutional Amendment."

"(Same sex marriage) has everything to do with Mecklenburg County and its 800,000 residents," James said, "very much so."

James will introduce the resolution at Tuesday night's Commission meeting.


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MSPs raise gay partnership Bill concerns

MSPs today voiced concerns about the civil partnerships Bill designed to give new legal rights to gay couples.

A report by the Scottish Parliament’s justice 1 committee highlighted worries about pension rights and called for a rewording of a section of the Bill banning the use of religious premises.

Under the proposals, gay people in a civil partnership would be allowed to inherit the benefits from his or her partner’s pension scheme, but only from the time the legislation comes into force.

Gay rights groups claim that discriminates against civil partners as it takes no account of pension contributions made in the past.