Tuesday, February 04, 2014 6:07:12 AM
Vatican: Nearly 400 priests defrocked in two years
Daniel Burke
January 17th, 2014 04:29 PM ET
(CNN) The Vatican acknowledged on Friday that close to 400 priests left the priesthood in 2011 and 2012 because of accusations that they had sexually abused children.
That acknowledgment followed a report by the Associated Press [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/pope-benedict-defrock-priests_n_4618932.html ] that nearly 400 priests had been defrocked during those two years. The Vatican initially disputed that report.
Bishop Charles Scicluna, formerly the Vatican's top prosecutor of sexually abusive clergy, said 384 priests left the priesthood – either voluntarily or not - in 2011 and 2012, the last two years of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy.
In 2011, 125 priests were dismissed from ministry by the Vatican because of accusations they had sexually abused children, Scicluna told CNN on Friday, citing the "Activity of the Holy See," a kind of Vatican yearbook. The same year, 135 priests were "dispensed," meaning they voluntarily resigned, Scicluna said.
In 2012, 57 priests were removed from the priesthood and 67 resigned, Scicluna said. Scicluna, who is now an auxiliary bishop in Malta, was the Vatican's top prosecutor of sexually abusive clergy for a decade.
Scicluna said he did not know why the number of defrocked priests spiked in 2011. "2011 was exceptionally high for dismissals," he said. "We don't really know why."
The AP reported on Friday that nearly 400 priests had been defrocked in 2011 and 2012, citing a document the Vatican prepared to defend its record on sexual abuse before a United Nations committee this week in Geneva.
The Vatican had rebutted that report, a denial previously reported by CNN. However, later on Friday, Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi told CNN the AP report was correct.
© 2014 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/17/vatican-rebuts-report-on-defrocked-priests/ [with comments]
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U.N. Panel Questions Vatican on Handling of Clergy Sexual Abuse
Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican's representative to the United Nations, left, spoke to Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, the Vatican's former chief sex crimes prosecutor, in Geneva on Thursday.
Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE and LAURIE GOODSTEIN
JAN. 16, 2014
GENEVA — The Vatican faced a barrage of pointed questions from a United Nations panel on Thursday about how it had handled decades of reports of clergy sexual abuse, the first such prolonged interrogation by an international body and a moment long awaited by abuse victims in many countries.
Vatican representatives insisted that abuse cases were not primarily the responsibility of the Vatican, but of local dioceses and law enforcement officials with the authority to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators. But in their remarks, the Vatican officials said that the church could and should do better to prevent these crimes.
Bishop Charles J. Scicluna, who was the Vatican’s chief prosecutor of sexual abuse until 2012, told the panel: “The Holy See gets it. Let’s not say too late or not, but there are certain things that need to be done differently.”
The hearing in Geneva happened on the same day that Pope Francis celebrated morning Mass alongside an American cardinal who was widely disgraced last year in the abuse scandal. At the Mass, Francis delivered a homily about scandal in the church, never mentioning sexual abuse, but speaking of “those failings of priests, bishops, laity.”
“But are we ashamed?” Francis said, according to a Vatican Radio transcript [ http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/01/16/pope_francis:_scandals_happen_when_there_is_no_true_relationship_with/en1-764583 ]. “So many scandals that I do not want to mention individually, but all of us know.”
The United Nations committee in Geneva was looking into the Vatican’s failure to adhere to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child [ http://www.unicef.org/crc/ ], which calls on signers to protect children from harm, including sexual and physical abuse. The committee will issue final observations and recommendations on Feb. 5, but it has no authority to issue sanctions, and its recommendations are nonbinding.
The Center for Constitutional Rights, based in New York and representing victims of abuse, submitted reams of documents and victims’ testimony as evidence that the Vatican had allowed abusers to remain in ministry and shuttled them to different locations without informing law enforcement officials or local parishes.
The committee questioned the Vatican officials about their ambassador to the Dominican Republic, who is being investigated by Dominican prosecutors about accusations that he sexually abused children. The ambassador, Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, was recalled to the Vatican in August, and last week the Vatican denied a request to extradite him to the Dominican Republic.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, told the panel that the ambassador’s case would be handled by a Vatican tribunal because he is a citizen of the Vatican, and that the case would get “the severity it deserves.”
Sara de Jesús Oviedo Fierro, the United Nations committee’s vice president, asked the Vatican representatives why, if the church had a policy of “zero tolerance” of abusers, there were “efforts to cover up and obscure these types of cases?”
Bishop Scicluna said: “It is not the policy of the Holy See to encourage cover-ups. This is against the truth.”
The panel questioned Bishop Scicluna persistently about why the Holy See does not make it mandatory for local dioceses to report abuse to civil authorities. Many countries do not require such reporting. “Our guidelines have always said the domestic law of the country needs to be followed,” he said.
Barbara Blaine, the president of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, in Geneva for the hearing, said in a telephone news conference during a break that survivors were grateful to the United Nations committee. “Even if one child is kept safe, all of this will be worth it,” she said. But at the end of the day she said it was “insulting and disingenuous” for Vatican officials to say local courts were responsible for bringing about justice “when it’s church officials who are obstructing justice.”
In Rome, meanwhile, Francis celebrated morning Mass and held a private audience with Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the former archbishop of Los Angeles, who was publicly shamed last year after documents revealed he had a history of protecting priests [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/us/catholics-gather-in-california-haunted-by-cardinals-scandal.html ] accused of sexual abuse.
Cardinal Mahony was relieved of his public duties early last year by his successor after the court-ordered release of documents chronicling decades of mishandling people accused of being sexual predators in the Los Angeles archdiocese.
On Wednesday, Cardinal Mahony took to Twitter and his blog to broadcast his delight about his time with the pope. The cardinal wrote that most of their private conversation was about the plight of immigrants and refugees, and what the church could do to help them. But he noted that Francis’ homily during the Mass was about scandal.
Francis preached, “Scandals in the church happen because there is no living relationship with God and his word.”
Nick Cumming-Bruce reported from Geneva, and Laurie Goodstein from New York.
© 2014 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/world/europe/un-sex-abuse-panel-questions-vatican-officials.html
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No Charges in Archdiocese's Handling of Abuse Case
Curtis Wehmeyer mug shot
[ http://www.kare11.com/story/news/crime/2014/01/29/no-charges-filed-in-alleged-archdiocese-abuse-coverup/5023821/ ]
By AMY FORLITI
ST. PAUL, Minn. January 29, 2014 (AP)
Minnesota prosecutors said Wednesday they would not charge members of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis over the way they handled allegations of sexual abuse by a priest, saying there was not enough evidence to prove anyone — including another priest who learned during a confession of the molestation — violated the law.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said his office can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone failed to immediately report allegations of abuse by the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for molesting two brothers.
But, Choi said, the overall investigation into allegations of clergy sexual misconduct, and the archdiocese's response, is far from over.
"We will only allow facts to lead the way, and we will pursue justice without fear or favor while doing our best to leave no stone unturned," Choi said, later adding: "I continue to be troubled by some of the church's reporting practices."
In a separate case, Washington County prosecutors said Wednesday they would not charge another archdiocesan priest, the Rev. Jonathan Shelley, who had been accused of possessing child pornography. Prosecutors said authorities concluded none of the images on Shelley's old computer were illegal.
In a statement Wednesday, the archdiocese said it is grateful for the investigations, and it continues to cooperate with authorities. The archdiocese also said it teaches employees and volunteers that any suspected abuse should be reported to law enforcement for investigation.
The Wehmeyer and Shelley cases were among several that raised questions about the way the archdiocese handled abuse cases after a church insider went public with her concerns last year.
Internal documents showed church leaders knew Wehmeyer had issues with sexual misconduct, including at least two solicitations of men for sex, before he was promoted to lead The Church of the Blessed Sacrament in 2009.
According to the criminal charges, Wehmeyer went on to molest two brothers in 2010. The allegations were brought to church officials in 2012, and Wehmeyer was charged and pleaded guilty.
Choi said he asked St. Paul police to investigate after questions were raised about when the Wehmeyer case was reported to authorities.
Under the law, clergy would be required to report suspected sexual abuse to authorities within 24 hours. However, if the abuse is revealed during confession or when someone is seeking spiritual advice, the information is exempt.
In a document released Wednesday, prosecutors said the mother of the two victims went to a priest on two occasions, both during confession, about possible abuse by Wehmeyer. Police were notified after the mother went to a church victim's advocate on June 19 or June 20.
The prosecutors' decision to decline charges angered Jeff Anderson, an attorney for many church abuse victims. Anderson said the case should be reopened because a deacon and a top archdiocesan official warned Wehmeyer of his impending arrest, giving him a chance to destroy evidence.
"This is a very disturbing day," Anderson said.
But Choi said church officials' actions didn't impede the criminal prosecution of Wehmeyer, and the case is considered complete unless new information comes forward.
As the scandal around the archdiocese grew last fall, Archbishop John Nienstedt appointed a task force to examine church policies on abuse allegations, and he ordered a review of all priest files. He has also apologized to the archdiocese's more than 800,000 Catholics.
Nienstedt himself has been accused of improperly touching a boy while posing for a photo during a confirmation ceremony, a claim he vehemently denies. Nienstedt has removed himself from public ministry while the case is being investigated.
Despite those moves, St. Paul police earlier complained that church officials were not forthcoming with information. Police Chief Thomas Smith said Wednesday cooperation has improved, but he expects the archdiocese to be transparent.
"Have we had more access? Yes we have," Smith said. "Can more be done? Yes it can."
In the Washington County case, head prosecutor Pete Orput said investigators concluded there was no evidence of child pornography on computer files that once belonged to Shelley. The case against him — which was reopened last year after new information was brought to police — is considered closed.
Shelley's attorney, Paul Engh, said his client is relieved.
"Father Shelley is pleased that the matter has ended," Engh said. "He looks forward to a life now free of unfair suspicion."
Shelley, who has been on leave, would like to return to active ministry, Engh said, adding he didn't know when or if that would happen.
Prosecutors, police and the archdiocese encouraged other victims of clergy sexual abuse to come forward. Choi extended that request to victims who have already settled lawsuits against the archdiocese, no matter how long ago, saying the decision in the Wehmeyer case is just the beginning.
"There will be more decisions to come as this investigation unfolds," Choi said
© 2014 Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/charges-minn-church-leaders-abuse-case-22282660 [ http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/charges-minn-church-leaders-abuse-case-22282660?singlePage=true ] [with comments]
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Catholic Diocese Files for Bankruptcy Protection
By MATT VOLZ
January 31, 2014
HELENA, Mont. (AP) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena filed for bankruptcy protection Friday as part of a proposed $15 million settlement for hundreds of victims who say clergy members sexually abused them over decades while the church covered it up.
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan comes after confidential mediation sessions with the plaintiffs' attorneys and insurers, resulting in a proposed deal to resolve the abuse claims, diocese officials said.
Bishop George Leo Thomas expressed "his profound sorrow" and apologized to the victims in a news conference.
"I know the pain is real, the pain is in the present tense, and in the name of the church, I want to say I'm sorry and we're sorry as a church," Thomas said.
The $15 million "will at least be a beginning point for people who are seeking resolution in their lives and in their hearts," he added.
In addition to the money, the diocese must publicly apologize, publish the names of clergy members who have been credibly accused of abuse, offer to meet with abuse survivors, provide victim counseling and reinforce its policies and procedures to prevent abuse, plaintiffs' attorneys said.
The diocese already has set up abuse-prevention programs, including worker screenings, a claims-review board and a hotline to report abuse.
The settlement details are being worked out, but the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Montana would be responsible for approving and supervising the disbursement of $15 million to compensate the 362 victims identified in the two lawsuits.
In addition, at least $2.5 million will be set aside for victims who come forward later, according to the diocese.
The church anticipates paying that $2.5 million, with the rest paid by insurers.
The victims and creditors will have the chance to vote on the proposed settlement, diocese officials said.
Church officials are planning to pay the diocese's share of the settlement with cash, though they may have to sell some property in the future, Thomas said.
The diocese was in a precarious financial position before the lawsuits were filed, and a reorganization was already likely, he said.
Court documents filed Friday show the diocese has estimated assets between $1 million and $10 million, and estimated liabilities between $10 million and $50 million.
Molly Howard, an attorney for the plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits, said she believes the bankruptcy process will resolve the case more quickly than years of litigation and trials with uncertain outcomes.
"Given the age and ill health of many of the victims, this is in their best interest," Howard said.
The Helena diocese is the 11th in the nation to seek bankruptcy protection in the face of sex-abuse claims.
David Clohessy, the executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, criticized the diocese for seeking bankruptcy protection, saying it will allow church officials to keep records closed that might have come out in a trial.
He also said the settlement falls short because it does not publicly name the church officials who shielded and protected predator clergy members.
"Those individuals have to be exposed and punished," Clohessy said.
Thomas said in response that church officials will comb their records to see if there were "intentional failures of leadership." But the records from the time of the abuse are incomplete, he said.
The two lawsuits filed in 2011 claim clergy members groomed and then abused the children from the 1940s to the 1970s. They claim the diocese shielded the offenders and knew or should have known the threat they posed to children.
The plaintiffs, the diocese and the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province, another defendant, began mediation talks in 2012, but the talks faltered with legal challenges by the church's insurers over the claims they are obligated to cover.
A court hearing was scheduled for Friday ahead of the first civil trials, which were to begin in March. Howard said she expects the court proceedings will be suspended.
The diocese's territory covers all or part of 23 counties in western Montana and employs about 200 people in its parishes, schools and social-service programs. It was created in 1884, five years before Montana became a state, and covered the entire state until the Diocese of Great Falls was formed in 1904, according to the Helena diocese's website.
The Diocese of Great Falls-Billings now covers the eastern half of Montana.
Most clergy members who were accused in the lawsuits have died, and none remains in active ministry, diocese officials said.
In one of the lawsuits, the plaintiffs said they were repeatedly raped, fondled or forced to perform sex acts while at school, on the playground, on camping trips or at the victims' homes.
The second lawsuit, filed a week after the first in 2011, includes 95 of the 362 plaintiffs and contains similar allegations against priests, but also alleged that nuns at the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius abused dozens of Native American children.
The Ursulines are not part of the proposed settlement, the diocese said.
Blaine Tamaki, the plaintiffs' attorney in that lawsuit, said the case against the Ursulines will proceed to its July date.
Tom Johnson, an attorney for the Ursulines, acknowledged the sides were still far apart in negotiations, but that the order intends to either settle or file for bankruptcy on its own.
© 2014 Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/catholic-diocese-files-bankruptcy-protection-22313269 [ http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/catholic-diocese-files-bankruptcy-protection-22313269?singlePage=true ] [with comments]
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Statement from the diocese
January 31, 2014
The Diocese of Helena released the following statement this morning, and will hold a press conference this afternoon, Jan. 31, in Helena:
The Diocese of Helena released the following statement this morning, and will hold a press conference this afternoon, Jan. 31, in Helena:
The Diocese of Helena has taken a major step toward bringing resolution to 362 claims of abuse of minors by diocesan priests, religious community priests, women religious and lay workers who have served in the diocese, primarily between 30 and 60 years ago.
On Friday, January 31, 2014, the Diocese will be filing a chapter 11 reorganization case before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Montana to complete pre-bankruptcy mediated negotiations with known abuse survivors and the Diocese’s liability insurance carriers.
The Diocese chose a pastoral mode and entered into a confidential mediation process. The mediation resulted in the general parameters of proposed settlements with the victims and the insurance carriers. The details of written agreements are still being worked on by the parties. Under the supervision and ultimate approval of the Bankruptcy Court, $15 million would be available to compensate the currently identified victims with additional settlement funds for other and unknown victims. The process of obtaining Bankruptcy Court approval included the opportunity for victims and creditors to vote on the proposed settlement. The Diocese expects that its reorganization will be expedited by the pre-bankruptcy negotiations with all of the affected parties.
“On behalf of the entire Diocese of Helena, I express my profound sorrow and sincere apologies to anyone who was abused by a priest, a sister, or a lay Church worker,” said Helena Bishop George Leo Thomas. “No child should experience harm from anyone who serves in the Church.”
The diocese has abuse prevention programs in place, including screening and training for employees, volunteers, priests and seminarians. The diocese has a board to review claims of abuse, whose members include a mother, a pastor, a deputy prosecutor, a retired law enforcement officer, social workers, and a counselor. Anyone wishing to report sexual abuse of a minor may contact the Victim’s Advocate for the diocese at 406-459-0513.
Bishop Thomas indicated: “I want to assure you that none of those who have been credibly accused remain active in ministry at this time. In fact, the majority of those accused have died.” The bishop also noted that the Diocese has taken responsibility in this matter for claims involving members of religious communities who have served here. Efforts to include the Ursuline Sisters in the proposed settlements were inconclusive and they are not participating in the proposed resolution of this litigation.
The majority of the proposed settlement for known and unknown victims will be funded by diocesan insurance carriers. It is anticipated that the diocese will need to provide at least $2.5 million to fund claims and the costs associated with the Court proceedings. Additionally, the diocese has been experiencing a tenuous financial condition which existed prior to, and is not related to the litigation. This condition has resulted in reduction in staff and services provided by the diocese as well as curtailing many parish building projects.
Bishop Thomas indicated: “While we may be a poorer Church, we remain unwaveringly committed to promoting the Good News of Jesus Christ. Once the reorganization proceedings conclude, we will be able to plan confidently for future ministry for the people of the Church of the Diocese of Helena.”
Copyright 2014 Montana Standard
http://mtstandard.com/click-here-to-read-a-statement-from-the-diocese/article_3164fc94-8aa0-11e3-8080-001a4bcf887a.html
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Chicago archdiocese hid decades of child sex abuse
January 21, 2014
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/sex-abuse-files-on-30-chicago-priests-going-public/2014/01/21/2fe83fe8-8262-11e3-a273-6ffd9cf9f4ba_story.html [with comments]
http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/21/4765410/sex-abuse-files-on-30-chicago.html [with comments]
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140121/NATION/301210066/Chicago-archdiocese-hid-decades-child-sex-abuse-documents-show [with comment]
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Key dates in Chicago archdiocese's sex abuse cases
January 21, 2014
http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/21/4765806/key-dates-in-chicago-archdioceses.html [no comments yet]
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In Files, a History of Sexual Abuse by Priests in Chicago Archdiocese
JAN. 21, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/us/chicago-archdiocese-records-of-abuse-complaints.html
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Papers detail decades of sex abuse by priests
Secret files hid archdiocese's mishandling of scores of cases
January 21, 2014
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-priest-abuse-20140121,0,6326053.story [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Chicago Archdiocesan Files Reveal Extent of Sex Abuse Cover-Up
Jan 22, 2014
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/catholic-church-chicago-priest-abuse-files-241175371.html [with embedded video reports, and comments]
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Archdiocese of Chicago Statement Re: the Jeff Anderson Document Release Relating to 30 Archdiocesan Priests Accused of Abusing Minors
21 Jan 2014 10:56
CHICAGO—(ENEWSPF)—January 21, 2014. The documents made public by Jeffrey Anderson relate to 30 Archdiocesan priests accused of abusing minors at various times during the last half century. All of the documents relate to cases that date back many years, in some cases, decades. Ninety-five percent of these cases occurred prior to 1988. Today no priest with even one substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor serves in ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The Archdiocese acknowledges that its leaders made some decisions decades ago that are now difficult to justify. They made those decisions in accordance with the prevailing knowledge at the time. In the past 40 years, society has evolved in dealing with matters related to abuse. Our understanding of and response to domestic violence, sexual harassment, date rape, and clerical sexual abuse have undergone significant change and so has the Archdiocese of Chicago. While we complied with the reporting laws in place at the time, the Church and its leaders have acknowledged repeatedly that they wished they had done more and done it sooner, but now are working hard to regain trust, to reach out to victims and their families, and to make certain that all children and youth are protected.
We realize the information included in these documents is upsetting. It is painful to read. It is not the Church we know or the Church we want to be. The Archdiocese sincerely apologizes for the hurt and suffering of the victims and their families as a result of this abuse. Our hope is through this release of documents and the work we are doing through our Office for the Protection of Children and Youth we can help further promote healing among all those affected by these crimes.
The Archdiocese of Chicago is in full compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, adopted by the U.S. Bishops in Dallas in June 2002. We refer all reports of sexual abuse immediately to civil authorities. The Archdiocese’s independent Review Board examines the findings of all investigations and makes recommendations to the archbishop regarding fitness for ministry and safety of children.
