Category: LGBTQ Life

Presbyterian minister rebuked, praised for performing same-sex unions

LGBTQ Nation • Friday, August 27, 2010 • Filed under: California, Religion • Comments (0)

A retired Presbyterian minister was found guilty Friday by a church tribunal of presiding at the marriage of same-sex couples in 2008 and will be censured, pending an appeal.

The six-member panel announced its verdict in the case of the Rev. Dr. Jane Spahr, of San Francisco, who was accused of violating church law by performing 16 gay and lesbian ceremonies.

Spahr

After a four-day church trial that was equal parts Scripture lesson and celebration of marriage, a panel of church leaders from the Presbytery of the Redwoods voted 4-2 that Spahr should be censured because she “persisted in a pattern or practice of disobedience.”

But the six-person panel voted unanimously that the 68-year-old lesbian’s actions did not disrupt the “peace, unity and purity of the church” and praised her “faithful compassion” and her 35-year ministry to gays and lesbians throughout the country.

In its ruling, the panel called upon the church to re-examine its “fear and ignorance that continues to reject the inclusiveness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Continue reading…

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Former RNC chair, GW Bush campaign manager: ‘I’m gay’

LGBTQ Nation • Thursday, August 26, 2010 • Filed under: Coming Out, Newsmakers • Comments (0)

Ken Mehlman, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and the campaign manager who helped win a second term for President George W. Bush on his anti-gay marriage platform has announced that he is homosexual.

Mehlman

During his tenure as chairman of the RNC, the party’s strategists encouraged state referendums banning same-sex marriage, but Mehlman now says he wants to become an advocate for gay marriage.

“It’s taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life,” Mehlman said in an interview with Atlantic magazine.

“Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I’ve told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they’ve been wonderful and supportive.

“The process has been something that’s made me a happier and better person. It’s something I wish I had done years ago.”

Mehlman is widely considered one of the key architects of the Bush-era Republican election machine that exploited anti-gay prejudices to motivate its conservative base. His revelation comes after years of speculation, and to date is the highest-profile national Republican figure to come out as gay. Continue reading…

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Florida GOP candidate trifecta: no gay marriage, adoption, or foster parenting

LGBTQ Nation • Tuesday, August 10, 2010 • Filed under: Family and Parenting, Florida • Comments (0)

Bill McCollum, Florida’s Attorney General and a Republican candidate for Governor, has made it clear he supports his state’s ban on gay adoption, and he doesn’t think gay people should be allowed to be foster parents, either.

McCollum

In an interview published in the Florida Baptist Witness, McCollum, who was embarrassed earlier this year when his key witness fighting Florida’s ban on gay adoption, Dr. George Rekers, was caught taking a European vacation with a male escort, said that he disagreed with Florida law that allows gays to serve as foster parents.

From the Florida Baptist Witness:

Do you support civil rights protections on the basis of sexual preference?

McCollum: I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. I believe that a family should consist of one man and one woman. I don’t believe in gay adoption. I don’t believe in involving the government in enforcing or encouraging the lifestyle of gays and homosexuals. I just don’t believe that.

Florida permits homosexuals to serve as foster parents. That has been used as an argument to undermine the ban on adoptions. Should homosexuals be permitted to serve as foster parents in Florida?

Well, I personally don’t think so, but that is the law.

Should the law be changed?

I think that it would be advisable. I really do not think that we should have homosexuals guiding our children. I think that it’s a lifestyle that I don’t agree with. I realize a lot of people do. It’s my personal faith, religious faith, that I don’t believe that the people who do this should be raising our children. It’s not a natural thing. You need a mother and a father. You need a man and a woman. That’s what God intended.

Early voting began Monday for the Florida Primary Election on August 24.

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Prop 8 trial witness Ryan Kendall speaks out for equality

Kelvin Lynch • Thursday, August 5, 2010 • Filed under: Advocacy, Colorado, Proposition 8 Trial • Comments (0)

Ryan Kendall (Photo: The Kendall Project)

Ryan Kendall is a name you will be hearing a lot more in the weeks and months to come.  The 27-year-old from Denver served as a fact witness in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a.k.a. the federal Prop 8 trial.

Kendall testified about knowing he was gay at a young age, and the horrors of experiencing so-called “reparative therapy” at the hands of NARTH as a teenager.  His testimony was a pivotal moment, not only for the case, but also for Kendall himself, who says he “still feels like a kid who just wants to be loved.”

Kendall, who plans to become an attorney, says the experience of testifying in the historic trial made him realize just how many unsung heroes fight for equality in the United States.

