Settle in once again for GenQ news in 5! Somewhat more positive news in this one so you may even leae with a smile on your face! In this news in 5, another gay marriage ban gets repealled, McCain gets clear on his Gay adoption stance, tolerance is urged at World Youth Day proceedings, and Torchwood actor John Barrowman wants to adopt a child with his partner of 15 years.
GLBT
USA – 1913 ban on out-of-state gay couples marrying in Massachusetts repealled
The Massachusetts Senate has voted to repeal a 1913 law used to bar out-of-state gay couples from marrying in the state, with the House expected to vote this week. The law prohibits couples from obtaining marriage licenses if they couldn't legally wed in their home states.
After Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay marriages in 2004, then-Gov. Mitt Romney ordered town clerks to enforce the little-known law and deny licenses to out-of-state couples.
The repeal effort has the support of Gov. Deval Patrick, whose 18-year-old daughter announced last month she is a lesbian. If Massachusetts lifts its ban and couples from other states rush to get married here, it's unclear what weight those marriage certificates would carry once they return home. For more information, see OUTTAKE Online
US ELECTION - McCain gets clear on Gay Adoption stance
Following criticism from several gay rights groups for saying he opposed gay adoption, the McCain campaign (on behalf of Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain) issued a clarification on Tuesday saying that he believed the states should decide the issue, and that such adoptions should not be subject to a federal ban.
Mr. McCain, said in an interview with The New York Times published Sunday that he opposed allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. “I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption,” he said. When asked in the interview if he opposed gay adoptions even if the alternative was that the child remain in an orphanage, Mr. McCain — who, with his wife, Cindy, has an adopted daughter — said that he wanted to encourage adoption and make the process easier, but that adoptive parents should be mixed-sex, traditional couples.
On Tuesday his campaign clarified his remarks. “John McCain could have been clearer in the interview in stating that his position on gay adoption is that it is a state issue, just as he made it clear in the interview that marriage is a state issue,” Tucker Bounds, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. “He was not endorsing any federal legislation.”
AUSTRALIA - GLBT Christians urge tolerance
Members of Sydney's gay and lesbian community have urged tolerance and acceptance at a church service coinciding with the Pope's arrival for World Youth Day. About 100 people gathered to celebrate sexual diversity in the Christian faith at Sydney's Pitt St Uniting Church. Uniting Church Reverend Dorothy McRae-McMahon spoke to the congregation about those who had been turned away.
"They experienced hate or judgment, simply because they were not like others, or because they loved in different ways. "On this day as we claim our place, we place our feet on the pathway of faith."
peakers from different Christian denominations urged religious communities to fight ignorance, including Anglican parishioner David Reeder and Pentecostal minister and GenQ GLBT Unsung Hero of 2007, Anthony Venn-Brown.
"We should do all we can to educate and inform ourselves and others, Mr Venn-Brown said. It's up to gay Christians to live their faith boldly and honorably and its up to our heterosexual friends and supporters to not be silent."
AUSTRALIA – Australia’s first GLBT Village to be in Victoria
Australia’s first retirement village for gay, lesbian and transgender people is set to open in regional Victoria. Planned to feature 120 single-storey 2/3 bedroom units, “Linton Estate” will be built in Ballan, an hour’s drive from Melbourne’s CBD.
Attributes will include a tennis court, a bowling green, an open-air theatre and a multi-million dollar leisure centre which will house a swimming pool, spa, gymnasium, café, restaurant, piano room, business centre and a section dedicated to health and well-being. A mini-bus will service tenants, as well as round-the-clock emergency system and 24-hour security. It is estimate the project will cost up to $26 million. Construction is expected to begin in 2009.
ENTERTAINMENT
UK – Sir Ian McKellen used to receive death threats
Homosexual British actor Sir Ian McKellen has declared in an interview with BBC that he used to receive death threats due to his sexuality, and while these had fallen off in recent years, others were still being subjected to homophobia.