The Archdiocese of Chicago is concerned first and foremost with the healing of abuse victims and has maintained a victim assistance ministry for more than 25 years. In addition, the Archdiocesan Office for the Protection of Children and Youth, charged with assisting victims and their families and preventing abuse, has trained and processed background checks on more than 160,000 priests, deacons, religious, lay employees and volunteers; conducted more than 3,000 training sessions; and trained more than 200,000 children to protect themselves from sexual predators. For more information about the Office for the Protection of Children and Youth, please visit http://www.protectandhealchicago.org .
The abuse of any child is a crime and a sin. The Archdiocese encourages anyone who has been sexually abused by a priest, deacon, religious or lay employee, to come forward. Complete information about reporting sexual abuse can be found on the Archdiocesan website at http://www.archchicago.org/departments/protection/protection.shtm .
Source: http://www.archchicago.org
http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/latest-local/49488-archdiocese-of-chicago-statement-re-the-jeff-anderson-document-release-relating-to-30-archdiocesan-priests-accused-of-abusing-minors.html
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'Gut-Wrenching' Chicago Clergy Abuse Documents Go Online
January 21, 2014
http://krwg.org/post/gut-wrenching-chicago-clergy-abuse-documents-go-online [no comments yet]
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Archdiocese of Chicago Documents
http://www.andersonadvocates.com/Archdiocese-of-Chicago-Documents.aspx , via http://www.andersonadvocates.com/default.aspx
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The Chicago Archive
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/docs/chicago/files.htm , via http://bishopaccountability.org/
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Pope Francis: Internet Is 'Gift From God' For Dialogue
01/23/14
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/pope-francis-internet-_n_4650198.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Jesse Ryan Loskarn, former Lamar Alexander aide, dead in suicide
By Ed O'Keefe
January 24 at 12:34 pm - Updated 1:34 p.m.
Jesse Ryan Loskarn, a former aide to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) who faced charges of possessing and distributing child pornography, hanged himself and died Thursday in a Maryland home, his family and police officials said Friday.
Loskarn was found dead around noon Thursday in the basement of his parents' house in Sykesville, Md., according to the Carroll County Sheriff's Department. Loskarn died after hanging himself, according to Bruce Goldfarb, a spokesman with Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Maryland.
Known as a fast-rising GOP operative, the 35-year old began his career working for House lawmakers, moved next to the Senate Republican messaging shop and finally served as chief of staff to Alexander.
As with many longtime congressional staffers who ascend to top jobs in the Senate, Loskarn began his career as an aide to former Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and the House Rules Committee. In 2007, he became a spokesman for the Senate Republican Conference – the messaging shop for Republican senators. Colleagues in both parties and the reporters he worked with considered him a kind and deft communications staffer with easy access to top aides and senators.
He became staff director of the Republican Conference in 2009 when Alexander assumed control of the office. Alexander later asked Loskarn to run his personal office after the senator stepped down from his leadership role.
But Loskarn's rapid rise ended suddenly last month when he was arrested at his home [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/12/11/authorities-investigating-alexanders-chief-of-staff-on-child-pornography-allegations/ ] and arraigned on federal child pornography charges. Police used a battering ram to gain entry into his home, where, they said, they recovered a hard drive from the roof that contained digital videos of child pornography. According to a criminal complaint [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/child-porn-videos-found-on-computer-hard-drive-of-senators-chief-of-staff-court-papers/2013/12/12/33db4ada-635b-11e3-91b3-f2bb96304e34_story.html ], Loskarn purchased several videos between November 2010 and March 2011 from a movie production company that was under investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Toronto Police Service.
A judge later released Loskarn to his parents in Sykesville, and ordered him not to access the Internet while awaiting a future court date. A grand jury indictment of Loskarn was originally scheduled to be released this month, but a judge approved a 30-day delay after prosecutors said it would take more time to compile evidence because of the holiday season.
In a statement Friday, his parents Chuck and Gay Loskarn said, “We loved our son very much, and we’re devastated by his death. Please respect our privacy at this difficult time and let us grieve in peace. Pray for him, his family and friends.”
News of Loskarn's arrest had stunned the close-knit Capitol Hill community and was revealed only after Alexander announced it in a statement. That day the senator quickly "removed" Loskarn from his duties and fired him after the arrest.
On Friday, Alexander said in a statement that “For everyone involved, this is a sad and tragic story from beginning to end."
© 2014 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/01/24/jesse-ryan-loskarn-former-lamar-alexander-aide-found-dead-in-apparent-suicide/ [with embedded video report]
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Former U.S. Senate aide facing child porn charges found dead: police
Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:31pm EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former top U.S. Senate aide awaiting trial on child pornography charges was found dead after what may have been a suicide, a Maryland sheriff's department said on Friday.
The body of Jesse Loskarn, 35, a former chief of staff to Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, was discovered in the basement of his family's home in Sykesville, Maryland, on Thursday, the Carroll County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. A preliminary investigation indicates he may have taken his own life, the statement said.
Loskarn was arrested last month by U.S. postal agents on suspicion of possessing and attempting to distribute child pornography.
Alexander, who is seeking a third term this year, fired Loskarn following his arrest.
"For everyone involved, this is a sad and tragic story from beginning to end," Alexander said in a statement.
A judge released Loskarn last month into the custody of his parents, who live in Sykesville, and ordered him to have no access to the Internet while under house arrest.
A criminal complaint said a hard drive seized at Loskarn's home in Washington, D.C., contained footage of a prepubescent girl being molested, along with hundreds of videos of underage boys engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
The arrest stemmed from an investigation launched in 2010 by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Toronto police into a movie production company that made films featuring naked young boys, according to the criminal complaint. One of the company's customers was Loskarn, the complaint said.
Loskarn had faced a total maximum of 30 years in prison for the two charges.
(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Chris Reese and Alden Bentley)
Copyright 2014 Thomson Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/24/us-usa-congress-alexander-idUSBREA0N1DX20140124 [with comments]
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Senate Aide Arrested On Child Porn Charges Says He Was Abused In Suicide Note
A suicide note written by Jesse Ryan Loskarn, a former Senate aide, was published online late Monday night. Loskarn was arrested on federal child porn charges in December.
01/28/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/28/jesse-ryan-loskarn-suicide-note_n_4680613.html [with comments; Loskarn's note at http://www.jesseryanloskarnslastmessage.com/333880300 ]
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Gay Marriages Confront Catholic School Rules
Students at a Catholic school near Seattle protested a vice principal’s ouster after he wed a man.
David Ryder/Reuters
By MICHAEL PAULSON
JAN. 22, 2014
SAMMAMISH, Wash. — Eastside Catholic [ http://www.eastsidecatholic.org/aboutec ] prides itself on teaching acceptance. At the end of Crusader Way, by the school’s entrance, banners hang celebrating “relationships” and exhorting passers-by to “remember to take care of each other.” Students use a sign-language gesture to remind one another of the school’s emphasis on unconditional love.
But now the school is unexpectedly grappling with how it defines both love and acceptance. Last month, a well-regarded vice principal was forced to leave his job as soon as administrators became aware that he had married a man; in the weeks since, the suburban Seattle school has been roiled, first by protests in support of the vice principal, and then by the resignations of those who sought his departure. The chairman of the school’s board resigned last month, and on Tuesday, Eastside, a middle and high school with about 900 students, announced the resignation of its president.
The ouster of Mr. Z, as the former vice principal, Mark Zmuda, is known, comes amid a wave of firings and forced resignations of gay men and lesbians from Roman Catholic institutions across the country, in most cases prompted not directly by the employees’ sexuality, but by their decisions to marry as same-sex marriage becomes legal in an increasing number of states.
Mark Zmuda, called Mr. Z.
King 5 News
This month, the band and choir director at a Catholic school in Ohio [ http://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/st-mary-band-director-fired/5163951 ] was fired hours after he told the school’s president that he planned to marry his boyfriend; in December, a French and Spanish teacher at a Catholic school in Pennsylvania [ http://articles.philly.com/2013-12-10/news/44993556_1_marriage-license-michael-griffin-mccloskey ] was fired days after telling his principal he was applying for a marriage license in New Jersey. Similar ousters have taken place at Catholic schools, universities and parishes in Arkansas [ http://ualrpublicradio.org/post/arkansas-teacher-seeks-apology-catholic-school-after-gay-marriage-firing ], California [ http://www.sbsun.com/general-news/20130731/glendora-catholic-school-dismisses-gay-rancho-cucamonga-teacher-after-publicized-wedding ], Illinois [ http://www.sj-r.com/x1109354817/Newspaper-wedding-announcement-costs-gay-woman-her-job-at-Benedictine-University ], Missouri [ http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/catholic-school-fires-gay-teacher-planning-wedding/article_c65612c2-c939-55e2-b379-acfffcd594ed.html ], New York [ http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/catholic-church-removes-married-gay-man-from-oceanside-duties-1.5009906 ] and North Carolina [ http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/02/11/3001722/music-directors-marriage-leads.html#.UtcGWLQQNLM ].
For Catholic school and church leaders across the country, the issue is clear. The Roman Catholic Church opposes same-sex marriage, and school officials, including Mr. Zmuda, generally sign contracts saying they will abide by church teachings so that their lives can be models for their students.
But for some young Catholics, the firings are mystifying, particularly given the new tone set by Pope Francis. At Eastside Catholic, some students have taken to crafting banners with the quotation “Who am I to judge?,” words uttered by the pope when asked about gay priests; others have been trying to reach the pope via Twitter, hoping he will somehow intercede.
“He made it safe for people to raise issues and questions that, in the past, they were shut down for,” said Nancy Walton-House, whose son attended Eastside. “There’s a lot of hope, and maybe some naïveté, about how fast things can happen.”
Eastside’s senior-class president, Bradley Strode, a 17-year-old wrestler and lacrosse player, is seeking a meeting with the archbishop of Seattle, arguing that even if the church’s doctrine does not change, its employment practices should.
“It was just shocking that the Catholic Church would turn its back on a teacher for something that didn’t affect his work performance,” he said. “Gay marriage was something I never really thought about before, but everyone can agree that employment discrimination is wrong.”
A sign backed Mark Zmuda, the former vice principal and swimming coach at Eastside Catholic.
David Ryder/Reuters
Last week, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle issued a statement [ http://www.seattlearchdiocese.org/Assets/News/4386_ECS.pdf ] defending the school and rejecting the notion that the firing ran contrary to the direction of the new pope.
“Pope Francis has often reminded us of the limitless mercy of God, for Jesus came to bring his father’s mercy,” Archbishop Sartain said. “At the same time, Pope Francis has also reminded us of our responsibility as Catholics to live the timeless truth of church teaching on a wide variety of topics, including the sacredness of traditional marriage.”
Some students have quietly expressed support for the decision to remove Mr. Zmuda, but the prevailing sentiment at the school has been upset, reflecting, in part, the shifting attitudes toward same-sex marriage among young people.
“A lot of it is just generational,” said Christian Smith, a professor of sociology at Notre Dame who studies the religious lives of teenagers. “It’s a distinct minority who thinks there’s something wrong with same-sex relationships, and that’s a big change from older generations.”
Eastside Catholic, faced with intense blowback and sustained publicity over the removal of Mr. Zmuda, has defended its decision but is clearly concerned about the impact on applicants and donors as some students, parents and alumni ask what the ouster means about the school they have chosen and cheered.
This month, in a step many in the school community have found confusing, administrators gave a short-term contract to a choreographer who, in a show of support for Mr. Zmuda, had announced on talk radio that she was engaged to her girlfriend.
The students Julia Troy, Julia Burns and Ian Edwards have protested Mr. Zmuda’s ouster.
Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times
“It’s great that they’re keeping me, but it’s a little confusing,” said the choreographer, Stephanie Merrow, 41, who taught the school’s students to dance in a 2012 production of “Footloose,” and is now doing the same for this year’s production of “Guys and Dolls.”
“I feel for them,” she said. “I think maybe a mistake was made, and now what do they do?”
The school’s president, Sister Mary E. Tracy, had also sent mixed signals. She initially suggested to Mr. Zmuda that he might be able to keep his job if he got divorced, and then oversaw his ouster. After weeks of protest, she asked Julia Burns, an 18-year-old senior, to share with the public this comment: “I look forward to the day when no individual loses their job because they are married to a person of the same sex.” Sister Mary did not respond to requests for an interview.
On Tuesday, when the board announced Sister Mary’s resignation, it called the step “a difficult, but necessary decision so that a new leader can be brought in to ensure the entire Eastside Catholic community is moving forward on a positive path.”
Mr. Zmuda had not been at the school long, but he was liked by students, especially on the swim team, which he coached. He married in July, seven months after same-sex marriage became legal in Washington State, and he was ousted in December, shortly after the school’s administration received a complaint from a teacher about his marital status.
As students began to hear about his dismissal, they sprang into action.
Eastside has kept Stephanie Merrow, who is gay, as a choreographer. “It’s a little confusing,” she said.
Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times
“I found out about it and just texted 15 or 16 people,” said Ian Edwards, 17, a senior. Word spread quickly, and students staged an impromptu sit-in, skipping classes and gathering in a commons to talk, and, in some cases, to cry. “We just shouldn’t allow this discrimination to happen.”
Over the next weeks, the students took to social media to rally support, gathering signatures on an online petition and communicating via Twitter and texts. They protested outside Sammamish City Hall, at a Seahawks game and outside the archdiocese of Seattle, where they were joined by Ed Murray, then the city’s mayor-elect, who is Catholic and gay. Also this month, many students wore orange — the more attention-getting of the school’s two colors — to class one day to express their concern; and on Jan. 31, the students are hoping that other Catholic schools across the nation will join them in a similar act.
Alumni and parents are organizing online as they seek to force change at the school.
“If I had read the school handbook and it said, ‘We will hire you, but if we find out you are gay and you are married, we will fire you,’ I would not have put my kids there,” said Florence Colburn, who has two children at the school.
And Corey Sinser, 26, said he was an enthusiastic alumnus (class of 2006), but that now, “I worry that this will have a negative effect on the type of students who want to come, or the type of teachers who want to work there.”
Some are hoping Mr. Zmuda will get his job back; others are seeking a change in the school’s employment practices.
Julia Troy, 17, a senior, said she believed that speaking up was an outcome itself.
“I have gay friends, and I care about them,” she said. “Even if all that happens is they know that I support them, that’s enough for me.”
© 2014 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/us/gay-marriages-confront-catholic-school-rules.html [with comments]
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Rev. Thomas Ogletree, Another Methodist Pastor, To Be Tried For Presiding At Same Sex Wedding Of Son
A wedding cake with a male couple is seen at The Abbey restaurant at a celebration of the over100 same-sex marriages performed today in West Hollywood, California, July 1 2013.. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted California's ban on same-sex marriages just three days after the Supreme Court ruled that supporters of the ban, Proposition 8, could not defend it before the high court.
(ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)
Posted: 01/17/2014 12:12 pm EST | Updated: 01/22/2014 9:49 am EST
NEW YORK (AP) — The United Methodist Church has formally charged another clergyman for presiding at the same-sex wedding of his son.
The Rev. Thomas Ogletree will be tried March 10 for violating church law against officiating at gay unions, his spokeswoman, Dorothee Benz, announced Friday. It's the second high-profile United Methodist trial in recent months over same-sex relationships. In December, pastor Frank Schaefer of central Pennsylvania was defrocked after he officiated at his son's gay wedding. The church considers homosexuality "incompatible with Christian teaching."
Ogletree is a theologian, a former Yale Divinity School dean and a retired elder in the church's New York district, or Annual Conference. Some clergy had filed a complaint after his son's 2012 wedding announcement appeared in The New York Times.
Ogletree, 80, said he could not refuse his son's request to preside at the wedding, which was held in New York, where gay marriage is legally recognized.
"It is a shame that the church is choosing to prosecute me for this act of love, which is entirely in keeping with my ordination vows to 'seek peace, justice, and freedom for all people' and with Methodism's historic commitment to inclusive ministry embodied in its slogan 'open hearts, open minds, open doors,'" Ogletree said in a statement.
Bishop Martin McLee, who leads the New York Annual Conference, could not be immediately reached for comment Friday.
The Rev. Randall Paige of Christ Church UMC in Port Jefferson Station, N.Y., led the group of clergy who had filed the complaint against Ogletree, according to United Methodist News Service. An administrator at Christ Church said Paige was off Friday and could not immediately be reached for comment. Theologically conservative Methodists have said they file formal complaints reluctantly, hoping to find another resolution for their disagreements, but feel clergy must be held accountable when they violate church policy.
Like other mainline Protestant groups, Methodists have been debating for decades over whether the Bible condemns or condones same-gender relationships. However, other mainline groups, such as the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, have in recent years taken key steps toward accepting same-sex couples. The top Methodist policy-making body, General Conference, has repeatedly rejected changing church law on homosexuality, including in their most recent vote at a 2012 meeting.
In the last few years, as gay marriage has gained legal recognition by U.S. states, Methodists advocating for gays and lesbians have intensified their protests, hosting gay weddings in Methodist churches or officiating the ceremonies elsewhere.
Two other similar cases are pending within the Methodist church. The Rev. Stephen Heiss of the Upper New York Annual Conference is expected to face a church trial for presiding at same-sex marriages, including officiating at his daughter's 2002 wedding. The Rev. Sara Thompson Tweedy, of the New York Annual Conference, is facing a formal complaint that she is a "self-avowed practicing" lesbian, or lives openly with a same-sex partner, which is barred by church law.
Ogletree's trial will be held at First United Methodist Church in Stamford, Conn.
The United Methodist Church is the second-largest Protestant group in the U.S. and claims 12.5 million members worldwide.
© 2014 Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/rev-thomas-ogletree_n_4618151.html [with comments]
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Juan Pablo Galavis Slams Gay Bachelor as Poor Example, Says Homosexuals are Perverted
Juan Pablo is ready to hand out a rose. Can any woman resist him?
January 20, 2014
http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2014/01/juan-pablo-galavis-slams-gay-bachelor-as-poor-example-says-homos/ [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Juan Pablo Galavis: Gays Should Not Be Allowed To Be ‘The Bachelor’
TV ‘Bachelor’ Juan Pablo Galavis is having a DUCK DYNASTY moment.
“I don’t think it is a good example for kids to watch that on TV"
January 17, 2014
http://thetvpage.com/2014/01/17/juan-pablo-galavis-gays-allowed-bachelor/ [audio of the comments, at http://soundcloud.com/thetvpage-com/juan-pablo-galavis-no-gays-on (with comments), embedded; with comments] [and see e.g. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/18/juan-pablo-gay-bachelor_n_4622691.html (with embedded video report, and comments)]
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The First Gay Bachelor with Jesse Tyler Ferguson and George Takei
Published on Nov 26, 2013 by Funny Or Die [ http://www.youtube.com/user/FunnyorDie ]
The reality tv show gets a new spin when one gay man looks for love in a mansion filled with lots of other gay men looking for love.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/3dd1026448/the-first-gay-bachelor-with-jesse-tyler-ferguson-and-george-takei
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdKYwI4C4t4 [with comments]
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Cecil Chao, Hong Kong Billionaire, Doubles Reward For Any Man Who Can Make Lesbian Daughter Straight
By James Nichols
Posted: 01/23/2014 12:37 pm EST | Updated: 01/24/2014 10:59 am EST
A Hong Kong billionaire reportedly just doubled down [ http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1411617/billion-dollars-man-who-marries-my-lesbian-daughter-gigi-chao-upset ] on his offer of a massive amount of money for any man who can win the heart of his lesbian daughter.
Cecil Chao first made headlines in September 2012 when he announced the initial offer of $65 million [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/hong-kong-businessman-reward-lesbian-daughter_n_1916277.html ] after his daughter, Gigi Chao, reportedly eloped with her female partner in France.
Chao then told The Financial Times in January 2013 that the offer still stood, and if a man could woo his daughter he "will give them a moderately deluxe life [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/cecil-chao-sze-tsung-lesbian-daughter-marriage-bounty-65-million_n_2567720.html ]." He added, "I would not force her to marry a man. But obviously I would, from my point of view, prefer her to be married and to have grandchildren.”
Now, Chao is upping the ante by offering approximately $130 million [ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2544516/Billionaire-offered-40million-turn-lesbian-daughter-straight-doubles-offer-20-000-suitors-failed.html ] to any man who can sweep Chao off her feet after his first offer reportedly attracted 20,000 unsuccessful suitors [ http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/01/21/Tycoon-doubles-marriage-reward-to-RM430mil/ ].
