Anglican Commission on Gays Wraps Up

ROBERT BARR
Associated Press


LONDON - A commission seeking to resolve the Anglican Communion's crisis over a homosexual U.S. bishop and other gay issues wrapped up its work Friday and said it would publish its report on Oct. 18.

The commission, chaired by Irish primate Robin Eames, issued a brief statement as it ended a weeklong meeting at Windsor Castle, west of London.

Before the meeting, Eames said the panel would probably "recommend radical changes in the ways Anglicanism relates to its different constituencies," but Friday's statement gave no further clues about the recommendations.



~

Foreign gay marriages not recognised in Germany


KARLSRUHE - A court in Germany Friday ruled that a gay marriage licence issued under foreign law does not constitute matrimony under German law.

The Karlsruhe Administrative Court rejected a complaint by a Taiwanese man who said his Dutch gay marriage to a Netherlands man entitled him to a residence permit to live in Germany under European Union immigration regulations.

Under those regulations, the foreign spouse of a citizen of an EU country is entitled to apply for a residency permit in an EU country.

However, in handing down its ruling, the court said that the EU regulations allowed each country to define what constituted a "spouse" in legal terms. In Germany, marriage licenses are issued only to male-female couples.


~

Low-Profile Marriage Law Pioneers
A Mission Viejo couple are at odds with foes of same-sex marriage and even top gay groups.
By Claire Luna, Times Staff Writer


An unassuming Mission Viejo couple, self-described homebodies in baggy jeans and bifocals, don't give the immediate impression of being at the forefront of the same-sex marriage movement.

And, being the first Californians to file a federal lawsuit challenging state and federal marriage laws, Christopher Hammer and Arthur Smelt have found themselves at odds not only with those who think same-sex marriage is unlawful but also with the nation's largest gay-rights organizations.


~

St. Anne’s won’t give benefits to same-sex couples
WILL RICHMOND , Herald News Staff Reporter


FALL RIVER -- Gay and lesbian employees at St. Anne’s Hospital who provide health care benefits for their spouses will no longer be able to provide those services to their loved ones.

Beginning Oct. 1, St. Anne’s is changing all of its health plans to self-funded plans. The move allows the hospital’s managing group, Caritas Christi Health Care, to stop extending insurance benefits to same-sex spouses of employees.

Under a self-funded plan, the employer pays funds for the plan based on its actual claims experience and hires a plan administrator to process the claims.

A letter to employees dated Sept. 3 explained the change. "Since same-sex marriage is in conflict with church teachings, all Caritas Christi Hospitals are changing to self-funded plans."
St. Anne’s Hospital is part of Caritas Christi’s Catholic Health Care System, which is associated with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. The group operates six hospitals throughout eastern Massachusetts.



~

Justices decline to step aside in marriage amendment case
Arkansas News Bureau


LITTLE ROCK - Two Arkansas Supreme Court justices declined requests Thursday to step down from a case in which they will consider whether a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage should remain on the Nov. 2 ballot.

The Arkansas Marriage Amendment Committee filed motions earlier this week asking Justices Robert L. Brown and Annabelle Clinton Imber to recuse themselves from hearing oral arguments in the case. The oral arguments are set for Sept. 23.

The motions filed by the committee said Brown should step aside because he wrote an article praising a 2002 court opinion that decriminalized sodomy.

The committee said Imber should step aside because she once worked at the same law firm as one of the attorneys who filed the suit on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU last month filed the legal challenge asking the state Supreme Court to remove the proposed constitutional amendment from the ballot.


~

Not-guilty plea entered
in alleged hate crime
By Travis Gettys
Enquirer contributor


NEWPORT - A man accused of a hate crime pleaded not guilty Thursday to one count of first-degree assault after authorities said he seriously injured another man.

The attorney for Steven Ard, 38, of Newport, said his client acted in self defense when he struck Matthew Ashcraft, 19, in the back of the head with an aluminum baseball bat.

Ashcraft suffered a fractured skull, a blood clot, cranial bleeding and hearing damage in the June 26 incident, which police have called a hate crime.

Under Kentucky law, crimes motivated by bias - including race, gender, religion and sexual orientation - do not carry an additional penalty, but judges may remove the possibility of parole.


~

Man wanted for 1974 Baltimore homicide arrested in Boston
FOSTER KLUG , Associated Press Writer


BALTIMORE -- After 30 years, a man wanted for the Christmas Eve killing of a police motor pool worker outside a west Baltimore bar has been arrested in Boston.

But the family of Michael Hughes, now 58, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he was acting in self-defense when he shot 40-year-old McKinley Johnson Jr. at the New Fulton Tavern in 1974.

Hughes was arrested in Boston last weekend for allegedly stabbing a man he thought was gay. He had been arrested several times since the Baltimore killing but was only connected last weekend when a Boston transit police booking officer discovered Hughes was using several aliases and ran a fingerprint check.