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Democracy in Video Pills: Don't Ask Don't Tell

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News: Outfest 2006 - Puccini for Beginners opens this week

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Excommunicated Roman Catholic Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, center, with new bishops, Father Raymond Grosswirth, left, and Father Dominic Riccio, right

WEST NEW YORK, New Jersey (AP) -- An excommunicated Roman Catholic archbishop continued to defy the Vatican when he installed two married priests as bishops on Sunday.
In front of a sea of reporters and photographers and several dozen congregants, Raymond A. Grosswirth of Rochester, New York, and Dominic Riccio, of the Newark Archdiocese, were installed by Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo at the Trinity Reformed Church. The ceremony concluded a two-day convention of Milingo's advocacy group, Married Priests Now!
In a visible break from tradition, the wives of both men helped their husbands on with their vestments before each man was anointed.
Milingo, 76, installed four married men as Roman Catholic bishops in September, including Peter Paul Brennan of New York and Patrick Trujillo of Newark. Milingo was later excommunicated by the Vatican, and Pope Benedict XVI followed that decision by convening a summit that reaffirmed mandatory celibacy for clergy.
Members of Milingo's group believe that reinstating priests who are married would help ease a shortage of priests. According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, the number of priests has dropped from 58,600 in 1965 to 41,790 this year.
Milingo has called celibacy "outdated" and was married in 2001 to a Korean acupuncturist chosen for him by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon in a mass wedding performed by Moon's Unification Church.
Milingo's ties to Moon, whose doctrines are considered beyond the bounds of traditional Christianity, have caused consternation in Catholic circles. Moon's American Clergy Leadership Conference paid for much of Milingo's conference this weekend.

go to: cnn article

GLAAD: wedding wars on A&E on Monday, Dec. 11th

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For more information on
Wedding Wars, click here.

Friends,
This Monday, A&E will air the original movie Wedding Wars, which offers a fresh, entertaining take on marriage equality — and how people are growing to realize that banning their gay family members, friends and acquaintances from marrying is both unfair and hurtful to everyone.
This is the kind of storytelling that can invest more and more people in our lives and our families, and we're thrilled that millions of A&E viewers will soon be able to see this movie and share it with their friends and loved ones.
Also, during the world premiere, A&E will air GLAAD's award-winning PSA featuring Julianne Moore. To check it out, click here.

From the President of GLAAD, Neil Giuliano

Rabbi Panel Approves Same-Sex Ceremonies

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By Alan CoopermanWashington Post Staff WriterWednesday, December 6, 2006; 4:42 PM

NEW YORK, Dec. 6 -- A panel of rabbis opened the way Wednesday to allow same-sex commitment ceremonies and the ordination of gays within Conservative Judaism, which occupies a difficult middle ground between orthodoxy and liberalism in American Judaism.
The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards committee accepted three teshuvot, or answers, to the question of whether Jewish law permits homosexual sex. Two of the answers uphold the status quo, which forbids homosexuality. But one of them allows ordination of gay men and lesbians and same-sex ceremonies while maintaining a ban on anal sex.
Four of the committee's 25 members resigned in protest of the decision.
It takes the votes of just six of the panel's 25 members to declare an answer to be valid -- meaning that it is a well-founded interpretation of Jewish law, not that it is the only legitimate interpretation. As Wednesday's vote made clear, it is possible to approve contradictory answers.
Because the papers are contradictory it will be up to individual rabbis and seminaries to decide what to do. Some Conservative Jewish leaders predicted that some rabbis will continue to refuse to allow same sex ceremonies and they said no rabbi would be required to perform them.
The paper that allows for the ordination of gays and performance of same sex ceremonies was written by three rabbis -- Elliot Dorff, of Los Angeles; Daniel Nevins, of Farmington Hills, Mich.; and Avram Reisner, of Baltimore.
There are four main Conservative Jewish seminaries. One of them, the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, is expected to begin ordaining gays in the near future. The movement's flagship seminary, the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, is likely to take more time. Its new chancellor Arnold Eisen, has said he personally favors the change, but will allow the entire faculty to debate and vote on a recommendation. Two other seminaries, in Israel and Argentina, are more traditional in their outlook and may adopt the change slowly, if at all.