“I don’t think my dad’s offering of any amount of money would be able to attract a man I would find attractive," Chao stated in an interview with the South China Morning Post [ http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1411617/billion-dollars-man-who-marries-my-lesbian-daughter-gigi-chao-upset ]. “I would be happy to befriend any man willing to donate huge amounts of money to my charity Faith in Love, provided they don't mind that I already have a wife. Third and lastly, thank you Daddy, I love you too.”
Anyone up for a challenge?
Editor's note: The use of the word "lesbian" in this story and headline is meant to refer to Gigi's current relationship with another woman. It is unclear if she identifies as a lesbian, bisexual, queer or some other orientation.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis in original)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/hong-kong-billionaire-lesbian_n_4652726.html [with comments]
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Gigi Chao, Daughter Of Hong Kong Billionaire Cecil Chao, Pens Open Letter
01/28/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/28/hong-kong-billionare-daughter_n_4681679.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Cecil Chao, Hong Kong Billionaire, Rescinds Reward For Turning Daughter Straight
01/30/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/30/hong-kong-billionaire-rescinds-offer_n_4695665.html [with comments]
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https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=479309752175143&set=a.192270474212407.34793.192269477545840 [with comments]
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Va. attorney general to fight state's ban on gay marriage
Virginia Attorney General-elect Mark Herring smiles during a news conference at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., on Dec. 18, 2013. Herring has concluded that the state's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional and he will no longer defend it in federal lawsuits challenging it, his office said Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014.
Fri Jan 24, 2014
http://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/nation/va-attorney-general-state-s-ban-on-gay-marriage-unconstitutional/article_414813a8-8424-11e3-85d7-001a4bcf6878.html [no comments yet]
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Reaction is swift and strong to Herring’s challenge to ban on same-sex marriage
Attorney General Mark R. Herring has concluded that Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and that he will no longer defend it in federal lawsuits.
January 23, 2014
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/reaction-is-swift-and-strong-to-herrings-plans-not-to-defend-marriage-amendment/2014/01/23/7adf421c-8438-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Va. Republicans ready to defend same-sex marriage ban
January 23, 2014
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-to-fight-same-sex-marriage-ban/2014/01/23/9e5aa210-8431-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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On Last Full Day In Office, Ex-Virginia Attorney General Sneaks In Anti-Gay Legal Opinion
CREDIT: (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
By Ian Millhiser
January 13, 2014 at 10:28 am
Just hours before leaving office, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) issued an opinion that appears intended to entrench his own anti-gay policy preferences [ http://hamptonroads.com/2014/01/cuccinelli-issues-opinions-gay-marriage-abortion ] while he could still speak as his state’s top legal officer. Cuccinelli, who once claimed that the “homosexual agenda… brings nothing but self-destruction, not only physically but of their soul [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/11/05/2888221/cuccinelli-defeat-wing-record/ ],” lost his bid for Virginia governor to recently inaugurated Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D).
Cuccinelli’s non-binding opinion [ http://www.oag.state.va.us/Opinions%20and%20Legal%20Resources/OPINIONS/2014opns/13-114%20Marshall.pdf ], which is dated January 10, 2014, concludes that “a Governor may not direct or require any agency of state government to allow same-sex couples to receive joint marital status for Virginia income tax returns.” Cuccinelli’s successor, Democrat Mark Herring, was sworn in January 11 [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mcauliffe-sworn-in-as-virginia-governor/2014/01/11/998095f0-7951-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html ].
The question of whether married same-sex couples may file joint Virginia tax forms hinges upon a potential conflict in state law. Although the state constitution includes an expansive ban on same-sex marriages or similar arrangements [ http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/12/03/3011171/virginia-sex-taxes/ ], gay rights advocates note that forbidding same-sex couples from filing jointly “is in conflict with the state law that requires conformity with federal rules [ http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion/their-opinion/gasta-aga-virginia-approves-taxation-with-discrimination/article_8d190e2b-010b-523f-8db4-efccfced6e0f.html ]” — married couples of all kinds file joint tax returns under federal law.
Additionally, the United States Constitution forbids Virginia from “deny[ing] to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws,” and at least one federal judge has held that states cannot deny marriage equality to same-sex couples under the Fourteenth Amendment [ http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/12/20/3097681/breaking-federal-court-utah-says-marriage-equality-required-constitution/ ].
Gov. McAuliffe, who the voters of Virginia chose over Cuccinelli last November, campaigned on a pro-gay rights platform. His first action as governor was an executive order shielding LGBT state employees from employment discrimination [ http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/01/13/3152881/terry-mcauliffe-kicks-virginia-governorship-protecting-lgbt-workers/ ].
© 2014 Center for American Progress Action Fund
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/01/13/3153171/day-office-outgoing-virginia-attorney-general-sneaks-anti-gay-legal-opinion/ [with comments]
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U.S. District Judge Rules Oklahoma Ban on Marriage Equality Unconstitutional
by HRC staff
January 14, 2014
Today U.S. District Judge Terence Kern ruled [ http://www.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/Bishop_vs_Oklahoma_Opinion_01142014.pdf ] that Oklahoma’s ban on marriage equality is unconstitutional. His ruling is stayed pending appeal, meaning marriages will not occur immediately in the Sooner State.
HRC President Chad Griffin issued the following statement:
“Judge Kern has come to the conclusion that so many have before him – that the fundamental equality of lesbian and gay couples is guaranteed by the United States Constitution. With last year’s historic victories at the Supreme Court [ http://www.hrc.org/SCOTUS ] guiding the way, it is clear that we are on a path to full and equal citizenship for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. Equality is not just for the coasts anymore, and today’s news from Oklahoma shows that time has come for fairness and dignity to reach every American in all 50 states.”
Two plaintiff couples, Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin and Gay Phillips and Susan Barton, filed their case, Bishop v. Oklahoma, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in November 2004. Lead counsel in the case are Don Holladay and James Warner of the Oklahoma City law firm Holladay & Chilton PLLC.
The ruling [ http://www.hrc.org/press-releases/entry/u.s.-district-judge-rules-oklahoma-ban-on-marriage-equality-unconstitutiona ] comes on the heels of a year-long string of electoral, judicial and legislative victories for marriage equality. In recent weeks both the New Mexico Supreme Court [ http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/breaking-new-mexico-court-ruling-extends-marriage-equality-statewide ] and a federal district judge in Utah [ http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/u.s.-district-judge-rules-utah-ban-on-marriage-equality-unconstitutional ] have ruled in favor of marriage for lesbian and gay couples.
Copyright © 2014 The Human Rights Campaign
http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/u.s.-district-judge-rules-oklahoma-ban-on-marriage-equality-unconstitutiona [with comments]
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ACLU Sues Scott Walker, Challenges Wisconsin's Same-Sex Marriage Ban
By Shadee Ashtari
Posted: 02/03/2014 3:08 pm EST | Updated: 02/03/2014 3:59 pm EST
Four same-sex couples represented by the American Civil Liberties Union sued Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and other state top administration officials on Monday, challenging Wisconsin’s seven-year-old ban on gay marriage.
In addition to attempting to overturn the state’s constitutional amendment [ http://fairwisconsin.com/couples/amendment ] barring marriage equality, the lawsuit also seeks to repeal Wisconsin’s "marriage evasion" law [ http://www.wisbar.org/newspublications/wisconsinlawyer/pages/article.aspx?Volume=78&Issue=3&ArticleID=999 ], which criminalizes leaving the state to “contract a marriage that is prohibited or void” in Wisconsin. Couples violating the marriage evasion statute can be fined up to “$10,000 or imprisoned for not more than 9 months or both.”
“Wisconsin is unique in that sense, and so we think that argument particularly exemplifies the harm or the animus toward same-sex couples in some parts of the country,” John Knight, director of ACLU's LGBT and AIDS Project, told the Washington Blade [ http://www.washingtonblade.com/2014/02/03/wisconsin-lawsuit/ ] on Monday.
The couples in the lawsuit are Roy Badger and Garth Wangemann; Charvonne Kemp and Marie Carlson; Judith Trampf and Katharina Heyning; and Virginia Wolf and Carol Schumacher, the lead plaintiffs in the case.
Virginia Wolf et al. v. Scott Walker et al., which was filed by the ACLU, the ACLU of Wisconsin and Mayer Brown LLP, argues that Wisconsin’s gay marriage ban violates the couples’ due process and equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment.
“Wisconsin, a historic leader in marriage equality, maintains one of the most restrictive bans on marriage for same-sex couples in the nation,” the lawsuit reads [ http://media.jrn.com/documents/aclulawsuit.pdf ]. “The State deprives same-sex couples of these rights and freedoms for no other reason than their sexual orientation and their sex.”
“We’re completely in love, and we’d like to be married in the state that we live in,” Kemp, one of the plaintiffs, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “I’m willing to go to the Supreme Court to fight for the right for everyone to be able to get married if that’s what they choose to do. It’s about marriage equality for all, not marriage equality for some, or for just us.”
The lawsuit is pending before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin while numerous states [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/31/marriage-lawsuits-doma_n_3679005.html ], including Kentucky, Utah [ http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57467438-78/court-utah-case-state.html.csp ], Florida [ http://orlandoweekly.com/news/legal-challenge-could-overturn-gay-marriage-ban-in-florida-1.1624571 ] and Virginia [ http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/01/us-usa-gaymarriage-virginia-idUSBREA100EG20140201 ], are facing dozens of similar lawsuits seeking marriage equality.
Read the full complaint here [ http://media.jrn.com/documents/aclulawsuit.pdf ].
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/03/scott-walker-lawsuit-gay-marriage_n_4718412.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Louie Gohmert Says Judges Legalizing Gay Marriage 'Need Some Basic Plumbing Lessons'
01/25/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/15/louie-gohmert-gay-marriage_n_4603888.html [with comments]
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Anti-Gay Pundits Freak Out Over Grammys Gay Wedding Ceremony
01/28/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/27/same-sex-wedding-grammys_n_4674469.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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'Family' Group: 'Pimp' Jay-Z And 'Homosexual Faux-Pastorette' Queen Latifah Hurl Grammys 'Spitball' at God
1/28/2014
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/family-group-pimp-jay-z-and-homosexual-faux-pastorette-queen-latifah-hurl-grammys-spitball-g
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Bizzle Responds To Macklemore's "Same Love"
Published on Jan 28, 2014 by God Over Money [ http://www.youtube.com/user/playbizzle21 ]
FREE DOWNLOAD - http://www.noisetrade.com/bizzle/same-love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9KQ4_uH1RA [with comments] [via/embedded at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/31/same-love-anti-gay-bizzle_n_4702483.html (with comments)]
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Kirk Cameron Thinks Grammys' Gay Marriages Were An 'Assault On The Traditional Family'
Kirk Cameron apparently had a big problem with the same-sex marriages at the Grammys.
01/30/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/29/kirk-cameron-grammys-gay-marriage_n_4687607.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Here's Why The Idea Of 'Traditional Marriage' Is Total Bullsh*t
01/23/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/20/historical-marriage-definitions_n_4589763.html [with comments]
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RWW News: Fischer Says Performing Gay Marriages At The Grammys Was An 'Abomination'
Published on Jan 28, 2014 by RWW Blog [http://www.youtube.com/user/RWWBlog ]
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-performing-gay-marriages-grammys-was-abomination-because-same-sex-parenting-form-chi
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this video, Bryan Fischer says performing gay marriages during the Grammys was an "abomination" because same-sex parenting is child abuse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsodRwZyNWg [with comments] [via/embedded at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/28/gay-marriages-grammys-bryan-fischer_n_4682425.html (with comments)]
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RWW News: Fischer Says Beyoncé's 'Sasha Fierce' Persona Is a Demonic Spirit
Published on Jan 28, 2014 by RWW Blog [http://www.youtube.com/user/RWWBlog ]
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-beyonc-s-sasha-fierce-persona-demonic-spirit
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this video, Bryan Fischer says that the "Sasha Fierce" persona that Beyonce once used is really a demonic spirit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzsWYmCwIv8 [with comments] [via/embedded at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/29/beyonce-demonic-bryan-fischer-_n_4688928.html (with comments)]
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Polish Catholic Church declares war on 'gender theory'
Agence France-Presse
January 21, 2014 11:30pm
Poland's powerful Catholic Church has declared war on "gender theory", saying it undermines the traditional family -- but critics say that is a tactic to shift attention away from a paedophile priest scandal.
The theory explores sexual orientation and the roles assigned by society to individuals based on their gender, but the Polish Church has borrowed the English word "gender" to refer to a range of issues including contraception, abortion and homosexuality.
While many say gender theory promotes tolerance and understanding towards gender equality and homosexuality, the Polish Church has branded it a mortal danger to families, child sexual orientation and humanity.
Polish bishops wrote a letter on the topic that was read out in every parish across the country over the Christmas holidays.
"This is a preventative offensive," sociologist Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski told AFP.
"The Church fears social change and it especially opposes gay marriage, something that's happening in other countries like France or certain states in the US."
Inspired by then pope Benedict XVI's remarks in late 2012 about the "falseness" of gender theory, the Polish campaign has taken on epic proportions and sparked a fierce, high-profile national debate.
Critics argue it is designed to shift focus from a recent string of paedophile priest scandals that rocked Poland, one of Europe's most Roman Catholic countries but whose loyalty to the Church is waning.
"Someone advised the Church to find a topic that would make people forget about the paedophile scandals that Polish media was fixated on these last few months," leading Polish religious affairs commentator Adam Szostkiewicz told AFP.
"Now not a day goes by that a bishop doesn't warn against gender," he said.
Allegations surfaced last year that two high-profile Polish priests had engaged in sex with boys.
Prosecutors began probes in September against 65-year-old archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who served as a papal envoy in the Dominican Republic's capital Santo Domingo, and 36-year-old Wojciech Gil, who also served on the Caribbean island.
Poland's top cleric meanwhile provoked outrage when he suggested that parents shared the blame for paedophilia.
Archbishop Jozef Michalik later apologised for saying that paedophilia "manifests itself when a child is looking for love" and could be avoided "given a healthy relationship between parents".
According to feminist activist Kazimiera Szczuka, the war against gender is just the latest attempt by the Church to shift blame.
"By claiming that gender theory skews child sexual orientation, the Church wants people to think that it is indeed this theory that's responsible for sexual abuse, and not priests," she told AFP.
Gender ideology 'worse than Nazism'
The Church letter to parishioners alleges that gender theory has "for the last several months been introduced without Poles' consent within various social institutions: education, health care, non-governmental organisations and cultural institutions".
The bishops cite Marxism, feminist movements and the sexual revolution as having inspired the theory, which they say is "contrary to the traditional view of man".
They warn that gender theory allows an individual to "freely define himself as a man or woman and choose his sexual orientation".
In certain parishes, an extreme version of the letter claimed that school sex education -- not yet a part of the Polish curriculum -- leads to "severe youth depravity".
The Church views the traditional definition of family headed by a man and a woman as the basis of society, according to Marcin Przeciszewski, head of Poland's KAI Catholic news agency.
He regrets the "unfortunate choice of words" of some Church members that "clouds the main message".
"The Church cannot agree to the idea of the interchangeability of the sexes. Sexual identity is accorded by nature, by God," he told AFP.
But some say the Church is misguided in demonising gender theory, since it is mainly a scientific concept and not tied to any particular ideology, according to expert Agnieszka Rajewicz-Kozlowska.
"In most official documents, the term 'gender' is linked to the idea of equality between men and women," said Rajewicz-Kozlowska, the government's deputy minister in charge of gender equality.
Yet, according to Szostkiewicz, the Church has turned "gender" into a grab bag and tossed everything into it: civil unions, gay marriage, abortion, in-vitro fertilisation, gender equality and sexual education.
He says the strategy has helped convince a portion of the population, thanks in large part to those who "only a couple months ago knew nothing about the term 'gender' and had no idea that it has been studied in Polish universities for 20 years".
Among the more extreme examples of the scorn heaped on gender theory, priest Dariusz Oko said: "Gender ideology is in some ways worse than Nazism and communism."
"It leads to the destruction of the nation" because it "destroys the family," he said.
This view has been echoed by Poland's political right, with a minor opposition party recently launching a committee against gender theory in parliament.
Committee members have assigned themselves the task of "protecting nursery school children against a sexualisation (introduced) under the guise of classes on gender equality" that were co-funded by the European Union and other international organisations.
Following warnings from Polish bishops and right-wing politicians, parents in many schools across the country have demanded that such classes be banned.
Copyright AFP, 2014
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140122/polish-catholic-church-declares-war-gender-theory [no comments yet]
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BISHOPS ABOUT GENDER IDEOLOGY
A pastoral letter of the Polish Episcopal Conference for pastoral usage on Sunday of the Holy Family 2013
Dear Sisters, Dear Brothers!
Every year in the Octave of Lord’s Birth, we celebrate Sunday of the Holy Family. We direct our thought towards our families and we undertake reflection on the situation of the contemporary family. Today’s Gospel says that the Family from Nazareth was trying to understand and fulfil God’s will in difficult and unclear situations, thanks to which it came out renewed of these situations. This behaviour is an important tip for us and also today obedience to God and His sometimes incomprehensible will, is a guarantee for happiness in the family.
Blessed John Paul II, for whose canonization we are getting prepared, reminds that the truth about the institution of marriage is ‘beyond the will of individuals, whim of particular married couples, decisions of social and governmental organisms’ (23 II 1980). We should look for this truth in God, because ‘it is God who is a creator of marriage’ (GS 48). It is God who created the human being a man and a woman, whereas he made the existence – in the body and the soul – a man ‘for’ a woman and a woman ‘for’ a man a great and irreplaceable gift and a task in the marriage life. He based the family on the fundament of marriage joined with inseparable and exclusive love for the whole life. He decided that just this kind of the family will be a suitable environment for children’s development whom it will give life and provide them with material and spiritual development.
This Christian vision is not a kind of arbitrarily imposed norm, but it results from understanding the nature of the human being, the nature of marriage and the family. Rejecting this vision leads inevitably to the collapse of families and to the defeat of the man. As the history of humankind shows, neglecting the Creator is always dangerous and is a danger for the happy future of the man and the world. So, any attempts of redefining the terms of marriage and the family which are imposed by some media at present, surely raise a lot of anxiety. Facing the growing attacks of this ideology directed at various areas of the family and social life, on the one hand, we feel obliged to express our definite and explicit opinion in the defence of the Christian family, fundamental values which defend it, but, on the other hand, we feel obliged to warn the family against dangers coming from promoting the new type of the family life.
The gender ideology is an effect of ideological-cultural changes lasting for decades, strongly rooted in Marxism and neo-Marxism, promoted by some feministic movements and sexual revolution. Gender ideology promotes rules which are completely contradictory with the reality and an integral understanding of the human nature. It states that the biological sex does not have a social meaning and, first of all, the cultural sex counts, which the human being can freely model and define regardless of biological conditions. According to this ideology the human being can define himself or herself freely: whether he or she is a woman or a man, he or she can also freely choose his/her own sexual orientation. It is a free self-definition which does not have to be something temporary, and leads to a situation in which the society would accept the right to set up a new type of families, for example, the ones built on relationships of homosexual character.
The danger of the gender ideology results basically from its deeply destructive character both towards the person and inter-human relationships, that is, the whole social life. The man of an uncertain sexual identity is not able to discover fully and fulfil the tasks he is facing both in the marital and family life and the social-professional life. The attempt of equalization of this kind of relations is in fact, a serious weakness of marriage as a community of a man and a woman and the family, built on the marriage.
We see various attitudes towards the actions undertaken by supporters of the gender ideology. The definite majority of people do not know what this ideology is, so they do not feel any danger. A small group of people – especially teachers and educators, including catechists and pastors – are trying to look for constructive ways of counteracting it on their own. Finally, there are those who, seeing the absurdity of this ideology, think that Poles will reject the utopian visions themselves, which are suggested to them. Whereas, the gender ideology, without the knowledge of the society or the consent of Poles, has been being implemented for many months into various structures of the social life: education, health service, activity of cultural and educational institutions and non-governmental organizations. The ideology is shown in some media in a positive way: as counteracting violence and aiming at equal rights.
The community of the Church is looking at the human being and his/her sex in an integral way, perceiving the corporal and biological dimension in it, as well as psychical and cultural and spiritual dimension. It is not unsuitable to do studies on the influence of culture on the sex. But it is dangerous to make an ideological statement that the biological sex is not essential for the social life. The Church expresses its explicit opinion against discrimination because of the sexes, but it also notices a danger of diminishing the value of sexes. It is not a fact of existence of two sexes which is the source of discrimination but the lack of spiritual reference, human egoism and pride, which we must still fight against. The Church does not agree in any way to humiliating people of homosexual tendencies, but it also strongly emphasizes that homosexual activity is deeply in chaos and that we mustn’t equate the marriage, being the community of a man and a woman, with a homosexual relationship.
