Monthly Archives: July 2015
I Am a Camera: Images of LGBT Communities
I Am a Camera: Images of LGBT Communities
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Christopher Harrity
www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/art/photography/2015/07/09/i-am-camera-images-lgbt-communities
Same-Sex Couple Denied Marriage License In Kentucky Because Of Clerk's Religious Beliefs
Same-Sex Couple Denied Marriage License In Kentucky Because Of Clerk's Religious Beliefs
On June 26, the Supreme Court made the landmark decision to legalize gay marriage nationwide. At the time, the court said it was granting same-sex couples “equal dignity in the eyes of the law.”
But as this recent video of two men being denied a marriage license in Kentucky shows, not all couples are being granted this right.
David Moore and his fiancé have been together for 17 years, and have lived in Rowan County, Kentucky for 10. “We feel it’s our right as citizens, according to the Supreme Court and according to the governor of Kentucky, that we should be able to get married,” said the couple in a video uploaded to YouTube Tuesday.
The video, which has been watched more than a million times to date, shows the couple going to the Rowan County clerk’s office in the hopes of acquiring a marriage license. They, however, are told by an employee behind a counter that because of a “choice” made by Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, they would not be able to get a license there.
“You can go to any other county and get your marriage license, we’re just not doing it at this time,” she said to the couple, as a police officer looked closely on.
Davis has said that her Christian beliefs prevent her from abiding by the Supreme Court ruling. The clerk told The Associated Press that she will no longer be issuing marriage licenses to couples — gay or straight.
“It’s a deep-rooted conviction; my conscience won’t allow me to do that,” she said. “It goes against everything I hold dear, everything sacred in my life.”
Davis herself appears at the end of the video, which was filmed Monday. As a screenshot from the clip shows, the clerk insisted that the camera be switched off — a demand that Moore (pictured below) complied with.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky has filed a lawsuit against Davis on behalf of two homosexual and two heterosexual couples who were denied marriage licenses.
“Ms. Davis has the absolute right to believe whatever she wants about God, faith, and religion, but as a government official who swore an oath to uphold the law, she cannot pick and choose who she is going to serve, or which duties her office will perform based on her religious beliefs,” ACLU attorney Laura Landenwich said.
Davis is among a small number of clerks and judges across the South who have refused to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“Officials have … warned that the defiant clerks could be risking criminal charges,” the AP writes. “Warren County Attorney Ann Milliken, president of the Kentucky County Attorneys Association, said clerks could be charged with official misconduct, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.”
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Munich introduces gay traffic lights for Pride
Munich introduces gay traffic lights for Pride
Munich has introduced same-sex couples on their traffic lights for Pride this weekend.
The new lights at pedestrian crossings show gay, lesbian and straight pairings waiting or walking hand-in-hand.
They were inspired by the Vienna traffic lights, which introduced them during this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
Harold Klink, of German Engineering News, was one of many to praise the new lights.
‘I like the gay traffic lights in Munich!’ he said, and referencing the curved backs: ‘I think the boys should urgently go to the physio though!’
Green party politicians launched the measure, according to The Local, overcoming resistance from the Christian Social Union group.
A total of around €10,000 ($11,000) was spent on the project.
Unlike Vienna, who have decided to keep them for the entire summer, the Munich ones are expected to be removed next week.
Hamburg is also planning to copy the gay traffic lights in the near future for their own LGBTI festivals.
The post Munich introduces gay traffic lights for Pride appeared first on Gay Star News.
Joe Morgan
www.gaystarnews.com/article/munich-introduces-gay-traffic-lights-for-pride/
Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Implies Gay Parents Are Pedophiles
Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Implies Gay Parents Are Pedophiles
Angela Marie Costanza and her wife, Chastity Shanelle Brewer, were legally married in California. They were in the process of suing to have their marriage recognized in their home state of Louisiana and for second-parent adoption when the U.S. Supreme Court made marriage equality a constitutional right.