LGBT family rights group comments on Mary Cheney's pregnancy

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Written by Family Pride
Wednesday, 06 December 2006
STATEMENT BY JENNIFER CHRISLER OF FAMILY PRIDE:The front page of the Washington Post's website announced today that Mary Cheney, Vice-President Dick Cheney's gay daughter, is pregnant. Mary and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, are described as "ecstatic" about the arrival of their first child, due in late spring. The news of Mary Cheney's pregnancy exemplifies, once again, how the best interests of children are denied when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens are treated unfairly and accorded different and unequal rights and responsibilities than other parents. As Mary and Heather enter into the life-changing roles of parents, they will quickly face the reality the reality that no matter how loved their child will be - by its mothers and its grandparents, aunts & uncles, cousins and close family friends - he or she will never have the same protections that other children born to heterosexual couples enjoy. Mary and Heather currently live in Virginia. Unless they move to a handful of less restrictive states, Heather will never be able to have a legal relationship with her child.The tragedy here is that this climate of hostility toward the LGBT community has only worsened during the Administration of which Vice President Cheney - or Grandfather Cheney in this context - has been second in command. Vice President Cheney has been complicit in the largest full-scale attack on the LGBT community in modern history. He, his President and his political party have repeatedly targeted the LGBT community and LGBT families for scapegoating as part of their calculated political strategy and have attacked at all levels the rights and protections his own daughter will need to ensure a strong, healthy, legally protected family. Grandfather Cheney will no doubt face a lifetime of sleepless nights as he reflects on the irreparable harm he and his Administration have done to the millions of American gay and lesbian parents and their children.

The Washington Post

Mary Cheney and Partner Are About to Be Moms
By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne RobertsWednesday, December 6, 2006; Page C01
Mary Cheney, the vice president's openly gay daughter, is pregnant. She and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, are "ecstatic" about the baby, due in late spring, said a source close to the couple.
It's a baby boom for grandparents Dick and Lynne Cheney: Their older daughter, Elizabeth, went on leave as deputy assistant secretary of state before having her fifth child in July. "The vice president and Mrs. Cheney are looking forward with eager anticipation to the arrival of their sixth grandchild," spokesman Lea Anne McBride said last night.

Cheney, 37, was a key aide to her father during the 2004 reelection campaign and now is vice president for consumer advocacy at AOL. Poe, 45, a former park ranger, is renovating their Great Falls home.
News of the pregnancy will undoubtedly reignite the debate about gay marriage. During the campaign, Mary Cheney was criticized by gay activists for not being more publicly supportive of same-sex marriage. Her father said people "ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to" but deferred to the president's policy supporting a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. Cheney herself called the proposed amendment "a gross affront to gays and lesbians everywhere" in her book, "Now It's My Turn: A Daughter's Chronicle of Political Life," which was published in May.
Cheney has described her relationship with Poe -- whom she took to last year's White House dinner honoring Prince Charles and Camilla -- as a marriage. The two met in 1988 while playing ice hockey and began dating four years later. They moved from Colorado to Virginia a year ago to be closer to Cheney's family. In an interview with the Post six months ago, when asked if she and Poe wanted children, Cheney said that was a "conversation I think I should have with Heather first."
In November, Virginia voters passed a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and civil unions; state law is unclear on whether Poe could have full legal rights as a parent of Cheney's child. The circumstances of the pregnancy will remain private, said the source close to the couple. This is the first child for both.

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G.W. Bush no children left behind works ... abroad!