On the Day of the Holy Family, we address a fervent appeal to Christian families, representatives of religious movements and church associations and all people of good will, to undertake actions courageously which will serve to spreading the truth about the marriage and the family. Today we need more than ever education of educational communities.
We also address an appeal to the institutions which are responsible for the Polish education, not to succumb to pressures of few but very loud environments having a lot of financial means, and which in the name of modern upbringing do experiments on children and the youth. We call educational institutions to get engaged into promoting the integral vision of the human being.
We ask all believers for a fervent prayer in the intentions of married couples, families and children brought up by them. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to give us the light of understanding and seeing the truth in what is the danger not only for the family but also for our Homeland and the whole humankind. Let’s also pray for courage of being people of faith and courage defenders of the Truth. Let the Holy Family from Nazareth, in which God’s Son – Jesus Christ was brought up, be the spiritual help and an example to follow in undertaking this effort.
In this spirit we give everybody pastoral blessing.
Signed by: Pastors of the Catholic Church in Poland.
Copyright 2013 Sunday Catholic Weekly
http://sunday.niedziela.pl/artykul.php?dz=spoleczenstwo&id_art=00932
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'Gender' Is the New Enemy of the Polish Church
January 10, 2014
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/01/10/gender_is_the_new_enemy_of_the_polish_church [with comments]
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THE NAME OF THE CONTEMPORARY HEROD IS: GENDER IDEOLOGY
A PASTORAL LETTER ABOUT FAMILY
BISHOP KAZIMIERZ RYCZAN
In the pastoral letter about family bishop of Kielce calls for defence of family against the contemporary Herod, whose name is: gender ideology. The letter is addressed to believers of the Kielce diocese on the occasion of Sunday of the Holy Family celebrated on 29 December 2013
The whole letter has been printed below
Beloved in Lord Christ,
In the octave of December, on the Feast of the Holy Family, I am kneeling on the threshold of the Bethlehem cave and adoring God who gifted us with the family.
My friend Janek did not see his mother because she dies after his birth. He did not see his father - partisan because he was killed in a forest by Germans. He was shown a photo: here your father with his crashed face was buried. Brother Janek – and you all, who were deprived of your fathers and mothers by the fate, kneel in front of the cave in Bethlehem. Here Mary and Joseph are looking at Jesus. Think that they are looking at you in this way. Dear brother, who were saying farewell to your parents in a graveyard, kneel in front of the Bethlehem family. You are not an orphan.
Family as a gift from God our Father
In poor Bethlehem, little Jesus confirmed the eternal gift from God the Father, that there is not a better community of maturation in love, than family.
In family devoting oneself is not a sacrifice, but a gift of oneself.
In family a child is not a burden but blessing.
In family material difficulties are mortification and do not touch honesty.
In family, difficulties are testing love, make it resistant, but do not destroy it.
In family a prayer builds love and arouses relations of the community. Are you speaking about all families, where mother and father are bending over their child, who is looking at every reaction of their heart. I am speaking about families from thousand years ago and the contemporary families. About families of Europe, Africa and Asia, about families of people who are believers and non-believers. The gift of family given us by God becomes lively in every woman and a man. It is a great and important gift, therefore God protects it with the three commandments: ‘Respect your father and your mother’, ‘Do not do adultery’ ‘Do not desire wife or husband of your neighbour’. These commandments were up-to-date yesterday and will always be up-to-date. They will stand on the guard of family.
Jesus and family
What does Jesus bring into the life of marriage and family? Jesus raises the marriage contracted between a woman and a man to the rank of sacrament. When two baptized single people, a woman and a man, are contracting marriage and are vowing love, loyalty and marital honesty to each other, lasting irreversibly till death, Christ is giving them a sacramental grace for their whole life. Christian believers come to the altar and ask for blessing, for grace.
- Bless our love, our devotion.
- Bless our fertility because life depends on You.
- Bless our home, so that nobody or any sin would destroy it.
- Bless everybody who will visit our home.
- Bless our joy and our cry today, as well as our life at old age, as it will come. Rule our home.
Catechism of the Catholic Church says that in the sacrament of marriage ‘spouses receive the Holy Spirit (…). He is a seal of their alliance, always a lively source of their love, power thanks to which their faithfulness will be renewed’(CCC 1624)
Preparation for marriage is the paramount matter
This Catechism of the Catholic Church emphasizes that ‘the paramount matter is preparation for marriage so that marital ‘yes’ would be a free and responsible act and the marital alliance would have proper and solid human and Christian basis’ (CCC 1632). Dear believers, do not have any pretense to a parish priest that he demands preparation for the Christian marriage. Today nobody will be employed without a suitable preparation for it. An ordinary certificate is not enough. Suitable professional preparation must be proved.
Doesn’t the decision for the whole life require serious preparation, talks, formation, discussions or a prayer? After all, marriage life will not be taught by serials where divorce and betrayal are an ordinary adventure. Love will not be taught by websites showing intimate matters. It is pathological pornography. Love and life will not be taught by flyers about art of love. Sex does not cover marriage vocation. We cannot justify children and grandchildren with a lack of time for preparation for marriage.
- Grandma, do not be upset with the parish priest, do not settle a matter according to your grandson’s intention, who phoned to ask for birth certificate because he does not have time and also to ask for reservation of the wedding day because he will come for a few days to get married. – He is so busy – said a loving grandmother….Let’s leave this case without any comment. The Catechism of the Catholic Church still says that ‘the paramount matter is preparation for marriage’.
Family in danger
Today the Gospel shows dangers lurking against the Holy Family. Who would think that after the visit of the significant rich guests from far East Józef had to run away with Jesus to Egypt. Józef as a shadow of a father is saving Jesus from death which Herod is bringing.
- Saint Józef what do you want to tell us, taking Jesus and Mary for a long journey?
- Today I want to tell families that they have a duty of defending their children and wives. Who will defend life, when women unite together in feminist organizations in order to get free of marriage and be free to have abortion? Who will defend life when armies of contemporary Herods and Heriorads, also in Poland, despise of a child’s life? You, fathers, have this duty.
Saint Józef says: - Fathers! Stand in one army to defend family. Fathers of your sacramental and non-sacramental families! Stand together in defence of family against contemporary Herod, whose name is the gender ideology.
Newspapers write, journalists argue on TV that people of the Church are oversensitive. Archbishop Michalik is not an expert. Archbishop Hoser from Warsaw cannot govern his diocese. And, generally, bishops and priests are pedophiles and undereducated. After all, the gender ideology is study on sexes, on equality between men and women.
We must not tell lies to the society. The Church has a duty to unveil a lie, hypocrisy, bad intentions of a theory contradictory with the common sense and which destroys values lying at the base of the culture of Europe, an intention to build a new order on the fundament of sexes and sex.
Bishops of Slovakia in a letter for Advent write: ‘They want to persuade us to think that nobody of us is a woman or a man by nature, they want to deprive a man of a right for his identity as a man, and a woman of a right to her identity as a woman and family of its right to identity as family (…). They want to impose a relationship of two men or two women on the equal level with marriage. Using noble slogans, in the society they are destroying family life, which is holy’. One would like to say that a cow and a dog are happy because none of sexologists imposes any sexes on them.
We should not think that it is a theory on paper. Our educational authorities are beginning to implement this theory. In Silesia, three children were removed from a kindergarten, whose parents did not agree on equal sexual education in the kindergarten, on dressing up boys as girls and girls as boys.
It is not only a theory. A journalist of ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ Mrs. Ewa Siedlecka writes that parents do not have ‘legal and moral monopole to form the worldview of a child’ (Catholic Informative Agency, 14 December 2013). It was commented by Mr. Terlikowski: ‘Supporters of the sex-depravation are liberals only superficially. They do not care about freedom but about promoting their extremely leftist worldview, and allegedly promoting freedom, they want to deprive parents of their right to bring up their children’(Catholic Informative Agency, 16 December 2013). All this is for EU money.
It is not only a theory. It is the beginning of a fight. On 5 December at the Economics University in Poznan, during a lecture entitled ‘Gender – devastation of the man and family’, supporters of feminists and gender ideologists entered an auditorium in order to disrupt the lecture. A young man wearing a golden dress jumped onto a desk, shouting: ‘We invite everybody for the collapse of family’.
Saint Józef and Mary defend Jesus against insane Herod. – Parents! Defend your children against cruel contemporary Herod. You have a right for it! Who gives food to your children? A political party? A political coalition? Who buys them clothes? The Ministry? Who buys them books and educational materials? Journalists, lobbyists? Who pays taxes in Poland? Atheist citizens? Who is an employer at primary schools, junior high schools and secondary schools? Aren’t they voivods, mayors, city presidents? Aren’t they fathers or mothers? Follow Saint Józef. When you are defending family – you are defending the Homeland, your are defending Bethlehem, where God-Man was born.
- It is easier for you to write about it. We feel helpless towards the power of television!
- Be followers of Józef. Be witnesses. He entered a church with Jesus and Mary. Go to church with your children. There you will get stronger with God. You will teach your son and daughter, where to find the truth of life. It is not all. During elections, take an election card and vote for people who love children, family, Homeland, God. Do not look at a political party. Vote for people. You have still got this right. We will not lose the fight for family with the help of Józef. Amen.
Copyright 2013 Sunday Catholic Weekly
http://sunday.niedziela.pl/artykul.php?dz=spoleczenstwo&id_art=00921
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'Gender' named buzzword of 2013
Photo: Glowimages
A panel of Polish academics has named 'gender' as 2013's 'Word of the Year' after a top bishop blamed liberal academics for alleged child sex abuse in the church.
07.01.2014 13:07
“In 2013, the word gender shot into the lexical repertoire of many Poles of various ages, backgrounds, milieus and regions,” commented panellist Professor Halina Zgolkowa of Poznan's Adam Mickiewicz University.
“It's surely here to stay.”
Last October, Gender Studies were hotly discussed in the media after Archbishop Jozef Michalik, head of the Polish Episcopate, criticised the “new ideology of gender” at universities, in the wake of a paedophilia scandal in the Church.
“You have heard of adults abusing children and this kind of evil is not to be tolerated, but no one asks about the causes of this,” he said.
Besides gender studies, he also blamed pornography, divorce and “the most aggressive Polish feminists who scoff at the Church and years of traditional ethics, who promote abortion and struggle against the traditional model of the family and marital fidelity.”
The remarks prompted criticism from academic circles [ http://www.thenews.pl/1/6/Artykul/155803,QandA-Fighting-against-the-gword ].
Academics from the Polish Language Foundation and the Institute of Language from Warsaw University analyse buzzwords in the media on a continuous basis, with competitions for Word of the Day, Word of the Week and Word of the Month.
Members of the public can submit nominations, and according to the regulations, “the Word of the Year does not have to be the most common word, or one that only appeared this year, although both factors are very important.”
Source: PAP
Copyright © Polskie Radio S.A
http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/157933,Gender-named-buzzword-of-2013-
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(from slideshow at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/nun-gives-birth-baby-italy-francis_n_4619218.html ; http://www.theonion.com/articles/catholic-church-condemns-metrosexuality,4673/ )
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Chicago GOP hopeful: Autism and dementia are God’s punishments for LGBT rights
[Image credit: Daily Herald / Bob Chwedyk]
By David Ferguson
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 12:54 EST
One of the Republicans lining up to challenge Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) for her seat representing the 9th District of Illinois told the Chicago Daily Herald [ http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140121/news/701219738/ ] that God is “angry” with the United States and has sent scourges to punish the American people.
Candidate Susanne Atanus believes that autism and forms of dementia are punishments sent by God because of the growing support for marriage equality in the country and the prevalence of abortion.
“I am a conservative Republican and I believe in God first,” Atanus said at an endorsement session with the Daily Herald on Monday.
God controls the weather, she said, and tornadoes are evidence of his wrath.
“God is angry. We are provoking him with abortions and same-sex marriage and civil unions,” she said. “Same-sex activity is going to increase AIDS. If it’s in our military it will weaken our military. We need to respect God.”
Her primary opponent, David Earl Williams III, 30, is decidedly more moderate in his views, but comes with his own liabilities as a candidate. A former girlfriend filed a domestic violence protection order against the Navy veteran.
He is currently fighting a judge’s ruling that he attend anger management classes and undergo a mental health assessment. The charges that he tried to get his former partner fired from her job and kicked out of school by impersonating her online, Williams said, are all a big misunderstanding.
Rae Ann McNeilly, Williams’ campaign manager, dismissed the court’s findings and the woman’s complaints against the candidate, calling it a “frivolous, unfounded claim” by a spurned ex who is “lashing out” because she thought Williams was more serious about their relationship than he actually was.
Atanus ran in the 9th District’s Republican primaries in 2010 and 2012. She lost both times.
Watch Daily Herald video of the two candidates, embedded below:
[video embedded]
Copyright © 2014 Raw Story Media, Inc.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/22/chicago-gop-hopeful-autism-and-dementia-are-gods-punishments-for-lgbt-rights/ [with comments]
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( http://nypost.com/2014/01/17/lightning-breaks-finger-off-christ-the-redeemer-statue/ )
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British Floods Blamed On Gay Marriage Law By UKIP Councillor David Silvester
CHERTSEY, UNITED KINGDOM - JANUARY 08: Swans explore the Abbey Fields caravan park after the River Thames flooded on January 8, 2014 in Chersey, England. Parts of the United Kingdon are entering a third week of flooding and stormy conditions.
(Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
Agence France Presse
Posted: 01/18/2014 8:16 pm EST | Updated: 01/22/2014 9:49 am EST
A local councillor for the anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP) has blamed recent storms and floods across Britain on the government's decision to legalise gay marriage, it emerged on Saturday.
David Silvester, who defected from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party in protest at the move to allow same-sex couples to marry, made the claim in a letter to his local newspaper.
"I wrote to David Cameron in April 2012 to warn him that disasters would accompany the passage of his same-sex marriage bill," wrote Silvester, an elected member of the town council in Henley-on-Thames, west of London.
He added: "It is his (Cameron's) fault that large swathes of the nation have been afflicted by storms and floods.
"He has arrogantly acted against the Gospel that once made Britain 'great' and the lesson surely to be learned is that no man or men, however powerful, can mess with Almighty God with impunity and get away with it, for everything a nation does is weighed on the scale of divine approval or disapproval."
The Conservative member of parliament for Henley, John Howell, said the comments were "not the sort of thing that he should have written in today's age" and said Silvester needed to "consider his position".
A UKIP spokeswoman said Silvester's views were "not the party's belief" but said he was entitled to state his opinions.
Cameron pushed through the gay marriage law last year against fierce opposition within his Conservative party, and the first weddings are expected to take place in March.
In a concession to opposition from the established Churches of England and Wales, however, those institutions are banned from conducting ceremonies.
UKIP prides itself on not bowing to what it terms "political correctness" on social issues and is steadily building support with its anti-immigration and anti-EU message.
It has no MPs but is the third largest party in the opinion polls, with about 12 percent of support, and is expected to do well in May's European Parliament elections.
Copyright (2014) AFP
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/19/british-floods-gay-marriage-_n_4624270.html [with comments]
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( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/18/jesus-statue-lightning-_n_4622673.html [with comments])
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Rep. Mike Rogers Under Fire For Homophobic Joke
AP
By Amanda Terkel
Posted: 02/03/2014 2:14 pm EST | Updated: 02/03/2014 2:59 pm EST
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) is facing heat from a gay rights group for reportedly making homophobic comments during a recent speech before hundreds of realtors.
In the speech, delivered Jan. 23 during the Alabama Association of Realtors' board of directors meeting, Rogers allegedly made derogatory comments about gay people and criticized the atmosphere in Washington, D.C.
"You allegedly joked about how nice it was to be called 'Honey' and 'Sweetie' by a woman at an Alabama restaurant rather than a D.C. men's room," Ben Cooper, chair of Equality Alabama, wrote in a Jan. 28 letter to Rogers [ http://blog.al.com/wire/2014/02/gay_rights_advocacy_group_accu.html ]. "And you went on to mock our nation's capitol as a 'cross between Detroit and San Francisco' -- an obvious reference to Detroit's racial makeup and San Francisco's vibrant gay culture."
"Comments like these are racist, homophobic, and hurtful, and they will not be tolerated," added Cooper.
Michael Hansen, Equality Alabama's communications director, told The Huffington Post his group heard about the remarks from several AAR members who attended Rogers' speech. One member was so offended that he and his colleagues walked out. Another member confronted the congressman after the event, Hansen said, to which Rogers reportedly replied, "Bring it on."
Rogers' office did not return a request for comment from The Huffington Post.
The AAR issued a statement in response to Rogers' remarks, according to AL.com, which first reported the controversy.
"At the Board of Directors meeting this morning one of our speakers made some remarks that were inappropriate [id.] and offensive to some of our members," the statement said. "Those remarks are not reflective of AAR or our policies. Moving forward we will endeavor to prevent such inappropriate remarks at our events or meetings."
Hansen said he emailed the letter to Rogers' chief of staff, deputy chief of staff and press secretary on Friday but has yet to hear back. The group, however, hopes the congressman or one of his staffers will be attending the Feb. 16 Vigil for Victims of Hate and Violence in Montgomery, which will remember LGBT victims of hate crimes.
"I would like to point out that we are approaching the 15th anniversary of the death of Billy Jack Gaither, who was brutally beaten with an ax handle, thrown onto a pile of tires and set on fire," Cooper wrote in the letter. "Billy Jack was murdered because he was gay. He was from your district."
"When you, an elected leader and lawmaker, make comments in public that belittle and demean the very core of LGBT people's being," added Cooper, "you endorse a culture that says it's OK to bully people for who they are or whom they love. It is not."
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/03/mike-rogers-alabama_n_4718002.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Randy Gener, Gay NYC Journalist, Recovering From Brain Surgery After Alleged Hate Crime
Posted: 01/26/2014 11:43 am EST | Updated: 01/26/2014 12:59 pm EST
Authorities are investigating an alleged attack on an openly gay journalist [ http://online.wsj.com/article/APe6a476d4468d40b58b61029b3f29d0cb.html ] just blocks from New York's Times Square as a possible hate crime.
Randy Gener, 46, was reportedly found unconscious in a pool of his own blood near 54th Street and Seventh Avenue in the wee hours of Jan. 17, according to ABC News. Gener, who is of Filipino descent, is currently listed in serious but stable condition at St. Luke's Hospital in New York, where he is recovering from brain surgery [ http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=9407433 ] as a result of the alleged attack.
Unfortunately, details of the incident are scarce, sister Jessica Blair Driessler told ABC, partly because Gener "can't answer the questions of what happened that night."
"He doesn't really exactly know who we are or where he's at sometimes, and it's really painful to see him here the way that he is because he's the most articulate person," she is quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, friend Liz Casasola told CBS Local that the suspect(s) did not steal Gener’s wallet: "He’s always there for everyone in the theater and Filipino community [ http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/01/26/cops-investigate-beating-of-journalist-randy-gener-as-possible-hate-crime/ ], it’s hard to picture it happening to someone like him."
Gener has reported and written for The New York Times, National Public Radio, the Village Voice, Time Out New York and New York Magazine, among other media outlets, according to his website [ http://www.randygener.org/ ]. As Broadway World points out, he is widely known in the city's theater community for his award-winning arts and culture coverage [ http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Theater-Journalist-Randy-Gener-Recovering-From-Brain-Surgery-After-Assault-20140124 ].
A candelight vigil in support of Gener [ https://www.facebook.com/events/726060234073344/ ] is currently planned for the evening of Jan. 26.
"We, as New Yorkers, demand an end to hate violence in our city," organizers wrote on Facebook. "We as LGBTQ folks, Filipino Americans, people of color, and allies want to feel safe on our streets again."
Meanwhile, a youcaring.com page has been created to help cover Gener's medical expenses, which can be viewed here [ http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/for-randy-gener/130589 ].
The case is merely the latest in a disturbing spate of alleged attacks [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/brooklyn-man-hate-crime_n_4024792.html ] which appear to be targeting New York's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in recent months. In May 2013, 32-year-old Mark Carson was fatally shot in the head [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/18/new-york-gay-hate-crime-shooting-_n_3299277.html ] while walking through Manhattan's West Village neighborhood.