Yesterday, the Louisiana Supreme Court dismissed their case, ruling that SCOTUS’ ruling “solved the matter.”
But not all the justices agreed.
In a two paragraph dissent, Justice Jefferson D. Hughes III, who was elected to the Louisiana Supreme Court in 2012, began by saying he couldn’t resist sharing his “honest convictions” over such an important matter. (What is the purpose of getting up on one’s soapbox if not to share their “honest convictions,” after all?) Then he got right to the point.
Related: Bobby Jindal’s Twitter Q&A Goes Horribly And Hilariously Wrong
He didn’t bother providing any legal arguments to support his position that the state should not be forced to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage. “Marriage is not only for the parties,” he wrote. “Its purpose is to provide children with a safe and stable environment in which to grow.”
“This case involves an adoption,” he continued. “The most troubling prospect of same sex marriage is the adoption by same sex partners of a young child of the same sex.”
Why is this so “troubling”? Hughes stops just short of saying, but the implication is clear. That old gays-as-pedophiles slander. But not all of Hughes’ colleagues are complete idiots.
Justice Greg Guidry responded to Hughes’ allegations by pointing out: “[t]he dissenting opinion appears to be unaware of the facts of the case before us, which involves the intra-family adoption of a boy by the female spouse of the boy’s biological mother.”
Related: The Craziest Damn Shiz Conservatives Have Said About Gay People
Graham Gremore
Gay Pride, Paris (France)
29 Fire Island DOs and DON'Ts
29 Fire Island DOs and DON'Ts
Richard William Allen
www.advocate.com/travel/2015/07/09/29-fire-island-dos-and-donts
Watch Drag Race queens give impromptu dance performance at Manchester airport
Watch Drag Race queens give impromptu dance performance at Manchester airport
The Haus of Edwards have given an impromptu dance performance at a Manchester airport.
Alyssa Edwards, Shangela and Laganja Estranja werked it in the English city on the way to perform in Belfast.
From what we can tell, this was filmed back in March but it has only emerged now on social media.
Performing to Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj’s Bang Bang, they flick, they move, and there’s even a death drop from the sickening Laganja.
The post Watch Drag Race queens give impromptu dance performance at Manchester airport appeared first on Gay Star News.
Joe Morgan
Excerpt: Is This Really What Being a Christian Is About?
Excerpt: Is This Really What Being a Christian Is About?
Choreographer and coordinator George Scott Chandler shares his journey growing up gay in a Southern Baptist community in this excerpt from his new memoir, FWD March: Living in a World of Music and Motion.
George Scott Chandler
www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/books/2015/07/09/excerpt-really-what-being-christian-about
Vatican Radio site posts, then removes photo of lesbian kiss
Vatican Radio site posts, then removes photo of lesbian kiss
The German version the Vatican Radio website posted, then removed a photo of two women kissing – only to re-upload the same image and delete it again.
The image accompanied an article titled Church’s Sexual Morality is in Motion, which was published on . It was then deleted on Saturday after readers called attention to the photo, only to be re-uploaded on Monday. It has since been removed again.
Veteran Vatican reporter Edward Pentin first spotted the picture and tweeted that Vatican Radio had opted for a ‘remarkable choice of photo’ and noted the ‘uncritical’ content of the article.
The article quotes Martin Lintner, president of the European Society for Catholic Theology, who believes sexuality will be ‘increasingly perceived in its personal and holistic dimension,’ rather than the traditional procreative one.
He added that the Synod on the Family evidenced a ‘rethinking’ of the Church’s attutide toward homosexuality.
The German site reflects the views of the German-speaking hierarchy, which is the most liberal on sexual morality.
The post Vatican Radio site posts, then removes photo of lesbian kiss appeared first on Gay Star News.
Darren Wee
www.gaystarnews.com/article/vatican-radio-site-posts-then-removes-photo-of-lesbian-kiss/