“To me, a hero is anyone who tries to make this a better place for all of us – for the people in our lives, and those that will come after us,’ says Kendall. “Even the smallest act can change the world.” Continue reading…

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Grad student alleges school trying to force her to change her anti-gay beliefs

LGBTQ Nation • Sunday, July 25, 2010 • Filed under: Education, Georgia • Comments (0)

A Georgia graduate student has filed a lawsuit accusing Augusta State University officials of violating her constitutional rights — she claims the school told her that her anti-gay beliefs are incompatible with the standards of her desired profession.

Jennifer Keeton, 24, who is pursuing a master’s degree in counseling, said she was ordered to undergo a re-education plan that requires her to attend “diversity sensitivity training,” complete additional remedial reading and write papers to describe their effects on her beliefs, according to the lawsuit filed last week.

“The school counseling faculty has decided that my views are not acceptable for me or to share with other students,” Keeton said in a video statement produced by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF).

“They have required a remediation plan in which the end result would be me altering my beliefs or being dismissed from the program.”

Keeton has said in and out class that, according to her Christian beliefs, homosexuality is immoral and a lifestyle choice. Continue reading…

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Judge: AZ can’t end domestic partner benefits for state employees

LGBTQ Nation • Saturday, July 24, 2010 • Filed under: Arizona, Health and Wellness • Comments (0)

A federal judge on Friday issued an injunction preventing the State of Arizona from enforcing a law that would have prevented lesbian and gay state employees and their domestic partners (and the children of those partners) from receiving health benefits, referring to it as illegal discrimination.

The bill, passed by the legislature last session and signed by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, eliminated coverage for non-spouse domestic partners, whether they were heterosexual or gay. The lawsuit, filed by Lambda Legal, said that heterosexual couples had the option of receiving benefits simply by getting married, but gay and lesbian couples can’t do so in Arizona.

United States District Judge John Sedwick agreed, citing the Arizona constitutional amendment that bars same-sex marriages, and said the state is making benefits for the partners of its employees available “on terms that are a legal impossibility for gay and lesbian couples.’’

The state argued, among other things, that the law saves Arizona money, to which Judge Sedwick addressed in his 33-page decision:

“Contrary to the State’s suggestion, it is not equitable to lay the burden of the State budgetary shortfall on homosexual employees, any more than on any other distinct class, such as employees with green eyes or red hair.”

He said the evidence shows that the cost of providing benefits to then partners of gay and lesbian workers is no more than 0.27 percent of total health care spending by the state. And even if cuts had to be made elsewhere, the judge said, that still doesn’t make the law right.

Arizona lawmakers included the provision to eliminate domestic partner health benefits for gay state employees as part of a last-minute budget deal signed by Brewer last September, while retaining spousal health benefits for heterosexual workers. Friday’s injunction barring enforcement of the insurance cut-off will take effect in ten days.

The State can appeal the ruling immediately to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, or proceed to defend the discriminatory budget provision on the merits in the District Court.

About 800 state employees are affected. State officials have not announced whether they will appeal the ruling.

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Gay priest witch hunt snags three on video in nightclubs

Kelvin Lynch • Friday, July 23, 2010 • Filed under: Religion, World News • Comments (0)

The UK’s Daily Mail is reporting that three Catholic priests were caught on tape having sex in Rome’s gay nightclubs.  The news has reportedly “shocked … the devoutly Catholic country”.

Video still allegedly showing a gay priest having sex in a Roman nightclub

A reporter for Panorama magazine, who works for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (who happens to own all Italian media), had a “gay accomplice” help him scope out Catholic priests in Italian gay bars.

Panorama said, “By day they are regular priests, complete with dog collar, but, at night it’s off with the cassock as they take their place as perfectly integrated members of the Italian capital’s gay scene.”

Well, all except for one, whom the magazine called Carlo, who “willingly put on his cassock to have sex with the reporter’s gay accomplice.” Continue reading…

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Todd Ransom: Mormon family breaks silence about gay man’s suicide

LGBTQ Nation • Friday, July 23, 2010 • Filed under: In Memoriam, Utah • Comments (5)

Updated: Monday, July 26, 2010:

Last week, Todd Ransom, a 28 year-old gay man from Orem, Utah, committed suicide.

While it is unclear why exactly Ransom took his life, friends report that he struggled to reconcile his sexual orientation with his Mormon upbringing.

Todd Ransom

There have been few reports of Ransom’s death in the media. Local news outlets have published only brief accounts from when Ransom’s body was discovered July 19.