Law enforcement officials began investigating that case as a hate crime after learning suspect Elliot Morales [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/30/elliot-morales-not-guilty-plea_n_3677963.html ], who was arrested just blocks from the alleged attack, had apparently hurled a series of anti-gay insults at Carson before shooting him.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/26/randy-gener-journalist-hate-crime_n_4669477.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Jimmy LaSalvia, Former GOProud Founder, On Republican Party's 'Cultural Disease,' Aaron Schock
01/22/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/20/jimmy-lasalvia-republican-party-_n_4626851.html [with embedded video report, embedded audios ( https://soundcloud.com/siriusxm-news-issues/signorile-lasalvia-gop-no-backbone , https://soundcloud.com/siriusxm-news-issues/signorile-lasalvia-gop-cultrual-disease , and https://soundcloud.com/siriusxm-news-issues/signorile-lasalvia-pres-noms ), and comments]
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(from slideshow at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/nun-gives-birth-baby-italy-francis_n_4619218.html ; http://www.theonion.com/articles/im-not-one-of-those-love-thy-neighbor-christians,11432/ )
===
Putin: Gays Must 'Leave Children In Peace'
01/22/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/putin-gays-must-leave-c_n_4616505.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Putin Claims He's 'Friendly' With Gay People
01/22/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/19/putin-gay-people-homosexuality-russia_n_4626934.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2014/01/cover-story-barry-blitts-jury-of-his-peers.html [with comments] [also at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/27/new-yorker-putin-olympics-cover_n_4673420.html (with comments)]
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Sochi Mayor Says There Are No Gay People In His City
In this Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013 photo Sohi's Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov poses with count-down clock in Sochi.
Associated Press
By Cavan Sieczkowski
Posted: 01/27/2014 9:37 am EST | Updated: 01/27/2014 1:59 pm EST
The mayor of Sochi is under the impression that there are no gay people in his city.
Anatoly Pakhomov spoke with the BBC ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics and discussed how gay people would be treated in the Russian region with the country's "homosexual propaganda" law [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/russia-gay-propaganda ] in place. Pakhomov said gays are welcome at the Games [ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25675957#TWEET1024869 ] in spite of this, so long as they "respect the laws of the Russian Federation and [don't] impose their habits on others."
He claimed gay people do not have to hide their sexuality in Sochi.
"No, we just say that it is your business, it's your life. But it's not accepted here in the Caucasus where we live. We do not have them in our city," he said. He later admitted that he isn't absolutely certain there are no gay people in Sochi [ http://abcnews.go.com/WN/gay-people-sochi-mayor-claims/story?id=22166765 ]. "I am not sure, but I don't bloody know them."
There are at least two gay clubs [ http://rt.com/politics/sochi-gays-mayor-claim-240/ ] in the city, Russia's RT noted. Russian social networks also point to multiple lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities in the area.
Nikolay Alekseyev, a Russian gay rights activist, compared Pakhomov's comments to those of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who once reportedly said, "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/24/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-homosexuality-gay-rights_n_1909548.html ]." Alekseyev said, per RT, gay people are present “in any city, any country, any culture and any historical epoch."
Russia's anti-gay law makes it illegal to disseminate information about "nontraditional sexual relations [ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/russian-anti-gay-bill-passes-protesters-detained/ ]" or "relations not conducive to procreation" to minors, the Associated Press reported. Individuals found in violation of the law could face fines up to 5,000 rubles ($156) or up to 1 million rubles ($31,000) for media organizations. Tourists have already reportedly been detained [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/22/dutch-tourists-jailed-russia-gay_n_3635803.html ] under this law.
Various celebrities and political figures have in turn backed a boycott of the Sochi Games [ http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/olympics/who-has-boycotted-sochi-games-so-far/ncMkB/ ].
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/27/sochi-mayor-no-gay-people_n_4673232.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Amnesty International reveals the simple acts that can land you in jail when visiting Sochi
This might look like a harmless gathering, but doing this in Sochi is likely to result in police attention. Amnesty International says laws that restrict gay rights, free speech and freedom of association are changing Russian society for the worse.
January 17, 2014
http://www.news.com.au/travel/world-travel/amnesty-international-reveals-the-simple-acts-that-can-land-you-in-jail-when-visiting-sochi/story-e6frfqai-1226803730310 [with embedded video report]
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IOC's Mario Pescante Rips U.S. For Including Openly Gay Athletes In Official Delegation To Sochi
01/15/14
ROME (AP) — A senior Italian IOC member criticized the United States on Wednesday for including openly gay athletes in its official delegation for next month's Sochi Olympics.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/15/ioc-italy-mario-pescante-us-gay-delegation_n_4604568.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Steven Seagal Praises Putin And FSB Ahead Of Sochi
American actor Steven Seagal (right) chats with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi in August 2012.
Tom Balmforth
January 28, 2014
A suicide bomber on the loose. Western governments warned of an imminent terrorist attack. Nearby American warships on stand-by.
That was the grim security scenario laid out for next month's Sochi Winter Olympics by former Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on his Fox News talk show on January 26.
But martial arts expert Steven Seagal knows better, apparently.
Speaking as Huckabee's guest on the conservative U.S. TV news station, the action-movie hero assessed the danger of an attack in Sochi as "extremely remote," citing his acquaintances in the Russian security forces.
Although he acknowledged that absolute security is impossible ("You could walk out to go buy a bag of sugar and get hit by a car" was how he put it), Seagal used the Fox News appearance to lavish praise on Russia's President Vladimir Putin and its Federal Security Service (FSB).
Seagal also urged U.S. President Barack Obama to pursue closer relations with Russia.
"They are a very powerful country with spectacular natural resources and a wonderful leadership," he said. "And, I believe that they are our friends and I think one of the only ways we are going to survive without getting swallowed by other superpowers or adversely affected is to be best friends with Russia. I think they should be our great allies."
On Sochi, Seagal reasoned that the colossal security presence in the region would prevail during the games.
"The chances of any of these suicide bombers actually being able to pull it off are extremely remote by virtue of the fact that Sochi is on such high alert," he said. "They've got amazing assets in place with great liaison over the world. President Putin is doing the very, very best he can. And, like I said, the FSB and [their elite counterterrorism taskforce] Alfa Spetsnaz are really some of the best on Earth, so it's going to be pretty tough for anybody to pull it off."
WATCH: Steven Seagal On Sochi Security Measures [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB9b2zrN5pU (next below, as embedded)]
Huckabee introduced Seagal as "the unofficial ambassador who’s developed a friendly relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, something our president has not been able to do."
The comment appeared to be a jibe aimed at the cool relationship between Putin and Obama, who is one of several Western leaders skipping the Olympic opening ceremonies.
Seagal does indeed enjoy good relations with Russia. He has been photographed with Putin, and he was asked in March last year by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to lobby in the United States for opening up the American market to Russian rifles.
The actor was also scheduled to lobby for Kalashnikov rifle sales [ http://http//rostec.ru/en/news/3603 ] at an arms exposition in Las Vegas earlier this month.
Seagal was less voluble, however, when asked about U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who has been given temporary asylum in Russia.
Without knowing the actual content of the material Snowden leaked, Seagal said, "it's not easy for me to comment [on the matter]."
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty © 2014 RFE/RL, Inc.
http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-sochi-security-steven-seagal/25245846.html [with comments]
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Dave Agema: Russian anti-gay propaganda law is 'common sense'
Republican National Committeman Dave Agema.
MLive file photo
[ http://www.washingtonblade.com/2014/01/11/agema-endorses-russia-anti-gay-law/ ]
By Garret Ellison
January 12, 2014 at 12:30 PM, updated January 14, 2014 at 8:49 AM
GRANDVILLE, MI — Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law is “common sense” according to a Facebook posting by Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema.
Agema, known for making inflammatory statements about gay people, reportedly endorsed the Russian law that makes it illegal to discuss LGBT issues in front of children.
According to the Washington Blade [ http://www.washingtonblade.com/2014/01/11/agema-endorses-russia-anti-gay-law/ ], a news site that covers LGBT issues, Agema’s post was screen-captured on Jan. 7 by Republican Party members with access to the former Grandville state representative's Facebook news feed.
According to the Blade, Agema posted a link to an Illinois Family Institute blog post by Laurie Higgins titled “Russia’s Anti-Propaganda Law Riles Pro-Homosexuality Crowd.”
Above the article, Agema added the words “Read their law. Common sense in Russia!”
The law imposes fines for "propaganda" about "nontraditional sexual relations" as a way to protect minors.
Higgins of the IFI writes [ http://illinoisfamily.org/homosexuality/russias-anti-propaganda-law-riles-pro-homosexuality-crowd/ ] that it “hardly sounds unreasonable to fine adults $150 for trying to inculcate other people’s children with their subjective beliefs about sexual morality, but nothing angers homosexual activists quite like being denied access to the hearts and minds of other people’s minor children.”
Russia passed the law in June, prompting international outcry from activists that has intensified [ http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2014/01/gay-rights-advocates-prepare-for-the-sochi-olympics.html ] in the run-up to the 2014 Winter Olympics starting Feb. 7 in Sochi.
Activists allege the law has led to an increase in harassment, bullying and violence.
Agema’s apparent endorsement comes on the heels of his support for "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson, whom Agema defended [ http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/12/dave_agema_finds_kinship_with.html ] against the “LGBT Gestapo” in December after Robertson was suspended for equating gay men to sinners.
Also in December, Agema was harshly rebuked after suggesting [ http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/michigan_gop_committeeman_dave.html ] that gays are seeking same-sex benefits because they are dying young from AIDS.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, legislative leaders and other prominent Republicans publicly criticized Agema's anti-gay remarks with words including "discriminatory [ http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/michigan_gov_rick_snyder_dave.html ]" and "disgusting [ http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/michigan_house_speaker_jase_bo_4.html ]." But they stopped short [ http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/no_comment_by_dave_agema_at_mi.html ] of calling for a public apology or other action.
In March, Agema sparked outcry [ http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/03/furor_grows_over_michigan_repu.html ] after posting an article on Facebook that painted gay people as "filthy" and promiscuous, riddled with sexually transmitted diseases.
Not everyone has repudiated Agema's remarks, however. Former State Rep. Jack Hoogendyke called Agema "a prophet [ http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2013/12/dave_agema_is_a_prophet_says_f.html ]" on Dec. 18.
© 2014 MLive Media Group
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2014/01/dave_agema_russian_anti-gay_pr.html [with comments]
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'Homosexual And Stealth Jihad Agenda' Has Apparently Taken Over The Michigan GOP
By Kate Abbey-Lambertz
Posted: 01/30/2014 2:55 pm EST | Updated: 01/31/2014 10:59 am EST
For some Michigan Republicans, their biggest enemies are members of their own party.
In a Facebook post Sunday [ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=582641005147729 ], the Delta County Republican Party published a list condemning "the Republicans Who Have Blatantly Surrendered to the Homosexual and Stealth Jihad Agenda." The 18 listed individuals include Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, Michigan Republican Party Chairman Bobby Schostak, the state attorney general, several U.S. Reps., the state Senate majority leader, party officials, Republican candidates and even one gay Democrat mayor.
The last one might have been a mistake, but all won their spots for perceived condemnation of Dave Agema, the Michigan Republican National Committee member who has received continued criticism for his anti-gay comments, but is apparently still supported by the Delta County Republican Party.
"If you continue to stand behind those who are not committed to your platform and values," the Facebook post said, "you enable the false notion that they have, which is that the constituency of the GOP will follow them no matter what they do or don't do."
The Michigan Republican Party did not immediately return a request for comment.
Priebus and Schostak called on the RNC member to resign last week [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/reince-priebus-dave-agema-resignation_n_4660373.html ], following a Facebook post from Agema earlier this month that seemed to support Russia's anti-gay, anti-human rights law. He also posted a message that included the line, "Have you ever seen a Muslim do anything that contributes positively to the American way of life?"
In previous months, he's compared homosexuality to alcoholism and accused LGBT individuals of supporting health care reform because they die earlier in life.
Agema has refused to resign, and while he said he regretted some of his statements [ http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140124/POLITICS03/301240083 ] in an interview with the Detroit News, he said the grassroots conservatives who elected him are counting on him.
“The easiest thing for me would be to just bail out, but the harder decision was to say, ‘OK, I’m going to stay in because of the people who are depending on me to stay in and fight the fight,’ ” Agema told the paper.
Delta County is in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Republican candidate Mitt Romney won the county by a small majority in the 2012 presidential elections.
Here's the full, unedited text of the Facebook post [ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=582641005147729 ]:
In Case You Are Not Keeping Record: The Following Are the Republicans Who Have Blatantly Surrendered to the Homosexual and Stealth Jihad Agenda (By Virtue of their attacks on Dave Agema)
Republican National Chair Reince Priebus
Michigan Republican Party Chair Bobby Schostak
Michigan Attorney General. Bill Schuette
Terri Lynn Land, GOP Senatorial Candidate
U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph
U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland
U.S. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton
U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township
U.S. Rep. U.S. Rep Mike Rogers, R-Brighton
U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland
U.S. Rep. U.S. Rep Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township
Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monore
State Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw
State Rep. Kurt Heise, R-Plymouth Township
David Trott, Republican candidate for Michigan's Eleventh Congressional District
Brian Ellis, Republican candidate for Michigan's Third Congressional District
Ferndale Mayor David Coulter
David Worthams, Kalamazoo County GOP Chair
Note: What you must remember is that, if you continue to stand behind those who are not committed to your platform and values, you enable the false notion that they have, which is that the constituency of the GOP will follow them no matter what they do or don't do.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/30/michigan-gop-republicans_n_4696236.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
===
'Gay Cat' Named Bull Allegedly Disowned By Owner In Nigeria
01/25/2014
A Nigerian woman is making some eyebrow-raising headlines after reportedly disowning her cat for "an unnatural sexual behavior [ http://leadership.ng/news/339272/woman-disowns-cat-for-being-gay ]" -- allegedly, same-sex attraction.
As the Nigerian newspaper Leadership notes, the woman (identified simply as being middle-aged) rid herself of Bull, whom she owned for seven years, after the cat was deemed to "be in the habit of making sexual advances" only to other male cats in the household.
"By this, the cat has made a record as the first cat to be so publicly declared gay and disowned by its owner," writer Donatus Nadi notes in the article. As for the cat's disgruntled owner, she would only add, "Anybody interested in this gay cat can have it because I have no further use of it.”
The news comes just days after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/13/nigeria-anti-gay-bill-law-_n_4589227.html ] signed a controversial bill banning same-sex marriage, gay "amorous relationships" and participation in LGBT rights groups.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/nigeria-gay-cat-_n_4661477.html [with comments]
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Nigerian Man Received 20 Lashes For... Being Gay
A 20 year old Nigerian has received 20 lashes after being convicted for "homosexual offences" seven years ago.
1/17/2014
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/archive/segment/nigerian-man-received-20-lashes-for-being-gay/52d979d678c90a2f7f0003cb
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this is part 5 of a multi-part post -- continues with my next post, a reply to this one
Daniel Burke
January 17th, 2014 04:29 PM ET
(CNN) The Vatican acknowledged on Friday that close to 400 priests left the priesthood in 2011 and 2012 because of accusations that they had sexually abused children.
That acknowledgment followed a report by the Associated Press [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/pope-benedict-defrock-priests_n_4618932.html ] that nearly 400 priests had been defrocked during those two years. The Vatican initially disputed that report.
Bishop Charles Scicluna, formerly the Vatican's top prosecutor of sexually abusive clergy, said 384 priests left the priesthood – either voluntarily or not - in 2011 and 2012, the last two years of Pope Benedict XVI's papacy.
In 2011, 125 priests were dismissed from ministry by the Vatican because of accusations they had sexually abused children, Scicluna told CNN on Friday, citing the "Activity of the Holy See," a kind of Vatican yearbook. The same year, 135 priests were "dispensed," meaning they voluntarily resigned, Scicluna said.
In 2012, 57 priests were removed from the priesthood and 67 resigned, Scicluna said. Scicluna, who is now an auxiliary bishop in Malta, was the Vatican's top prosecutor of sexually abusive clergy for a decade.
Scicluna said he did not know why the number of defrocked priests spiked in 2011. "2011 was exceptionally high for dismissals," he said. "We don't really know why."
The AP reported on Friday that nearly 400 priests had been defrocked in 2011 and 2012, citing a document the Vatican prepared to defend its record on sexual abuse before a United Nations committee this week in Geneva.
The Vatican had rebutted that report, a denial previously reported by CNN. However, later on Friday, Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi told CNN the AP report was correct.
© 2014 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/17/vatican-rebuts-report-on-defrocked-priests/ [with comments]
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U.N. Panel Questions Vatican on Handling of Clergy Sexual Abuse
Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican's representative to the United Nations, left, spoke to Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, the Vatican's former chief sex crimes prosecutor, in Geneva on Thursday.
Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE and LAURIE GOODSTEIN
JAN. 16, 2014
GENEVA — The Vatican faced a barrage of pointed questions from a United Nations panel on Thursday about how it had handled decades of reports of clergy sexual abuse, the first such prolonged interrogation by an international body and a moment long awaited by abuse victims in many countries.
Vatican representatives insisted that abuse cases were not primarily the responsibility of the Vatican, but of local dioceses and law enforcement officials with the authority to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators. But in their remarks, the Vatican officials said that the church could and should do better to prevent these crimes.
Bishop Charles J. Scicluna, who was the Vatican’s chief prosecutor of sexual abuse until 2012, told the panel: “The Holy See gets it. Let’s not say too late or not, but there are certain things that need to be done differently.”
The hearing in Geneva happened on the same day that Pope Francis celebrated morning Mass alongside an American cardinal who was widely disgraced last year in the abuse scandal. At the Mass, Francis delivered a homily about scandal in the church, never mentioning sexual abuse, but speaking of “those failings of priests, bishops, laity.”
“But are we ashamed?” Francis said, according to a Vatican Radio transcript [ http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/01/16/pope_francis:_scandals_happen_when_there_is_no_true_relationship_with/en1-764583 ]. “So many scandals that I do not want to mention individually, but all of us know.”
The United Nations committee in Geneva was looking into the Vatican’s failure to adhere to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child [ http://www.unicef.org/crc/ ], which calls on signers to protect children from harm, including sexual and physical abuse. The committee will issue final observations and recommendations on Feb. 5, but it has no authority to issue sanctions, and its recommendations are nonbinding.
The Center for Constitutional Rights, based in New York and representing victims of abuse, submitted reams of documents and victims’ testimony as evidence that the Vatican had allowed abusers to remain in ministry and shuttled them to different locations without informing law enforcement officials or local parishes.
The committee questioned the Vatican officials about their ambassador to the Dominican Republic, who is being investigated by Dominican prosecutors about accusations that he sexually abused children. The ambassador, Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, was recalled to the Vatican in August, and last week the Vatican denied a request to extradite him to the Dominican Republic.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, told the panel that the ambassador’s case would be handled by a Vatican tribunal because he is a citizen of the Vatican, and that the case would get “the severity it deserves.”
Sara de Jesús Oviedo Fierro, the United Nations committee’s vice president, asked the Vatican representatives why, if the church had a policy of “zero tolerance” of abusers, there were “efforts to cover up and obscure these types of cases?”
Bishop Scicluna said: “It is not the policy of the Holy See to encourage cover-ups. This is against the truth.”
The panel questioned Bishop Scicluna persistently about why the Holy See does not make it mandatory for local dioceses to report abuse to civil authorities. Many countries do not require such reporting. “Our guidelines have always said the domestic law of the country needs to be followed,” he said.
Barbara Blaine, the president of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, in Geneva for the hearing, said in a telephone news conference during a break that survivors were grateful to the United Nations committee. “Even if one child is kept safe, all of this will be worth it,” she said. But at the end of the day she said it was “insulting and disingenuous” for Vatican officials to say local courts were responsible for bringing about justice “when it’s church officials who are obstructing justice.”
In Rome, meanwhile, Francis celebrated morning Mass and held a private audience with Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the former archbishop of Los Angeles, who was publicly shamed last year after documents revealed he had a history of protecting priests [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/us/catholics-gather-in-california-haunted-by-cardinals-scandal.html ] accused of sexual abuse.
Cardinal Mahony was relieved of his public duties early last year by his successor after the court-ordered release of documents chronicling decades of mishandling people accused of being sexual predators in the Los Angeles archdiocese.
On Wednesday, Cardinal Mahony took to Twitter and his blog to broadcast his delight about his time with the pope. The cardinal wrote that most of their private conversation was about the plight of immigrants and refugees, and what the church could do to help them. But he noted that Francis’ homily during the Mass was about scandal.
Francis preached, “Scandals in the church happen because there is no living relationship with God and his word.”
Nick Cumming-Bruce reported from Geneva, and Laurie Goodstein from New York.