"There are deaths in public places on the grounds that the victim is gay," said McKellen.
"There is a violence of language which can be related to violence in action," added McKellen a founder member of gay rights group Stonewall.
An acclaimed Shakespearean actor who gained worldwide fame with film roles such as the wizard Gandalf in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, McKellen "outed" himself live on radio in 1988.
US - Gay Torchwood actor John Barrowman wants to adopt
Scots-born actor and performer John Barrowman has revealed that he and his partner are ready to settle down and bring up a family of their own. The gay Dr Who star who got his own spin-off series Torchwood, where he plays Captain Jack Harkness, has been openly gay for years and is currently building a Tardis-like new home with partner architect Scott Gill. And the pair, who cemented their 15-year relationship with a civil ceremony in 2006, are planning to fill the sprawling seaside home with a brood of their own.
“I have a partner, I have a dog, I have a beautiful home. You can have that and be gay.'
Barrowman doesn’t however label Scott his husband or refer to their union as a 'marriage'. He added: 'I don't call it a marriage for my own reasons - and I would suggest to gay men and women that they don't call it a marriage, because it connotes religious organisations that don't like them, and why do we want to take that on board?'
AUSTRALIA – Rove shows no love for Kyle Sandilands
ROVE McManus has always supported the Big Brother concept, but there have never been any false indications of a good relationship between him and series host Kyle Sandilands. Having the opportunity to get one up on his loudmouth opponents, it was no surprise that McManus took advantage of this during his show on Sunday Night.
While Channel 10 had organised to have news of the Big Brother axing to break Monday morning, McManus couldn't resist the chance to reveal the TV show which marked Sandilands' first foray into hosting had been dropped for good. "It wasn't part of Ten's plan for Rove to make the announcement but what could they do?" an industry source said.
Tags:
christianity,
gay adoption,
gay marriage,
Ian McKellan,
john barrowman,
Kyle & Jackie O,
News in 5 Minutes,
Rove McManus
Comments
1 comment(s) on this page. Add your own comment below.
The McCain campaign's calling the new, but not better, statement a "clarification" ignores the fact that there was nothing unclear in what he said, and then repeated.
He said he was "flatly" against gay adoption and, indeed, nothing in the clarification says he would be all right with gay adoption, even of abandoned children who no one else wants. He does not say that gays could then adopt those children, he just says "caring parental figures" would be better than the "alternative," i.e., the streets, orphanages, or a never-ending series of foster homes. When one adopts, one does not become a "caring parental figure," one becomes, by law, a "parent." His clarification was very carefully written to change nothing about his very clear comments in the interview.
The "clarification" further drives home his belief that gays are second-class citizens, i.e., that gays should be allowed to be "caring parental figures" of "abandoned" children only after it is determined that no straight couple can be found to adopt the child. Such children are typically older, have special needs, are HIV positive, or are minorities (indeed, many of whom have been adopted by straight and gay singles and couples who step forward to take on these substantial parenting burdens). The bare essence of his "clarified" position is that gay people are not good enough to adopt from the same pool of children as straight people. That is the absolute best spin one could put on the "clarification", because in actuality no where does it state that gays could "adopt" or that gays could be the "caring parental figures." Based on the clarification, if McCain were asked by a reporter whether gays should be allowed to adopt children who no one else wanted, he could say, "no, and I've never said otherwise" because he hasn't.
His wiggle that adoption, like marriage, is a state issue and that he "was not endorsing any Federal legislation" is disingenuous given his support of DOMA ("Federal legislation"), and his subsequent opposition to a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, but only so long as the Supreme Court does not rule DOMA unconstitutional, as it must certainly be, and, in his words, “then, and only then, would the PROBLEM justify Congress making the momentous decision” to amend the Constitution. (My emphasis)
He also says that he would appoint judges who will uphold DOMA which, he believes, takes care of the "PROBLEM" he must consider us to be.
Add a Comment
Please be civil.