But in a website memorial launched this weekend, Ransom’s family released this statement:

“Our beloved son, brother and friend took his own life at Battle Creek Canyon near Pleasant Grove, Utah after a long and painful battle with depression.

Some people have said that Todd ended his life because he was gay or felt persecuted by the LDS Church and his family, but this is not true. We loved him unconditionally. We were always there for him.

Todd attempted suicide previously and we know from that experience that his manic depression was a constant thorn in his side and that there were other factors that influenced his suicide. Todd didn’t always agree with us or want to share his life with us, but he was loved by us. That is the undeniable truth.”

Ransom’s death has fueled new debate about suicide among gay Mormons.

Utah bloggers have written that this is the third gay suicide in Utah this month, all of which have been largely ignored by local news outlets — David Standley, 21 of Ogden, took his life on June 30, and Weber State University student Tim Tilley, 20, killed himself on July 11.

And according to the Deseret News, a LDS owned and cultured newspaper:

- Every 11 days a Utah teen commits suicide
- Utah leads the nation in suicide among men 15-24
- Utah has the 11th highest overall suicide rate in the nation
- Suicide is the #1 cause of death among Utah teens

Last year, Ransom signed up to participate in Reed Cowan’s film, 8: The Mormon Proposition, a documentary that chronicled the Mormon Church’s involvement in the passage of California’s Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on gay marriage.

According to Cowan, Ransom left inexplicably before he could appear in front of the camera.

A candlelight vigil for Todd Ransom was held Tuesday at the Utah state capital. (Photo via David Daniels Photography)

But the memorial website goes beyond speculation, and explains with much candor, Ransom’s life and struggles:

“Our lives changed when Todd announced to his family in 2001 that he was gay. Thus began the difficult dance that takes place between a faithful Mormon family and a much-loved son and brother who chooses to live a gay lifestyle.

It was difficult for his parents to publicly acknowledge his homosexuality, and this hurt Todd in ways that his parents did not intend. On the other hand, in spite of his upbringing in the LDS Church, Todd insisted that family members affirm his sexuality in ways that put them at odds with their conscience and beliefs.

Todd was very hurt when his parents felt that they could not attend his commitment ceremony with Jake Jacquez, his partner of eight years, however he and Jake were both welcome in our home.”

Ransom was born July 11, 1982 in Princeton, New Jersey. He grew up in Tucson, Arizona and Orem, Utah. He graduated with honors from the University of Utah in May 2009, earning a BS degree in biomedical engineering.

Friends say Ransom left behind a note reading “Sunrise – Accept This Offering.”

A candlelight vigil was held last Tuesday evening on the steps of the Utah state capital. Photos at David Daniels Photography.

Ransom’s obituary here.

With thanks to Laurie Beth’s Grotto for calling our attention to the memorial website.

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Saving LGBTQ youth should be our top priority

Kelvin Lynch • Monday, July 19, 2010 • Filed under: Education, Family and Parenting, Views & Voices • Comments (0)

LGBTQ youth are more prone to depression and suicide due to bullying and discrimination in school

As we fight for equal rights – rights to which every citizen of this nation is entitled – we should be careful not to become so engrossed in these issues that we forget where we came from, the place that shaped us into who we are and motivates us even now to defeat bigotry and hate and make this nation truly great.

It’s a reasonable argument that our collective experiences in school during our most formative years made us the fighters and advocates we are today.  So many of us remember the hostility, ridicule, discrimination, and maybe even the beatings we had to endure beginning around middle school and following us throughout high school. The sort of horrors no young person should have to endure, at the hands of bigots and bullies who were our peers and teachers alike.  How many times did we have to walk down the hall to threats of physical violence, while school personnel just stood by watching and listening, doing nothing to come to our aid? Continue reading…

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LGBT binational families seek UAFA inclusiveness

Kelvin Lynch • Thursday, July 15, 2010 • Filed under: Family and Parenting, National Agenda • Comments (0)

Families like Shirley Tan's (second from left) would benefit from an LGBT-inclusive UAFA

Did you know approximately 17,000 children are being raised by LGBT parents in binational families, and those children face the very real possibility of losing a parent, or leaving the only country they have ever called home? It’s true. And if the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) passes without language including LGBT families, that’s exactly what might happen.

The UAFA was introduced in the House by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and in the Senate by Patrick Leahy (D-VT) this past February, and has 124 co-sponsors.  The bill will amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate discrimination in immigration laws, by permitting permanent partners of US citizens and lawful permanent residents to obtain lawful permanent resident status, the same way as spouses of citizens and lawful permanent residents. It will also penalize immigration fraud in connection with permanent partnerships. Continue reading…

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