© 2014 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/world/europe/un-sex-abuse-panel-questions-vatican-officials.html
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No Charges in Archdiocese's Handling of Abuse Case
Curtis Wehmeyer mug shot
[ http://www.kare11.com/story/news/crime/2014/01/29/no-charges-filed-in-alleged-archdiocese-abuse-coverup/5023821/ ]
By AMY FORLITI
ST. PAUL, Minn. January 29, 2014 (AP)
Minnesota prosecutors said Wednesday they would not charge members of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis over the way they handled allegations of sexual abuse by a priest, saying there was not enough evidence to prove anyone — including another priest who learned during a confession of the molestation — violated the law.
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said his office can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone failed to immediately report allegations of abuse by the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for molesting two brothers.
But, Choi said, the overall investigation into allegations of clergy sexual misconduct, and the archdiocese's response, is far from over.
"We will only allow facts to lead the way, and we will pursue justice without fear or favor while doing our best to leave no stone unturned," Choi said, later adding: "I continue to be troubled by some of the church's reporting practices."
In a separate case, Washington County prosecutors said Wednesday they would not charge another archdiocesan priest, the Rev. Jonathan Shelley, who had been accused of possessing child pornography. Prosecutors said authorities concluded none of the images on Shelley's old computer were illegal.
In a statement Wednesday, the archdiocese said it is grateful for the investigations, and it continues to cooperate with authorities. The archdiocese also said it teaches employees and volunteers that any suspected abuse should be reported to law enforcement for investigation.
The Wehmeyer and Shelley cases were among several that raised questions about the way the archdiocese handled abuse cases after a church insider went public with her concerns last year.
Internal documents showed church leaders knew Wehmeyer had issues with sexual misconduct, including at least two solicitations of men for sex, before he was promoted to lead The Church of the Blessed Sacrament in 2009.
According to the criminal charges, Wehmeyer went on to molest two brothers in 2010. The allegations were brought to church officials in 2012, and Wehmeyer was charged and pleaded guilty.
Choi said he asked St. Paul police to investigate after questions were raised about when the Wehmeyer case was reported to authorities.
Under the law, clergy would be required to report suspected sexual abuse to authorities within 24 hours. However, if the abuse is revealed during confession or when someone is seeking spiritual advice, the information is exempt.
In a document released Wednesday, prosecutors said the mother of the two victims went to a priest on two occasions, both during confession, about possible abuse by Wehmeyer. Police were notified after the mother went to a church victim's advocate on June 19 or June 20.
The prosecutors' decision to decline charges angered Jeff Anderson, an attorney for many church abuse victims. Anderson said the case should be reopened because a deacon and a top archdiocesan official warned Wehmeyer of his impending arrest, giving him a chance to destroy evidence.
"This is a very disturbing day," Anderson said.
But Choi said church officials' actions didn't impede the criminal prosecution of Wehmeyer, and the case is considered complete unless new information comes forward.
As the scandal around the archdiocese grew last fall, Archbishop John Nienstedt appointed a task force to examine church policies on abuse allegations, and he ordered a review of all priest files. He has also apologized to the archdiocese's more than 800,000 Catholics.
Nienstedt himself has been accused of improperly touching a boy while posing for a photo during a confirmation ceremony, a claim he vehemently denies. Nienstedt has removed himself from public ministry while the case is being investigated.
Despite those moves, St. Paul police earlier complained that church officials were not forthcoming with information. Police Chief Thomas Smith said Wednesday cooperation has improved, but he expects the archdiocese to be transparent.
"Have we had more access? Yes we have," Smith said. "Can more be done? Yes it can."
In the Washington County case, head prosecutor Pete Orput said investigators concluded there was no evidence of child pornography on computer files that once belonged to Shelley. The case against him — which was reopened last year after new information was brought to police — is considered closed.
Shelley's attorney, Paul Engh, said his client is relieved.
"Father Shelley is pleased that the matter has ended," Engh said. "He looks forward to a life now free of unfair suspicion."
Shelley, who has been on leave, would like to return to active ministry, Engh said, adding he didn't know when or if that would happen.
Prosecutors, police and the archdiocese encouraged other victims of clergy sexual abuse to come forward. Choi extended that request to victims who have already settled lawsuits against the archdiocese, no matter how long ago, saying the decision in the Wehmeyer case is just the beginning.
"There will be more decisions to come as this investigation unfolds," Choi said
© 2014 Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/charges-minn-church-leaders-abuse-case-22282660 [ http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/charges-minn-church-leaders-abuse-case-22282660?singlePage=true ] [with comments]
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Catholic Diocese Files for Bankruptcy Protection
By MATT VOLZ
January 31, 2014
HELENA, Mont. (AP) - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena filed for bankruptcy protection Friday as part of a proposed $15 million settlement for hundreds of victims who say clergy members sexually abused them over decades while the church covered it up.
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan comes after confidential mediation sessions with the plaintiffs' attorneys and insurers, resulting in a proposed deal to resolve the abuse claims, diocese officials said.
Bishop George Leo Thomas expressed "his profound sorrow" and apologized to the victims in a news conference.
"I know the pain is real, the pain is in the present tense, and in the name of the church, I want to say I'm sorry and we're sorry as a church," Thomas said.
The $15 million "will at least be a beginning point for people who are seeking resolution in their lives and in their hearts," he added.
In addition to the money, the diocese must publicly apologize, publish the names of clergy members who have been credibly accused of abuse, offer to meet with abuse survivors, provide victim counseling and reinforce its policies and procedures to prevent abuse, plaintiffs' attorneys said.
The diocese already has set up abuse-prevention programs, including worker screenings, a claims-review board and a hotline to report abuse.
The settlement details are being worked out, but the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Montana would be responsible for approving and supervising the disbursement of $15 million to compensate the 362 victims identified in the two lawsuits.
In addition, at least $2.5 million will be set aside for victims who come forward later, according to the diocese.
The church anticipates paying that $2.5 million, with the rest paid by insurers.
The victims and creditors will have the chance to vote on the proposed settlement, diocese officials said.
Church officials are planning to pay the diocese's share of the settlement with cash, though they may have to sell some property in the future, Thomas said.
The diocese was in a precarious financial position before the lawsuits were filed, and a reorganization was already likely, he said.
Court documents filed Friday show the diocese has estimated assets between $1 million and $10 million, and estimated liabilities between $10 million and $50 million.
Molly Howard, an attorney for the plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits, said she believes the bankruptcy process will resolve the case more quickly than years of litigation and trials with uncertain outcomes.
"Given the age and ill health of many of the victims, this is in their best interest," Howard said.
The Helena diocese is the 11th in the nation to seek bankruptcy protection in the face of sex-abuse claims.
David Clohessy, the executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, criticized the diocese for seeking bankruptcy protection, saying it will allow church officials to keep records closed that might have come out in a trial.
He also said the settlement falls short because it does not publicly name the church officials who shielded and protected predator clergy members.
"Those individuals have to be exposed and punished," Clohessy said.
Thomas said in response that church officials will comb their records to see if there were "intentional failures of leadership." But the records from the time of the abuse are incomplete, he said.
The two lawsuits filed in 2011 claim clergy members groomed and then abused the children from the 1940s to the 1970s. They claim the diocese shielded the offenders and knew or should have known the threat they posed to children.
The plaintiffs, the diocese and the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province, another defendant, began mediation talks in 2012, but the talks faltered with legal challenges by the church's insurers over the claims they are obligated to cover.
A court hearing was scheduled for Friday ahead of the first civil trials, which were to begin in March. Howard said she expects the court proceedings will be suspended.
The diocese's territory covers all or part of 23 counties in western Montana and employs about 200 people in its parishes, schools and social-service programs. It was created in 1884, five years before Montana became a state, and covered the entire state until the Diocese of Great Falls was formed in 1904, according to the Helena diocese's website.
The Diocese of Great Falls-Billings now covers the eastern half of Montana.
Most clergy members who were accused in the lawsuits have died, and none remains in active ministry, diocese officials said.
In one of the lawsuits, the plaintiffs said they were repeatedly raped, fondled or forced to perform sex acts while at school, on the playground, on camping trips or at the victims' homes.
The second lawsuit, filed a week after the first in 2011, includes 95 of the 362 plaintiffs and contains similar allegations against priests, but also alleged that nuns at the Ursuline Academy in St. Ignatius abused dozens of Native American children.
The Ursulines are not part of the proposed settlement, the diocese said.
Blaine Tamaki, the plaintiffs' attorney in that lawsuit, said the case against the Ursulines will proceed to its July date.
Tom Johnson, an attorney for the Ursulines, acknowledged the sides were still far apart in negotiations, but that the order intends to either settle or file for bankruptcy on its own.
© 2014 Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/catholic-diocese-files-bankruptcy-protection-22313269 [ http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/catholic-diocese-files-bankruptcy-protection-22313269?singlePage=true ] [with comments]
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Statement from the diocese
January 31, 2014
The Diocese of Helena released the following statement this morning, and will hold a press conference this afternoon, Jan. 31, in Helena:
The Diocese of Helena released the following statement this morning, and will hold a press conference this afternoon, Jan. 31, in Helena:
The Diocese of Helena has taken a major step toward bringing resolution to 362 claims of abuse of minors by diocesan priests, religious community priests, women religious and lay workers who have served in the diocese, primarily between 30 and 60 years ago.
On Friday, January 31, 2014, the Diocese will be filing a chapter 11 reorganization case before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Montana to complete pre-bankruptcy mediated negotiations with known abuse survivors and the Diocese’s liability insurance carriers.
The Diocese chose a pastoral mode and entered into a confidential mediation process. The mediation resulted in the general parameters of proposed settlements with the victims and the insurance carriers. The details of written agreements are still being worked on by the parties. Under the supervision and ultimate approval of the Bankruptcy Court, $15 million would be available to compensate the currently identified victims with additional settlement funds for other and unknown victims. The process of obtaining Bankruptcy Court approval included the opportunity for victims and creditors to vote on the proposed settlement. The Diocese expects that its reorganization will be expedited by the pre-bankruptcy negotiations with all of the affected parties.
“On behalf of the entire Diocese of Helena, I express my profound sorrow and sincere apologies to anyone who was abused by a priest, a sister, or a lay Church worker,” said Helena Bishop George Leo Thomas. “No child should experience harm from anyone who serves in the Church.”
The diocese has abuse prevention programs in place, including screening and training for employees, volunteers, priests and seminarians. The diocese has a board to review claims of abuse, whose members include a mother, a pastor, a deputy prosecutor, a retired law enforcement officer, social workers, and a counselor. Anyone wishing to report sexual abuse of a minor may contact the Victim’s Advocate for the diocese at 406-459-0513.
Bishop Thomas indicated: “I want to assure you that none of those who have been credibly accused remain active in ministry at this time. In fact, the majority of those accused have died.” The bishop also noted that the Diocese has taken responsibility in this matter for claims involving members of religious communities who have served here. Efforts to include the Ursuline Sisters in the proposed settlements were inconclusive and they are not participating in the proposed resolution of this litigation.
The majority of the proposed settlement for known and unknown victims will be funded by diocesan insurance carriers. It is anticipated that the diocese will need to provide at least $2.5 million to fund claims and the costs associated with the Court proceedings. Additionally, the diocese has been experiencing a tenuous financial condition which existed prior to, and is not related to the litigation. This condition has resulted in reduction in staff and services provided by the diocese as well as curtailing many parish building projects.
Bishop Thomas indicated: “While we may be a poorer Church, we remain unwaveringly committed to promoting the Good News of Jesus Christ. Once the reorganization proceedings conclude, we will be able to plan confidently for future ministry for the people of the Church of the Diocese of Helena.”
Copyright 2014 Montana Standard
http://mtstandard.com/click-here-to-read-a-statement-from-the-diocese/article_3164fc94-8aa0-11e3-8080-001a4bcf887a.html
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Chicago archdiocese hid decades of child sex abuse
January 21, 2014
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/sex-abuse-files-on-30-chicago-priests-going-public/2014/01/21/2fe83fe8-8262-11e3-a273-6ffd9cf9f4ba_story.html [with comments]
http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/21/4765410/sex-abuse-files-on-30-chicago.html [with comments]
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140121/NATION/301210066/Chicago-archdiocese-hid-decades-child-sex-abuse-documents-show [with comment]
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Key dates in Chicago archdiocese's sex abuse cases
January 21, 2014
http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/21/4765806/key-dates-in-chicago-archdioceses.html [no comments yet]
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In Files, a History of Sexual Abuse by Priests in Chicago Archdiocese
JAN. 21, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/us/chicago-archdiocese-records-of-abuse-complaints.html
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Papers detail decades of sex abuse by priests
Secret files hid archdiocese's mishandling of scores of cases
January 21, 2014
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-priest-abuse-20140121,0,6326053.story [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Chicago Archdiocesan Files Reveal Extent of Sex Abuse Cover-Up
Jan 22, 2014
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/catholic-church-chicago-priest-abuse-files-241175371.html [with embedded video reports, and comments]
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Archdiocese of Chicago Statement Re: the Jeff Anderson Document Release Relating to 30 Archdiocesan Priests Accused of Abusing Minors
21 Jan 2014 10:56
CHICAGO—(ENEWSPF)—January 21, 2014. The documents made public by Jeffrey Anderson relate to 30 Archdiocesan priests accused of abusing minors at various times during the last half century. All of the documents relate to cases that date back many years, in some cases, decades. Ninety-five percent of these cases occurred prior to 1988. Today no priest with even one substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor serves in ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The Archdiocese acknowledges that its leaders made some decisions decades ago that are now difficult to justify. They made those decisions in accordance with the prevailing knowledge at the time. In the past 40 years, society has evolved in dealing with matters related to abuse. Our understanding of and response to domestic violence, sexual harassment, date rape, and clerical sexual abuse have undergone significant change and so has the Archdiocese of Chicago. While we complied with the reporting laws in place at the time, the Church and its leaders have acknowledged repeatedly that they wished they had done more and done it sooner, but now are working hard to regain trust, to reach out to victims and their families, and to make certain that all children and youth are protected.
We realize the information included in these documents is upsetting. It is painful to read. It is not the Church we know or the Church we want to be. The Archdiocese sincerely apologizes for the hurt and suffering of the victims and their families as a result of this abuse. Our hope is through this release of documents and the work we are doing through our Office for the Protection of Children and Youth we can help further promote healing among all those affected by these crimes.
The Archdiocese of Chicago is in full compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, adopted by the U.S. Bishops in Dallas in June 2002. We refer all reports of sexual abuse immediately to civil authorities. The Archdiocese’s independent Review Board examines the findings of all investigations and makes recommendations to the archbishop regarding fitness for ministry and safety of children.
The Archdiocese of Chicago is concerned first and foremost with the healing of abuse victims and has maintained a victim assistance ministry for more than 25 years. In addition, the Archdiocesan Office for the Protection of Children and Youth, charged with assisting victims and their families and preventing abuse, has trained and processed background checks on more than 160,000 priests, deacons, religious, lay employees and volunteers; conducted more than 3,000 training sessions; and trained more than 200,000 children to protect themselves from sexual predators. For more information about the Office for the Protection of Children and Youth, please visit http://www.protectandhealchicago.org .
The abuse of any child is a crime and a sin. The Archdiocese encourages anyone who has been sexually abused by a priest, deacon, religious or lay employee, to come forward. Complete information about reporting sexual abuse can be found on the Archdiocesan website at http://www.archchicago.org/departments/protection/protection.shtm .
Source: http://www.archchicago.org
http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/latest-local/49488-archdiocese-of-chicago-statement-re-the-jeff-anderson-document-release-relating-to-30-archdiocesan-priests-accused-of-abusing-minors.html
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'Gut-Wrenching' Chicago Clergy Abuse Documents Go Online
January 21, 2014
http://krwg.org/post/gut-wrenching-chicago-clergy-abuse-documents-go-online [no comments yet]
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Archdiocese of Chicago Documents
http://www.andersonadvocates.com/Archdiocese-of-Chicago-Documents.aspx , via http://www.andersonadvocates.com/default.aspx
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The Chicago Archive
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/docs/chicago/files.htm , via http://bishopaccountability.org/
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Pope Francis: Internet Is 'Gift From God' For Dialogue
01/23/14
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/pope-francis-internet-_n_4650198.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Jesse Ryan Loskarn, former Lamar Alexander aide, dead in suicide
By Ed O'Keefe
January 24 at 12:34 pm - Updated 1:34 p.m.
Jesse Ryan Loskarn, a former aide to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) who faced charges of possessing and distributing child pornography, hanged himself and died Thursday in a Maryland home, his family and police officials said Friday.
Loskarn was found dead around noon Thursday in the basement of his parents' house in Sykesville, Md., according to the Carroll County Sheriff's Department. Loskarn died after hanging himself, according to Bruce Goldfarb, a spokesman with Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Maryland.
Known as a fast-rising GOP operative, the 35-year old began his career working for House lawmakers, moved next to the Senate Republican messaging shop and finally served as chief of staff to Alexander.
As with many longtime congressional staffers who ascend to top jobs in the Senate, Loskarn began his career as an aide to former Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.), Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and the House Rules Committee. In 2007, he became a spokesman for the Senate Republican Conference – the messaging shop for Republican senators. Colleagues in both parties and the reporters he worked with considered him a kind and deft communications staffer with easy access to top aides and senators.
He became staff director of the Republican Conference in 2009 when Alexander assumed control of the office. Alexander later asked Loskarn to run his personal office after the senator stepped down from his leadership role.
But Loskarn's rapid rise ended suddenly last month when he was arrested at his home [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/12/11/authorities-investigating-alexanders-chief-of-staff-on-child-pornography-allegations/ ] and arraigned on federal child pornography charges. Police used a battering ram to gain entry into his home, where, they said, they recovered a hard drive from the roof that contained digital videos of child pornography. According to a criminal complaint [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/child-porn-videos-found-on-computer-hard-drive-of-senators-chief-of-staff-court-papers/2013/12/12/33db4ada-635b-11e3-91b3-f2bb96304e34_story.html ], Loskarn purchased several videos between November 2010 and March 2011 from a movie production company that was under investigation by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Toronto Police Service.
A judge later released Loskarn to his parents in Sykesville, and ordered him not to access the Internet while awaiting a future court date. A grand jury indictment of Loskarn was originally scheduled to be released this month, but a judge approved a 30-day delay after prosecutors said it would take more time to compile evidence because of the holiday season.
In a statement Friday, his parents Chuck and Gay Loskarn said, “We loved our son very much, and we’re devastated by his death. Please respect our privacy at this difficult time and let us grieve in peace. Pray for him, his family and friends.”
News of Loskarn's arrest had stunned the close-knit Capitol Hill community and was revealed only after Alexander announced it in a statement. That day the senator quickly "removed" Loskarn from his duties and fired him after the arrest.
On Friday, Alexander said in a statement that “For everyone involved, this is a sad and tragic story from beginning to end."
© 2014 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/01/24/jesse-ryan-loskarn-former-lamar-alexander-aide-found-dead-in-apparent-suicide/ [with embedded video report]
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Former U.S. Senate aide facing child porn charges found dead: police
Fri Jan 24, 2014 1:31pm EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former top U.S. Senate aide awaiting trial on child pornography charges was found dead after what may have been a suicide, a Maryland sheriff's department said on Friday.
The body of Jesse Loskarn, 35, a former chief of staff to Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, was discovered in the basement of his family's home in Sykesville, Maryland, on Thursday, the Carroll County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. A preliminary investigation indicates he may have taken his own life, the statement said.
Loskarn was arrested last month by U.S. postal agents on suspicion of possessing and attempting to distribute child pornography.
Alexander, who is seeking a third term this year, fired Loskarn following his arrest.
"For everyone involved, this is a sad and tragic story from beginning to end," Alexander said in a statement.
A judge released Loskarn last month into the custody of his parents, who live in Sykesville, and ordered him to have no access to the Internet while under house arrest.
A criminal complaint said a hard drive seized at Loskarn's home in Washington, D.C., contained footage of a prepubescent girl being molested, along with hundreds of videos of underage boys engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
The arrest stemmed from an investigation launched in 2010 by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Toronto police into a movie production company that made films featuring naked young boys, according to the criminal complaint. One of the company's customers was Loskarn, the complaint said.
Loskarn had faced a total maximum of 30 years in prison for the two charges.
(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Chris Reese and Alden Bentley)
Copyright 2014 Thomson Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/24/us-usa-congress-alexander-idUSBREA0N1DX20140124 [with comments]
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Senate Aide Arrested On Child Porn Charges Says He Was Abused In Suicide Note
A suicide note written by Jesse Ryan Loskarn, a former Senate aide, was published online late Monday night. Loskarn was arrested on federal child porn charges in December.