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I'm very happy when I wake up in the morning and I hear that a country once famous for apartheid now has got the most advanced constitution in the world. I'm very happy as well when I hear that the country which provides "illegal immigrants" in the United States works so strongly on civil rights and civil unions. I'm very sad instead when I wake up in the morning and I still see racism, homophobia and xenophobia in the most advanced country in the world, what the Americans call "the best country in the world" ... without knowing anything about the other countries. A country that always says "we have the first emendment while the others don't have", but this is the country where religious integralism has more power than ever and the president doesn't give a sh** about the separation between state and church. The same president who ignore the results of the November elections and the popular will and try to sell the concept of "we are in Iraq to export our democracy" while he behaves like a dictator in a country that is an oligarchy managed by the big corporations. Teaching is a fine and a delicate job and requires a humble, passionate, loving, team-working, liberal and non-violent mentality none of the idustrialized countries has today. The only thing we are good at is having guns, violent movies, bashing gays, change constitution to separate class A and class B citizens and finally believe that Christ, Moses and Muhammed hated gays and love wars. So, today is a very sad day here and a very happy day in South Africa and in Mexico, mostly because poor countries are more humble and more tolerant than rich countries and they could teach us many more lessons of life than those we could ever impose to them.
Same-sex marriage now legal in South Africa
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- With the deputy president's signature on a new law, South Africa on Thursday became the first country in Africa and only the fifth in the world to legalize same-sex marriages.
The Civil Union Act entered into force on the eve of a December 1 deadline set by the Constitutional Court for the government to change its marriage legislation to ensure full equality for gays and lesbians.
Gay rights groups have welcomed the law, although they criticized provisions allowing clergy and civil marriage officers to turn away gay couples if their consciences prevented them from marrying them.
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka signed the law in her capacity as acting president because President Thabo Mbeki is in Nigeria.
South Africa recognized the rights of gay people in the constitution adopted after apartheid ended in 1994, at a time when leaders were determined to bury all kinds of legal discrimination a thing. The constitution, the first in the world to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, provides a powerful legal tool for gay rights activists even though South Africa remains conservative on such issues.
The governing African National Congress had to push the legislation through despite reservations from some of its own members. Influential traditional leaders said the legislation violated African cultural norms. The Roman Catholic Church and Muslim groups -- and many other religious organizations -- denounced it as violating the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. The Anglican church said it was up to individual ministers to decide whether to use the "opt out" clause, while liberal churches like the Metropolitan Churches Community were in favor.
The National Assembly passed the legislation earlier this month and the National Council of Provinces approved it on Tuesday. Mlambo-Ngcuka's signature was the final legal step.
"There will be a huge response from same-sex couples who have waited such a long time for their relationship to be recognized," predicted Melanie Judge of the lesbian and gay project, OUT.
Janine Pressman, a pastor with the Glorious Light Metropolitan Community Churches in the capital, Pretoria, said she hoped to marry a couple on Saturday, provided the paperwork could be rushed through.
Priests wanting to wed same sex couples at a religious ceremony have to apply for permission from the Home Affairs Ministry and possibly undergo exams to get their license, ministry spokesman Jacky Mashapu said.
This could take two to three weeks, he said. But he added that the ministry wanted to speed through the applications.
Civil unions, without a religious component, could be performed virtually on the spot, subject to completion of the proper paperwork, he said.
"We are ready to go," Mashapu said.
The Civil Union Act provides for the "voluntary union of two persons, which is solemnized and registered by either a marriage or civil union."
Radio talk shows and newspaper columns have highlighted opposition to same-sex marriages in a country where gays and lesbians are victims of violent attacks because of their sexual orientation.
South Africa is only the fifth country in the world to legalize gay marriages. It is the first in Africa, where homosexuality is illegal in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana and most other sub-Saharan countries.
Judge, from OUT, said the public reaction had "forced us to confront the deep-seated prejudice and intolerance against gays and lesbians. It's a day to day reality," she said.
"It's been quite a frightening process to see the level of hatred that has been openly expressed against this minority," she said.
Mexico: 'SI' to gay civil union
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico City's assembly on Thursday passed legislation to legally recognize gay civil unions in the capital, the first such vote by a legislative body in the history of the conservative, predominantly Roman Catholic country.
Mexico City Mayor Alejandro Encinas has spoken in favor of the bill and was expected to sign it into law, while at least one conservative non-governmental group said it was considering seeking a court injunction against the measure.
The bill, which would not approve gay marriage, allows same-sex couples to register their union with civil authorities, granting them inheritance rights and other benefits typically given to spouses. Heterosexual couples who are not legally married can also be registered under the bill.
"This law ... does not require anyone else to change their thinking, nor does it hurt the concept of the nuclear family," said legislator Juan Bustos of the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which has pushed for the law in the capital for years.
The bill has been severely criticized by the Catholic Church and conservative civil groups in the country, which is 90 percent Roman Catholic. The Mexican Council of Bishops has said the law is the first step toward legalizing gay marriage and adoption by gays, while the conservative National Parents Union has characterized it as "aberrant."
While homosexuality is still taboo in many rural parts of Latin America, the region's urban areas are becoming more tolerant. If the law is enacted, Mexico City will join the ranks of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, and the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, which already have approved civil unions.
At the national level, lawmakers in Costa Rica and Colombia have debated, but not passed, similar measures.
Law voted 43-17
The Mexico City assembly passed the measure by a vote of 43-17, with all the opposition coming from the conservative National Action Party of President Vicente Fox and President-elect Felipe Calderon. The party is known for its opposition to abortion and support for traditional families.
PAN lawmaker Paula Adriana Soto said the law simply "conceals a marriage between people of the same sex," which is prohibited by Mexico City civil law.
Mexico City, with a population of 8.7 million, is a federal district similar to Washington, D.C., with its own legislature. The PRD dominates the assembly, which is the first in Mexico to approve such a law.
Legislators in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila on the Texas border introduced a similar bill this week.
As the debate over the bill took place Thursday, groups both in favor and against the measure rallied outside the legislative building, hurling insults at each other.
Jorge Serrano, of the National Pro-Life Committee, said his group would consider seeking a court injunction in the next few days to prevent the legislation from going into effect.
"This is really something sad for our country and it is a direct attempt against the family, because it constitutes the legalization of homosexuality and obviously it is going to lead to an increase in this social wrong," Serrano told The Associated Press.
Tito Vasconcelos, one of Mexico City's leading gay activists, said the law represents "Mexico's entrance into the first world of democracy, along with other countries that recognize this type of union."
Elsewhere on Thursday, a parliamentary committee approved proposals for same-sex marriages in South Africa, clearing the way for the passage of legislation there.
The Netherlands, Canada, Belgium and Spain have legalized same-sex marriage, while several other European countries have laws giving same-sex couples the right to form legally binding civil partnerships. In the U.S., only the state of Massachusetts allows gay marriage, while Vermont and Connecticut permit civil unions.