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.