01/28/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/28/jesse-ryan-loskarn-suicide-note_n_4680613.html [with comments; Loskarn's note at http://www.jesseryanloskarnslastmessage.com/333880300 ]
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Gay Marriages Confront Catholic School Rules
Students at a Catholic school near Seattle protested a vice principal’s ouster after he wed a man.
David Ryder/Reuters
By MICHAEL PAULSON
JAN. 22, 2014
SAMMAMISH, Wash. — Eastside Catholic [ http://www.eastsidecatholic.org/aboutec ] prides itself on teaching acceptance. At the end of Crusader Way, by the school’s entrance, banners hang celebrating “relationships” and exhorting passers-by to “remember to take care of each other.” Students use a sign-language gesture to remind one another of the school’s emphasis on unconditional love.
But now the school is unexpectedly grappling with how it defines both love and acceptance. Last month, a well-regarded vice principal was forced to leave his job as soon as administrators became aware that he had married a man; in the weeks since, the suburban Seattle school has been roiled, first by protests in support of the vice principal, and then by the resignations of those who sought his departure. The chairman of the school’s board resigned last month, and on Tuesday, Eastside, a middle and high school with about 900 students, announced the resignation of its president.
The ouster of Mr. Z, as the former vice principal, Mark Zmuda, is known, comes amid a wave of firings and forced resignations of gay men and lesbians from Roman Catholic institutions across the country, in most cases prompted not directly by the employees’ sexuality, but by their decisions to marry as same-sex marriage becomes legal in an increasing number of states.
Mark Zmuda, called Mr. Z.
King 5 News
This month, the band and choir director at a Catholic school in Ohio [ http://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/st-mary-band-director-fired/5163951 ] was fired hours after he told the school’s president that he planned to marry his boyfriend; in December, a French and Spanish teacher at a Catholic school in Pennsylvania [ http://articles.philly.com/2013-12-10/news/44993556_1_marriage-license-michael-griffin-mccloskey ] was fired days after telling his principal he was applying for a marriage license in New Jersey. Similar ousters have taken place at Catholic schools, universities and parishes in Arkansas [ http://ualrpublicradio.org/post/arkansas-teacher-seeks-apology-catholic-school-after-gay-marriage-firing ], California [ http://www.sbsun.com/general-news/20130731/glendora-catholic-school-dismisses-gay-rancho-cucamonga-teacher-after-publicized-wedding ], Illinois [ http://www.sj-r.com/x1109354817/Newspaper-wedding-announcement-costs-gay-woman-her-job-at-Benedictine-University ], Missouri [ http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/catholic-school-fires-gay-teacher-planning-wedding/article_c65612c2-c939-55e2-b379-acfffcd594ed.html ], New York [ http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/catholic-church-removes-married-gay-man-from-oceanside-duties-1.5009906 ] and North Carolina [ http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/02/11/3001722/music-directors-marriage-leads.html#.UtcGWLQQNLM ].
For Catholic school and church leaders across the country, the issue is clear. The Roman Catholic Church opposes same-sex marriage, and school officials, including Mr. Zmuda, generally sign contracts saying they will abide by church teachings so that their lives can be models for their students.
But for some young Catholics, the firings are mystifying, particularly given the new tone set by Pope Francis. At Eastside Catholic, some students have taken to crafting banners with the quotation “Who am I to judge?,” words uttered by the pope when asked about gay priests; others have been trying to reach the pope via Twitter, hoping he will somehow intercede.
“He made it safe for people to raise issues and questions that, in the past, they were shut down for,” said Nancy Walton-House, whose son attended Eastside. “There’s a lot of hope, and maybe some naïveté, about how fast things can happen.”
Eastside’s senior-class president, Bradley Strode, a 17-year-old wrestler and lacrosse player, is seeking a meeting with the archbishop of Seattle, arguing that even if the church’s doctrine does not change, its employment practices should.
“It was just shocking that the Catholic Church would turn its back on a teacher for something that didn’t affect his work performance,” he said. “Gay marriage was something I never really thought about before, but everyone can agree that employment discrimination is wrong.”
A sign backed Mark Zmuda, the former vice principal and swimming coach at Eastside Catholic.
David Ryder/Reuters
Last week, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle issued a statement [ http://www.seattlearchdiocese.org/Assets/News/4386_ECS.pdf ] defending the school and rejecting the notion that the firing ran contrary to the direction of the new pope.
“Pope Francis has often reminded us of the limitless mercy of God, for Jesus came to bring his father’s mercy,” Archbishop Sartain said. “At the same time, Pope Francis has also reminded us of our responsibility as Catholics to live the timeless truth of church teaching on a wide variety of topics, including the sacredness of traditional marriage.”
Some students have quietly expressed support for the decision to remove Mr. Zmuda, but the prevailing sentiment at the school has been upset, reflecting, in part, the shifting attitudes toward same-sex marriage among young people.
“A lot of it is just generational,” said Christian Smith, a professor of sociology at Notre Dame who studies the religious lives of teenagers. “It’s a distinct minority who thinks there’s something wrong with same-sex relationships, and that’s a big change from older generations.”
Eastside Catholic, faced with intense blowback and sustained publicity over the removal of Mr. Zmuda, has defended its decision but is clearly concerned about the impact on applicants and donors as some students, parents and alumni ask what the ouster means about the school they have chosen and cheered.
This month, in a step many in the school community have found confusing, administrators gave a short-term contract to a choreographer who, in a show of support for Mr. Zmuda, had announced on talk radio that she was engaged to her girlfriend.
The students Julia Troy, Julia Burns and Ian Edwards have protested Mr. Zmuda’s ouster.
Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times
“It’s great that they’re keeping me, but it’s a little confusing,” said the choreographer, Stephanie Merrow, 41, who taught the school’s students to dance in a 2012 production of “Footloose,” and is now doing the same for this year’s production of “Guys and Dolls.”
“I feel for them,” she said. “I think maybe a mistake was made, and now what do they do?”
The school’s president, Sister Mary E. Tracy, had also sent mixed signals. She initially suggested to Mr. Zmuda that he might be able to keep his job if he got divorced, and then oversaw his ouster. After weeks of protest, she asked Julia Burns, an 18-year-old senior, to share with the public this comment: “I look forward to the day when no individual loses their job because they are married to a person of the same sex.” Sister Mary did not respond to requests for an interview.
On Tuesday, when the board announced Sister Mary’s resignation, it called the step “a difficult, but necessary decision so that a new leader can be brought in to ensure the entire Eastside Catholic community is moving forward on a positive path.”
Mr. Zmuda had not been at the school long, but he was liked by students, especially on the swim team, which he coached. He married in July, seven months after same-sex marriage became legal in Washington State, and he was ousted in December, shortly after the school’s administration received a complaint from a teacher about his marital status.
As students began to hear about his dismissal, they sprang into action.
Eastside has kept Stephanie Merrow, who is gay, as a choreographer. “It’s a little confusing,” she said.
Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times
“I found out about it and just texted 15 or 16 people,” said Ian Edwards, 17, a senior. Word spread quickly, and students staged an impromptu sit-in, skipping classes and gathering in a commons to talk, and, in some cases, to cry. “We just shouldn’t allow this discrimination to happen.”
Over the next weeks, the students took to social media to rally support, gathering signatures on an online petition and communicating via Twitter and texts. They protested outside Sammamish City Hall, at a Seahawks game and outside the archdiocese of Seattle, where they were joined by Ed Murray, then the city’s mayor-elect, who is Catholic and gay. Also this month, many students wore orange — the more attention-getting of the school’s two colors — to class one day to express their concern; and on Jan. 31, the students are hoping that other Catholic schools across the nation will join them in a similar act.
Alumni and parents are organizing online as they seek to force change at the school.
“If I had read the school handbook and it said, ‘We will hire you, but if we find out you are gay and you are married, we will fire you,’ I would not have put my kids there,” said Florence Colburn, who has two children at the school.
And Corey Sinser, 26, said he was an enthusiastic alumnus (class of 2006), but that now, “I worry that this will have a negative effect on the type of students who want to come, or the type of teachers who want to work there.”
Some are hoping Mr. Zmuda will get his job back; others are seeking a change in the school’s employment practices.
Julia Troy, 17, a senior, said she believed that speaking up was an outcome itself.
“I have gay friends, and I care about them,” she said. “Even if all that happens is they know that I support them, that’s enough for me.”
© 2014 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/us/gay-marriages-confront-catholic-school-rules.html [with comments]
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Rev. Thomas Ogletree, Another Methodist Pastor, To Be Tried For Presiding At Same Sex Wedding Of Son
A wedding cake with a male couple is seen at The Abbey restaurant at a celebration of the over100 same-sex marriages performed today in West Hollywood, California, July 1 2013.. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted California's ban on same-sex marriages just three days after the Supreme Court ruled that supporters of the ban, Proposition 8, could not defend it before the high court.
(ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)
Posted: 01/17/2014 12:12 pm EST | Updated: 01/22/2014 9:49 am EST
NEW YORK (AP) — The United Methodist Church has formally charged another clergyman for presiding at the same-sex wedding of his son.
The Rev. Thomas Ogletree will be tried March 10 for violating church law against officiating at gay unions, his spokeswoman, Dorothee Benz, announced Friday. It's the second high-profile United Methodist trial in recent months over same-sex relationships. In December, pastor Frank Schaefer of central Pennsylvania was defrocked after he officiated at his son's gay wedding. The church considers homosexuality "incompatible with Christian teaching."
Ogletree is a theologian, a former Yale Divinity School dean and a retired elder in the church's New York district, or Annual Conference. Some clergy had filed a complaint after his son's 2012 wedding announcement appeared in The New York Times.
Ogletree, 80, said he could not refuse his son's request to preside at the wedding, which was held in New York, where gay marriage is legally recognized.
"It is a shame that the church is choosing to prosecute me for this act of love, which is entirely in keeping with my ordination vows to 'seek peace, justice, and freedom for all people' and with Methodism's historic commitment to inclusive ministry embodied in its slogan 'open hearts, open minds, open doors,'" Ogletree said in a statement.
Bishop Martin McLee, who leads the New York Annual Conference, could not be immediately reached for comment Friday.
The Rev. Randall Paige of Christ Church UMC in Port Jefferson Station, N.Y., led the group of clergy who had filed the complaint against Ogletree, according to United Methodist News Service. An administrator at Christ Church said Paige was off Friday and could not immediately be reached for comment. Theologically conservative Methodists have said they file formal complaints reluctantly, hoping to find another resolution for their disagreements, but feel clergy must be held accountable when they violate church policy.
Like other mainline Protestant groups, Methodists have been debating for decades over whether the Bible condemns or condones same-gender relationships. However, other mainline groups, such as the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, have in recent years taken key steps toward accepting same-sex couples. The top Methodist policy-making body, General Conference, has repeatedly rejected changing church law on homosexuality, including in their most recent vote at a 2012 meeting.
In the last few years, as gay marriage has gained legal recognition by U.S. states, Methodists advocating for gays and lesbians have intensified their protests, hosting gay weddings in Methodist churches or officiating the ceremonies elsewhere.
Two other similar cases are pending within the Methodist church. The Rev. Stephen Heiss of the Upper New York Annual Conference is expected to face a church trial for presiding at same-sex marriages, including officiating at his daughter's 2002 wedding. The Rev. Sara Thompson Tweedy, of the New York Annual Conference, is facing a formal complaint that she is a "self-avowed practicing" lesbian, or lives openly with a same-sex partner, which is barred by church law.
Ogletree's trial will be held at First United Methodist Church in Stamford, Conn.
The United Methodist Church is the second-largest Protestant group in the U.S. and claims 12.5 million members worldwide.
© 2014 Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/rev-thomas-ogletree_n_4618151.html [with comments]
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Juan Pablo Galavis Slams Gay Bachelor as Poor Example, Says Homosexuals are Perverted
Juan Pablo is ready to hand out a rose. Can any woman resist him?
January 20, 2014
http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2014/01/juan-pablo-galavis-slams-gay-bachelor-as-poor-example-says-homos/ [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Juan Pablo Galavis: Gays Should Not Be Allowed To Be ‘The Bachelor’
TV ‘Bachelor’ Juan Pablo Galavis is having a DUCK DYNASTY moment.
“I don’t think it is a good example for kids to watch that on TV"
January 17, 2014
http://thetvpage.com/2014/01/17/juan-pablo-galavis-gays-allowed-bachelor/ [audio of the comments, at http://soundcloud.com/thetvpage-com/juan-pablo-galavis-no-gays-on (with comments), embedded; with comments] [and see e.g. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/18/juan-pablo-gay-bachelor_n_4622691.html (with embedded video report, and comments)]
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The First Gay Bachelor with Jesse Tyler Ferguson and George Takei
Published on Nov 26, 2013 by Funny Or Die [ http://www.youtube.com/user/FunnyorDie ]
The reality tv show gets a new spin when one gay man looks for love in a mansion filled with lots of other gay men looking for love.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/3dd1026448/the-first-gay-bachelor-with-jesse-tyler-ferguson-and-george-takei
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdKYwI4C4t4 [with comments]
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Cecil Chao, Hong Kong Billionaire, Doubles Reward For Any Man Who Can Make Lesbian Daughter Straight
By James Nichols
Posted: 01/23/2014 12:37 pm EST | Updated: 01/24/2014 10:59 am EST
A Hong Kong billionaire reportedly just doubled down [ http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1411617/billion-dollars-man-who-marries-my-lesbian-daughter-gigi-chao-upset ] on his offer of a massive amount of money for any man who can win the heart of his lesbian daughter.
Cecil Chao first made headlines in September 2012 when he announced the initial offer of $65 million [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/hong-kong-businessman-reward-lesbian-daughter_n_1916277.html ] after his daughter, Gigi Chao, reportedly eloped with her female partner in France.
Chao then told The Financial Times in January 2013 that the offer still stood, and if a man could woo his daughter he "will give them a moderately deluxe life [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/28/cecil-chao-sze-tsung-lesbian-daughter-marriage-bounty-65-million_n_2567720.html ]." He added, "I would not force her to marry a man. But obviously I would, from my point of view, prefer her to be married and to have grandchildren.”
Now, Chao is upping the ante by offering approximately $130 million [ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2544516/Billionaire-offered-40million-turn-lesbian-daughter-straight-doubles-offer-20-000-suitors-failed.html ] to any man who can sweep Chao off her feet after his first offer reportedly attracted 20,000 unsuccessful suitors [ http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/01/21/Tycoon-doubles-marriage-reward-to-RM430mil/ ].
“I don’t think my dad’s offering of any amount of money would be able to attract a man I would find attractive," Chao stated in an interview with the South China Morning Post [ http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1411617/billion-dollars-man-who-marries-my-lesbian-daughter-gigi-chao-upset ]. “I would be happy to befriend any man willing to donate huge amounts of money to my charity Faith in Love, provided they don't mind that I already have a wife. Third and lastly, thank you Daddy, I love you too.”
Anyone up for a challenge?
Editor's note: The use of the word "lesbian" in this story and headline is meant to refer to Gigi's current relationship with another woman. It is unclear if she identifies as a lesbian, bisexual, queer or some other orientation.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis in original)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/hong-kong-billionaire-lesbian_n_4652726.html [with comments]
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Gigi Chao, Daughter Of Hong Kong Billionaire Cecil Chao, Pens Open Letter
01/28/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/28/hong-kong-billionare-daughter_n_4681679.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Cecil Chao, Hong Kong Billionaire, Rescinds Reward For Turning Daughter Straight
01/30/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/30/hong-kong-billionaire-rescinds-offer_n_4695665.html [with comments]
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https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=479309752175143&set=a.192270474212407.34793.192269477545840 [with comments]
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Va. attorney general to fight state's ban on gay marriage
Virginia Attorney General-elect Mark Herring smiles during a news conference at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., on Dec. 18, 2013. Herring has concluded that the state's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional and he will no longer defend it in federal lawsuits challenging it, his office said Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014.
Fri Jan 24, 2014
http://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/nation/va-attorney-general-state-s-ban-on-gay-marriage-unconstitutional/article_414813a8-8424-11e3-85d7-001a4bcf6878.html [no comments yet]
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Reaction is swift and strong to Herring’s challenge to ban on same-sex marriage
Attorney General Mark R. Herring has concluded that Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and that he will no longer defend it in federal lawsuits.
January 23, 2014
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/reaction-is-swift-and-strong-to-herrings-plans-not-to-defend-marriage-amendment/2014/01/23/7adf421c-8438-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Va. Republicans ready to defend same-sex marriage ban
January 23, 2014
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-to-fight-same-sex-marriage-ban/2014/01/23/9e5aa210-8431-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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On Last Full Day In Office, Ex-Virginia Attorney General Sneaks In Anti-Gay Legal Opinion
CREDIT: (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
By Ian Millhiser
January 13, 2014 at 10:28 am
Just hours before leaving office, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) issued an opinion that appears intended to entrench his own anti-gay policy preferences [ http://hamptonroads.com/2014/01/cuccinelli-issues-opinions-gay-marriage-abortion ] while he could still speak as his state’s top legal officer. Cuccinelli, who once claimed that the “homosexual agenda… brings nothing but self-destruction, not only physically but of their soul [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/11/05/2888221/cuccinelli-defeat-wing-record/ ],” lost his bid for Virginia governor to recently inaugurated Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D).
Cuccinelli’s non-binding opinion [ http://www.oag.state.va.us/Opinions%20and%20Legal%20Resources/OPINIONS/2014opns/13-114%20Marshall.pdf ], which is dated January 10, 2014, concludes that “a Governor may not direct or require any agency of state government to allow same-sex couples to receive joint marital status for Virginia income tax returns.” Cuccinelli’s successor, Democrat Mark Herring, was sworn in January 11 [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mcauliffe-sworn-in-as-virginia-governor/2014/01/11/998095f0-7951-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html ].
The question of whether married same-sex couples may file joint Virginia tax forms hinges upon a potential conflict in state law. Although the state constitution includes an expansive ban on same-sex marriages or similar arrangements [ http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/12/03/3011171/virginia-sex-taxes/ ], gay rights advocates note that forbidding same-sex couples from filing jointly “is in conflict with the state law that requires conformity with federal rules [ http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion/their-opinion/gasta-aga-virginia-approves-taxation-with-discrimination/article_8d190e2b-010b-523f-8db4-efccfced6e0f.html ]” — married couples of all kinds file joint tax returns under federal law.
Additionally, the United States Constitution forbids Virginia from “deny[ing] to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws,” and at least one federal judge has held that states cannot deny marriage equality to same-sex couples under the Fourteenth Amendment [ http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/12/20/3097681/breaking-federal-court-utah-says-marriage-equality-required-constitution/ ].
Gov. McAuliffe, who the voters of Virginia chose over Cuccinelli last November, campaigned on a pro-gay rights platform. His first action as governor was an executive order shielding LGBT state employees from employment discrimination [ http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/01/13/3152881/terry-mcauliffe-kicks-virginia-governorship-protecting-lgbt-workers/ ].
© 2014 Center for American Progress Action Fund
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/01/13/3153171/day-office-outgoing-virginia-attorney-general-sneaks-anti-gay-legal-opinion/ [with comments]
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U.S. District Judge Rules Oklahoma Ban on Marriage Equality Unconstitutional
by HRC staff
January 14, 2014
Today U.S. District Judge Terence Kern ruled [ http://www.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/Bishop_vs_Oklahoma_Opinion_01142014.pdf ] that Oklahoma’s ban on marriage equality is unconstitutional. His ruling is stayed pending appeal, meaning marriages will not occur immediately in the Sooner State.
HRC President Chad Griffin issued the following statement:
“Judge Kern has come to the conclusion that so many have before him – that the fundamental equality of lesbian and gay couples is guaranteed by the United States Constitution. With last year’s historic victories at the Supreme Court [ http://www.hrc.org/SCOTUS ] guiding the way, it is clear that we are on a path to full and equal citizenship for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. Equality is not just for the coasts anymore, and today’s news from Oklahoma shows that time has come for fairness and dignity to reach every American in all 50 states.”
Two plaintiff couples, Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin and Gay Phillips and Susan Barton, filed their case, Bishop v. Oklahoma, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in November 2004. Lead counsel in the case are Don Holladay and James Warner of the Oklahoma City law firm Holladay & Chilton PLLC.
