COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL WINS ASYLUM IN US FOR BRAZILIAN
Columbia Law School’s Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic has won asylum for a gay man who feared persecution because of his sexual orientation if forced to return to his native Brazil.
The grant, issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, comes at a time when conditions for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals in Brazil are becoming more dangerous.
“In Brazil, I lived in constant fear for my life,” said Augusto Pereira de Souza, 27. “I tried to hide that I was gay, but still faced repeated beatings, attacks, and threats on my life because I was gay. At times I was attacked by skinheads and brutally beaten by cops. After the cops attack you and threaten your life for being gay, you learn quickly that there is no one that will protect you. For me, coming to the U.S. was a life or death decision.” – Source – 356Gay
CATHOLIC CHURCH WARNS AGAINST GAY MINISTRY
The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is warning that a Maryland-based ministry to gay and lesbian Catholics has neither the approval of the church nor the authority to speak on behalf of Catholics.
Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, spoke about New Ways Ministry, founded in Mount Rainier in 1977 by the Rev. Robert Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick.
“No one should be misled by the claim that New Ways Ministry provides an authentic interpretation of Catholic teaching and an authentic Catholic pastoral practice,” George said in a statement issued late Friday. “Their claim to be Catholic only confuses the faithful regarding the authentic teaching and ministry of the Church with respect to persons with a homosexual inclination.” – Source – The Baltimore Sun
FRESNO PROFESSOR ACCUSED OF ANTI-GAY TEACHING
VAUGHN WALKER HAS PROVEN RECORD OF IMPARTIALITY
Vaughn Walker almost lost his chance to reach the federal bench because of claims that he was anti-gay and hostile to civil rights. Two dozen House Democrats, led by Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, opposed his nomination because of his alleged “insensitivity” to gays and the poor. His first appointment, from President Ronald Reagan in 1987, stalled out in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
His nomination was renewed by President George H.W. Bush in early 1989.
Back then, Walker struggled to assure skeptical liberals that, as a judge, he could rule with impartiality even though he had represented the U.S. Olympic Committee in its successful effort to prevent an athletic competition in San Francisco from being called the Gay Olympic Games. He was harshly criticized for putting a lien on the home of a gay-games leader who was dying of AIDS. Walker insisted that he was not anti-gay and was only doing his best to serve his client. – Source - Editorial/San Francisco Chronicle
FLORIDA TO PROVIDE BENEFITS TO GAY MAN’S ADOPTED SON
Florida’s embattled ban on adoption by gay people suffered another setback Tuesday, when state child welfare administrators agreed to provide health insurance, college tuition and other benefits to the adopted son of a gay Key West man.
For more than a year, the Department of Children & Families had refused to provide the adoption subsidy to the adoptive son of Wayne LaRue Smith, a Key West lawyer whose request to adopt a boy he was raising in foster care was approved by a Monroe County judge in the fall of 2008.
On Tuesday, DCF lawyers did an about-face, agreeing in writing to provide the boy with subsidized college tuition, health insurance under the state’s Medicaid program, and other benefits typically provided to other children who are adopted from state care. – Source – The Miami-Hearald
GETTING READY FOR THE GOVERNOR’S BALL ON OSCAR NIGHT
SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOL BOARD OKAYS NEW GAY SUPPORT PROGRAM
The San Francisco school board added to the district’s massive $113 million shortfall over the next two years by voting Tuesday night to fund a substantial increase in instruction and services related to gay and lesbian issues.
Though the district is facing layoffs and significant program cuts, board members unanimously agreed that the estimated $120,000 annual price tag was worth it to support gay and lesbian students – children who are more likely to experience bullying and skip school because they are afraid.
The resolution calls for adding a district position to manage “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning” youth issues. It also requires the district to keep tabs on harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation and distribute educational packets every year to parents encouraging them to discuss sexuality, gender identity and safety with their children. – Source – San Francisco Chronicle
NO REPEAL ON GAY MARRIAGE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
A House committee that deadlocked a year ago over legalizing gay marriage voted yesterday against repealing New Hampshire’s five-week-old law allowing the unions.
The Judiciary Committee also voted to recommend that the House kill a proposed constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.
The vote was 12-8 on both measures, largely along party lines led by Democratic opposition. Last year, the committee couldn’t agree on a recommendation and brought a bill to the House floor to legalize the unions without one. Some supporters felt at the time that it was too soon to allow gay marriage since the state’s civil unions law was only a year old. But after a series of votes, the House narrowly passed the bill that became law. – Source – Concord Monitor
VERMONT COUPLE FIGHTS BAN ON GAY SCOUT LEADERS
A lesbian couple from East Montpelier is speaking out against the ban on homosexual scout leaders and they have the support of two dozen members of Congress.
Cate and Elizabeth Wirth wanted to help with their son’s Cub Scout troop but were told they were not welcome. The Supreme Court has affirmed the Scouts’ right to bar homosexuals. But Vermont Congressman Peter Welch and 25 of his colleagues have written to the Boy Scouts on the Wirths’ behalf. The letter calls the policy “deeply troubling” and “damaging” to impressionable children. – Source - WCAX
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY APOLOGIZES TO GAYS AND LESBIANS
In a speech dominated by thoughts on the balance of rights within the Church of England and society, the Archbishop of Canterbury on Tuesday said he was “profoundly sorry” for the “carelessness” that may have given the impression to homosexual Anglicans that they were ignored or undervalued.
Dr. Rowan Williams said the decision by The Episcopal Church in 2003 to ordain a partnered homosexual bishop had had a “devastating” impact on the freedom of Anglicans elsewhere to proclaim the Gospel, while the freedom of Anglicans in Uganda to support anti-gay legislation had had a “serious impact on the credibility of the Gospel” in other parts of the Anglican Communion.
In an appeal for unity to a global church body that has been wracked by controversy over homosexuality, the Anglican leader said: “The challenges of our local and global Anglican crises have to do with how this shapes our councils and decision-making. It is not a simple plea for the sacrifice of the minority to the majority. But it does mean repeatedly asking how the liberty secured for me or for those like me will actively serve the sanctification of the rest.” – Source – The Christian Post
LAWMAKERS IN IOWA FAIL TO BAN SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Lawmakers have failed Monday in an effort to begin the process of amending the Iowa Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
Republicans tried procedural moves Tuesday morning to pull measures out of committees and force a vote, but they couldn’t get enough votes in either the House or the Senate.
“Today was merely our parliamentary shot at getting this brought up again. Which we did and we were again denied the opportunity – or Iowans were denied the opportunity to vote,” said Sen. Paul McKinley, Senate Minority Leader. Lawmakers have failed Monday in an effort to begin the process of amending the Iowa Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. – Source - KCCI-TV
