Spain approves gay marriage bill
BBC


The Spanish government has approved a draft law on Friday which will legalise gay marriages.

The bill gives same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, including the right to adopt children.

The Roman Catholic Church and conservative opposition have fiercely opposed the move, which opinion polls suggest has the public's support.

If the bill is approved by parliament, it will make Spain the third EU country to authorise gay marriages.

The government says it expects homosexuals to be able to marry as early as next year


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Baptists taught Cherokee bigotry
Marriage was not defined by gender in Cherokee tradition, but the influence of Christian missionaries changed that.
By JOYCE ROCK


THE CHEROKEE NATION is in a quandary right now over the issue of same-sex marriage.

Under a compact with the state of Oklahoma, marriages recorded by the Cherokee Nation will be recognized by the state. Cherokee law is very vague on gender issues in its marriage laws. The Cherokee terms used in the marriage ceremony translate as “provider” and “cooker,” not “husband” and “wife.”

Last May, a lesbian couple used these definitions in applying for and receiving a marriage license from the Cherokee Nation. After their marriage ceremony, the couple asked the Cherokee Nation to file their certificate of marriage with the state.



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ACTION! ALERT
Comedic uproar
Drink thrown, taunts lobbed in performance at Alabama school
By DYANA BAGBY


SOME STUDENTS DIDN’T find it very funny when a comedian performing at a University of Alabama event began screaming epithets at a gay man at a performance.

Campus gay rights advocates lobbied successfully for administrators to ban the performer from campus and ensure future acts do not include hate speech


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Gay Republican castigates party over marriage vote
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau


Washington -- The House's only openly gay Republican denounced his party Thursday for voting on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in an emotional and often personal debate that sent the measure to its legislative grave.

"I wish that I could seek time from my side of the aisle to speak for basic human rights," said Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz. "Unfortunately, the misguided effort to enshrine family law into the Constitution of the United States comes from this side, so I am grateful to the minority for offering this time."


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Moeller's sexuality cited by challenger
By DON JENKINS, Columbian staff writer

Republican state House candidate Mike W. Smith of Vancouver posted on his gun-rights Web site that he put himself on the "front lines" by challenging a lawmaker who was both a liberal Democrat and "activist homosexual."

    "That's right," he wrote to his audience out there in cyberspace. "It doesn't get any better than this."

    Smith's opponent, Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, smiles.


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Same-sex couple seeks right to wed
Saskatoon couple taking provincial, federal gov'ts to court
Betty Ann Adam
The StarPhoenix


A lesbian couple from Saskatoon is taking the governments of Saskatchewan and Canada to court for the right to marry.

Nicole White and Julie Richards, who recently were denied a marriage licence because they are not opposite sex, say they expect to win their challenge to the definition of marriage, just as same-sex couples in six other provinces have already done.