Transgender wedding not on the ballot


MONTGOMERY — On the same day Alabama voters passed an amendment banning same-sex marriage, a transgender woman and her female partner tied the knot legally in Chilton County — but only after being denied a marriage ceremony by a probate judge in another Alabama county.

"He said he only believed in marriage between a man and a woman," said Janus Carson, who was born male but now appears female and considers herself a female.

Because Janus Carson is a biological male, who has not undergone a sex-change operation, the Chilton County probate judge saw no problem marrying Janus Carson to a female, Cheryjn Carson.

The mixed reception of the couple on June 6 — when Alabama voters emphatically banned gay marriages in the state constitution — depicts the uncertainty of marriage law when it comes to transgenders, a term for those who have changed their biological gender. It's an uncertainty that extends beyond Alabama.

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Gay prince is cut off from fortune 'for dishonouring his family'


The scion of one of India's wealthiest former royal families has been disinherited after bringing "dishonour" on it by admitting that he is homosexual.

Prince Manvendrasinh Gohil, the only son and heir to the fortunes of the former Rajpipla principality, in Gujarat state, western India, learned that he been dispossessed after his parents placed advertisements in a newspaper. "Manvendra ceases to have rights as a son over the family property and the power of attorney issued to him also stands cancelled," his mother, Rukminidevi, said in her notice.



Gay sailors to march in uniform at EuroPride


U.K. gay and lesbian naval personnel will march in full uniform for the first time at EuroPride on Saturday.

More than 40 sailors, ranging from able seamen to Royal Navy Reserve commanders, will participate in the parade in London. It's the first time that any military organization in the world has allowed gay and lesbian recruits to march in uniform at such an event.

The naval contingent will actually lead the parade. This inaugural event comes six years after a landmark ruling to allow gay people to serve openly in the British armed forces.

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Spain To Have Its First Military Gay Wedding


(Madrid) Two gay privates in Spain's Air Force will marry this summer the ETA news agency reported on Tuesday.
The wedding will be the first same-sex marriage for the country's military.

The men's family names were not identified but the men share the first name Alberto and are based in Seville.

"We know we are in the armed forces and this is touchy because we are not gardeners but rather soldiers. I know there are superior officers who will make life difficult for me, and they are already doing so," said one of the men told a Seville radio station.


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Indian middle class gays find acceptance


The story of the young Gujrati prince reinforced the stereotype of a gay elite.

But the great Indian middle class is a minefield of countless invisible stories of young men coming out to their families in some instances of a gradual acceptance.

When NDTV met Rekha Karani at her music classes, she seemed like an unlikely spokesperson for gay or lesbian rights.

She's not an activist. But her willingness to talk candidly about her personal experiences of dealing with her son Nitin Karani's sexuality makes her a powerful voice.


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Stonewall: Gays Come Out Into History


When the police raided New York City’s largest gay bar 37 years ago today, on June 27, 1969, they weren’t expecting any resistance. They had raided the Stonewall Inn countless times before, and usually the patrons, fearing that arrest would make their sexuality known, would submissively file out. But tonight was different—and what happened sparked a revolution.

There was an “electricity going through the people,” one witness said. Patrons fought back, and for four days Greenwich Village was alive with protesters clashing with the police and crying “Gay power!” Stonewall became a rallying point for gay-rights activists, and they transformed the raw energy of the riot into a new political movement. It was, in the words of the novelist Edmund White, “our Bastille Day.”


It sent a message: Gays were tired of living in fear. In 1953 President Eisenhower had signed an executive order that prohibited the employment of gays by the federal government, connecting it to “security threats” such as Communism and “sexual perversion.” After that 1,500 federal employers had been fired, and 6,000 had resigned rather than be investigated.