The ruling [ http://www.hrc.org/press-releases/entry/u.s.-district-judge-rules-oklahoma-ban-on-marriage-equality-unconstitutiona ] comes on the heels of a year-long string of electoral, judicial and legislative victories for marriage equality. In recent weeks both the New Mexico Supreme Court [ http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/breaking-new-mexico-court-ruling-extends-marriage-equality-statewide ] and a federal district judge in Utah [ http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/u.s.-district-judge-rules-utah-ban-on-marriage-equality-unconstitutional ] have ruled in favor of marriage for lesbian and gay couples.
Copyright © 2014 The Human Rights Campaign
http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/u.s.-district-judge-rules-oklahoma-ban-on-marriage-equality-unconstitutiona [with comments]
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ACLU Sues Scott Walker, Challenges Wisconsin's Same-Sex Marriage Ban
By Shadee Ashtari
Posted: 02/03/2014 3:08 pm EST | Updated: 02/03/2014 3:59 pm EST
Four same-sex couples represented by the American Civil Liberties Union sued Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and other state top administration officials on Monday, challenging Wisconsin’s seven-year-old ban on gay marriage.
In addition to attempting to overturn the state’s constitutional amendment [ http://fairwisconsin.com/couples/amendment ] barring marriage equality, the lawsuit also seeks to repeal Wisconsin’s "marriage evasion" law [ http://www.wisbar.org/newspublications/wisconsinlawyer/pages/article.aspx?Volume=78&Issue=3&ArticleID=999 ], which criminalizes leaving the state to “contract a marriage that is prohibited or void” in Wisconsin. Couples violating the marriage evasion statute can be fined up to “$10,000 or imprisoned for not more than 9 months or both.”
“Wisconsin is unique in that sense, and so we think that argument particularly exemplifies the harm or the animus toward same-sex couples in some parts of the country,” John Knight, director of ACLU's LGBT and AIDS Project, told the Washington Blade [ http://www.washingtonblade.com/2014/02/03/wisconsin-lawsuit/ ] on Monday.
The couples in the lawsuit are Roy Badger and Garth Wangemann; Charvonne Kemp and Marie Carlson; Judith Trampf and Katharina Heyning; and Virginia Wolf and Carol Schumacher, the lead plaintiffs in the case.
Virginia Wolf et al. v. Scott Walker et al., which was filed by the ACLU, the ACLU of Wisconsin and Mayer Brown LLP, argues that Wisconsin’s gay marriage ban violates the couples’ due process and equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment.
“Wisconsin, a historic leader in marriage equality, maintains one of the most restrictive bans on marriage for same-sex couples in the nation,” the lawsuit reads [ http://media.jrn.com/documents/aclulawsuit.pdf ]. “The State deprives same-sex couples of these rights and freedoms for no other reason than their sexual orientation and their sex.”
“We’re completely in love, and we’d like to be married in the state that we live in,” Kemp, one of the plaintiffs, told the Washington Blade on Monday. “I’m willing to go to the Supreme Court to fight for the right for everyone to be able to get married if that’s what they choose to do. It’s about marriage equality for all, not marriage equality for some, or for just us.”
The lawsuit is pending before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin while numerous states [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/31/marriage-lawsuits-doma_n_3679005.html ], including Kentucky, Utah [ http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57467438-78/court-utah-case-state.html.csp ], Florida [ http://orlandoweekly.com/news/legal-challenge-could-overturn-gay-marriage-ban-in-florida-1.1624571 ] and Virginia [ http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/01/us-usa-gaymarriage-virginia-idUSBREA100EG20140201 ], are facing dozens of similar lawsuits seeking marriage equality.
Read the full complaint here [ http://media.jrn.com/documents/aclulawsuit.pdf ].
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/03/scott-walker-lawsuit-gay-marriage_n_4718412.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Louie Gohmert Says Judges Legalizing Gay Marriage 'Need Some Basic Plumbing Lessons'
01/25/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/15/louie-gohmert-gay-marriage_n_4603888.html [with comments]
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Anti-Gay Pundits Freak Out Over Grammys Gay Wedding Ceremony
01/28/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/27/same-sex-wedding-grammys_n_4674469.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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'Family' Group: 'Pimp' Jay-Z And 'Homosexual Faux-Pastorette' Queen Latifah Hurl Grammys 'Spitball' at God
1/28/2014
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/family-group-pimp-jay-z-and-homosexual-faux-pastorette-queen-latifah-hurl-grammys-spitball-g
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Bizzle Responds To Macklemore's "Same Love"
Published on Jan 28, 2014 by God Over Money [ http://www.youtube.com/user/playbizzle21 ]
FREE DOWNLOAD - http://www.noisetrade.com/bizzle/same-love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9KQ4_uH1RA [with comments] [via/embedded at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/31/same-love-anti-gay-bizzle_n_4702483.html (with comments)]
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Kirk Cameron Thinks Grammys' Gay Marriages Were An 'Assault On The Traditional Family'
Kirk Cameron apparently had a big problem with the same-sex marriages at the Grammys.
01/30/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/29/kirk-cameron-grammys-gay-marriage_n_4687607.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Here's Why The Idea Of 'Traditional Marriage' Is Total Bullsh*t
01/23/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/20/historical-marriage-definitions_n_4589763.html [with comments]
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RWW News: Fischer Says Performing Gay Marriages At The Grammys Was An 'Abomination'
Published on Jan 28, 2014 by RWW Blog [http://www.youtube.com/user/RWWBlog ]
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-performing-gay-marriages-grammys-was-abomination-because-same-sex-parenting-form-chi
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this video, Bryan Fischer says performing gay marriages during the Grammys was an "abomination" because same-sex parenting is child abuse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsodRwZyNWg [with comments] [via/embedded at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/28/gay-marriages-grammys-bryan-fischer_n_4682425.html (with comments)]
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RWW News: Fischer Says Beyoncé's 'Sasha Fierce' Persona Is a Demonic Spirit
Published on Jan 28, 2014 by RWW Blog [http://www.youtube.com/user/RWWBlog ]
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-beyonc-s-sasha-fierce-persona-demonic-spirit
Right Wing Watch reports on the extreme rhetoric and activities of key right-wing figures and organizations by showing their views in their own words. In this video, Bryan Fischer says that the "Sasha Fierce" persona that Beyonce once used is really a demonic spirit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzsWYmCwIv8 [with comments] [via/embedded at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/29/beyonce-demonic-bryan-fischer-_n_4688928.html (with comments)]
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Polish Catholic Church declares war on 'gender theory'
Agence France-Presse
January 21, 2014 11:30pm
Poland's powerful Catholic Church has declared war on "gender theory", saying it undermines the traditional family -- but critics say that is a tactic to shift attention away from a paedophile priest scandal.
The theory explores sexual orientation and the roles assigned by society to individuals based on their gender, but the Polish Church has borrowed the English word "gender" to refer to a range of issues including contraception, abortion and homosexuality.
While many say gender theory promotes tolerance and understanding towards gender equality and homosexuality, the Polish Church has branded it a mortal danger to families, child sexual orientation and humanity.
Polish bishops wrote a letter on the topic that was read out in every parish across the country over the Christmas holidays.
"This is a preventative offensive," sociologist Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski told AFP.
"The Church fears social change and it especially opposes gay marriage, something that's happening in other countries like France or certain states in the US."
Inspired by then pope Benedict XVI's remarks in late 2012 about the "falseness" of gender theory, the Polish campaign has taken on epic proportions and sparked a fierce, high-profile national debate.
Critics argue it is designed to shift focus from a recent string of paedophile priest scandals that rocked Poland, one of Europe's most Roman Catholic countries but whose loyalty to the Church is waning.
"Someone advised the Church to find a topic that would make people forget about the paedophile scandals that Polish media was fixated on these last few months," leading Polish religious affairs commentator Adam Szostkiewicz told AFP.
"Now not a day goes by that a bishop doesn't warn against gender," he said.
Allegations surfaced last year that two high-profile Polish priests had engaged in sex with boys.
Prosecutors began probes in September against 65-year-old archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who served as a papal envoy in the Dominican Republic's capital Santo Domingo, and 36-year-old Wojciech Gil, who also served on the Caribbean island.
Poland's top cleric meanwhile provoked outrage when he suggested that parents shared the blame for paedophilia.
Archbishop Jozef Michalik later apologised for saying that paedophilia "manifests itself when a child is looking for love" and could be avoided "given a healthy relationship between parents".
According to feminist activist Kazimiera Szczuka, the war against gender is just the latest attempt by the Church to shift blame.
"By claiming that gender theory skews child sexual orientation, the Church wants people to think that it is indeed this theory that's responsible for sexual abuse, and not priests," she told AFP.
Gender ideology 'worse than Nazism'
The Church letter to parishioners alleges that gender theory has "for the last several months been introduced without Poles' consent within various social institutions: education, health care, non-governmental organisations and cultural institutions".
The bishops cite Marxism, feminist movements and the sexual revolution as having inspired the theory, which they say is "contrary to the traditional view of man".
They warn that gender theory allows an individual to "freely define himself as a man or woman and choose his sexual orientation".
In certain parishes, an extreme version of the letter claimed that school sex education -- not yet a part of the Polish curriculum -- leads to "severe youth depravity".
The Church views the traditional definition of family headed by a man and a woman as the basis of society, according to Marcin Przeciszewski, head of Poland's KAI Catholic news agency.
He regrets the "unfortunate choice of words" of some Church members that "clouds the main message".
"The Church cannot agree to the idea of the interchangeability of the sexes. Sexual identity is accorded by nature, by God," he told AFP.
But some say the Church is misguided in demonising gender theory, since it is mainly a scientific concept and not tied to any particular ideology, according to expert Agnieszka Rajewicz-Kozlowska.
"In most official documents, the term 'gender' is linked to the idea of equality between men and women," said Rajewicz-Kozlowska, the government's deputy minister in charge of gender equality.
Yet, according to Szostkiewicz, the Church has turned "gender" into a grab bag and tossed everything into it: civil unions, gay marriage, abortion, in-vitro fertilisation, gender equality and sexual education.
He says the strategy has helped convince a portion of the population, thanks in large part to those who "only a couple months ago knew nothing about the term 'gender' and had no idea that it has been studied in Polish universities for 20 years".
Among the more extreme examples of the scorn heaped on gender theory, priest Dariusz Oko said: "Gender ideology is in some ways worse than Nazism and communism."
"It leads to the destruction of the nation" because it "destroys the family," he said.
This view has been echoed by Poland's political right, with a minor opposition party recently launching a committee against gender theory in parliament.
Committee members have assigned themselves the task of "protecting nursery school children against a sexualisation (introduced) under the guise of classes on gender equality" that were co-funded by the European Union and other international organisations.
Following warnings from Polish bishops and right-wing politicians, parents in many schools across the country have demanded that such classes be banned.
Copyright AFP, 2014
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140122/polish-catholic-church-declares-war-gender-theory [no comments yet]
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BISHOPS ABOUT GENDER IDEOLOGY
A pastoral letter of the Polish Episcopal Conference for pastoral usage on Sunday of the Holy Family 2013
Dear Sisters, Dear Brothers!
Every year in the Octave of Lord’s Birth, we celebrate Sunday of the Holy Family. We direct our thought towards our families and we undertake reflection on the situation of the contemporary family. Today’s Gospel says that the Family from Nazareth was trying to understand and fulfil God’s will in difficult and unclear situations, thanks to which it came out renewed of these situations. This behaviour is an important tip for us and also today obedience to God and His sometimes incomprehensible will, is a guarantee for happiness in the family.
Blessed John Paul II, for whose canonization we are getting prepared, reminds that the truth about the institution of marriage is ‘beyond the will of individuals, whim of particular married couples, decisions of social and governmental organisms’ (23 II 1980). We should look for this truth in God, because ‘it is God who is a creator of marriage’ (GS 48). It is God who created the human being a man and a woman, whereas he made the existence – in the body and the soul – a man ‘for’ a woman and a woman ‘for’ a man a great and irreplaceable gift and a task in the marriage life. He based the family on the fundament of marriage joined with inseparable and exclusive love for the whole life. He decided that just this kind of the family will be a suitable environment for children’s development whom it will give life and provide them with material and spiritual development.
This Christian vision is not a kind of arbitrarily imposed norm, but it results from understanding the nature of the human being, the nature of marriage and the family. Rejecting this vision leads inevitably to the collapse of families and to the defeat of the man. As the history of humankind shows, neglecting the Creator is always dangerous and is a danger for the happy future of the man and the world. So, any attempts of redefining the terms of marriage and the family which are imposed by some media at present, surely raise a lot of anxiety. Facing the growing attacks of this ideology directed at various areas of the family and social life, on the one hand, we feel obliged to express our definite and explicit opinion in the defence of the Christian family, fundamental values which defend it, but, on the other hand, we feel obliged to warn the family against dangers coming from promoting the new type of the family life.
The gender ideology is an effect of ideological-cultural changes lasting for decades, strongly rooted in Marxism and neo-Marxism, promoted by some feministic movements and sexual revolution. Gender ideology promotes rules which are completely contradictory with the reality and an integral understanding of the human nature. It states that the biological sex does not have a social meaning and, first of all, the cultural sex counts, which the human being can freely model and define regardless of biological conditions. According to this ideology the human being can define himself or herself freely: whether he or she is a woman or a man, he or she can also freely choose his/her own sexual orientation. It is a free self-definition which does not have to be something temporary, and leads to a situation in which the society would accept the right to set up a new type of families, for example, the ones built on relationships of homosexual character.
The danger of the gender ideology results basically from its deeply destructive character both towards the person and inter-human relationships, that is, the whole social life. The man of an uncertain sexual identity is not able to discover fully and fulfil the tasks he is facing both in the marital and family life and the social-professional life. The attempt of equalization of this kind of relations is in fact, a serious weakness of marriage as a community of a man and a woman and the family, built on the marriage.
We see various attitudes towards the actions undertaken by supporters of the gender ideology. The definite majority of people do not know what this ideology is, so they do not feel any danger. A small group of people – especially teachers and educators, including catechists and pastors – are trying to look for constructive ways of counteracting it on their own. Finally, there are those who, seeing the absurdity of this ideology, think that Poles will reject the utopian visions themselves, which are suggested to them. Whereas, the gender ideology, without the knowledge of the society or the consent of Poles, has been being implemented for many months into various structures of the social life: education, health service, activity of cultural and educational institutions and non-governmental organizations. The ideology is shown in some media in a positive way: as counteracting violence and aiming at equal rights.
The community of the Church is looking at the human being and his/her sex in an integral way, perceiving the corporal and biological dimension in it, as well as psychical and cultural and spiritual dimension. It is not unsuitable to do studies on the influence of culture on the sex. But it is dangerous to make an ideological statement that the biological sex is not essential for the social life. The Church expresses its explicit opinion against discrimination because of the sexes, but it also notices a danger of diminishing the value of sexes. It is not a fact of existence of two sexes which is the source of discrimination but the lack of spiritual reference, human egoism and pride, which we must still fight against. The Church does not agree in any way to humiliating people of homosexual tendencies, but it also strongly emphasizes that homosexual activity is deeply in chaos and that we mustn’t equate the marriage, being the community of a man and a woman, with a homosexual relationship.
On the Day of the Holy Family, we address a fervent appeal to Christian families, representatives of religious movements and church associations and all people of good will, to undertake actions courageously which will serve to spreading the truth about the marriage and the family. Today we need more than ever education of educational communities.
We also address an appeal to the institutions which are responsible for the Polish education, not to succumb to pressures of few but very loud environments having a lot of financial means, and which in the name of modern upbringing do experiments on children and the youth. We call educational institutions to get engaged into promoting the integral vision of the human being.
We ask all believers for a fervent prayer in the intentions of married couples, families and children brought up by them. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to give us the light of understanding and seeing the truth in what is the danger not only for the family but also for our Homeland and the whole humankind. Let’s also pray for courage of being people of faith and courage defenders of the Truth. Let the Holy Family from Nazareth, in which God’s Son – Jesus Christ was brought up, be the spiritual help and an example to follow in undertaking this effort.
In this spirit we give everybody pastoral blessing.
Signed by: Pastors of the Catholic Church in Poland.
Copyright 2013 Sunday Catholic Weekly
http://sunday.niedziela.pl/artykul.php?dz=spoleczenstwo&id_art=00932
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'Gender' Is the New Enemy of the Polish Church
January 10, 2014
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/01/10/gender_is_the_new_enemy_of_the_polish_church [with comments]
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THE NAME OF THE CONTEMPORARY HEROD IS: GENDER IDEOLOGY
A PASTORAL LETTER ABOUT FAMILY
BISHOP KAZIMIERZ RYCZAN
In the pastoral letter about family bishop of Kielce calls for defence of family against the contemporary Herod, whose name is: gender ideology. The letter is addressed to believers of the Kielce diocese on the occasion of Sunday of the Holy Family celebrated on 29 December 2013
The whole letter has been printed below
Beloved in Lord Christ,
In the octave of December, on the Feast of the Holy Family, I am kneeling on the threshold of the Bethlehem cave and adoring God who gifted us with the family.
My friend Janek did not see his mother because she dies after his birth. He did not see his father - partisan because he was killed in a forest by Germans. He was shown a photo: here your father with his crashed face was buried. Brother Janek – and you all, who were deprived of your fathers and mothers by the fate, kneel in front of the cave in Bethlehem. Here Mary and Joseph are looking at Jesus. Think that they are looking at you in this way. Dear brother, who were saying farewell to your parents in a graveyard, kneel in front of the Bethlehem family. You are not an orphan.
Family as a gift from God our Father
In poor Bethlehem, little Jesus confirmed the eternal gift from God the Father, that there is not a better community of maturation in love, than family.
In family devoting oneself is not a sacrifice, but a gift of oneself.
In family a child is not a burden but blessing.
In family material difficulties are mortification and do not touch honesty.
In family, difficulties are testing love, make it resistant, but do not destroy it.
In family a prayer builds love and arouses relations of the community. Are you speaking about all families, where mother and father are bending over their child, who is looking at every reaction of their heart. I am speaking about families from thousand years ago and the contemporary families. About families of Europe, Africa and Asia, about families of people who are believers and non-believers. The gift of family given us by God becomes lively in every woman and a man. It is a great and important gift, therefore God protects it with the three commandments: ‘Respect your father and your mother’, ‘Do not do adultery’ ‘Do not desire wife or husband of your neighbour’. These commandments were up-to-date yesterday and will always be up-to-date. They will stand on the guard of family.
Jesus and family
What does Jesus bring into the life of marriage and family? Jesus raises the marriage contracted between a woman and a man to the rank of sacrament. When two baptized single people, a woman and a man, are contracting marriage and are vowing love, loyalty and marital honesty to each other, lasting irreversibly till death, Christ is giving them a sacramental grace for their whole life. Christian believers come to the altar and ask for blessing, for grace.
- Bless our love, our devotion.
- Bless our fertility because life depends on You.
- Bless our home, so that nobody or any sin would destroy it.
- Bless everybody who will visit our home.
- Bless our joy and our cry today, as well as our life at old age, as it will come. Rule our home.
Catechism of the Catholic Church says that in the sacrament of marriage ‘spouses receive the Holy Spirit (…). He is a seal of their alliance, always a lively source of their love, power thanks to which their faithfulness will be renewed’(CCC 1624)
Preparation for marriage is the paramount matter
This Catechism of the Catholic Church emphasizes that ‘the paramount matter is preparation for marriage so that marital ‘yes’ would be a free and responsible act and the marital alliance would have proper and solid human and Christian basis’ (CCC 1632). Dear believers, do not have any pretense to a parish priest that he demands preparation for the Christian marriage. Today nobody will be employed without a suitable preparation for it. An ordinary certificate is not enough. Suitable professional preparation must be proved.
Doesn’t the decision for the whole life require serious preparation, talks, formation, discussions or a prayer? After all, marriage life will not be taught by serials where divorce and betrayal are an ordinary adventure. Love will not be taught by websites showing intimate matters. It is pathological pornography. Love and life will not be taught by flyers about art of love. Sex does not cover marriage vocation. We cannot justify children and grandchildren with a lack of time for preparation for marriage.
- Grandma, do not be upset with the parish priest, do not settle a matter according to your grandson’s intention, who phoned to ask for birth certificate because he does not have time and also to ask for reservation of the wedding day because he will come for a few days to get married. – He is so busy – said a loving grandmother….Let’s leave this case without any comment. The Catechism of the Catholic Church still says that ‘the paramount matter is preparation for marriage’.
Family in danger
Today the Gospel shows dangers lurking against the Holy Family. Who would think that after the visit of the significant rich guests from far East Józef had to run away with Jesus to Egypt. Józef as a shadow of a father is saving Jesus from death which Herod is bringing.
- Saint Józef what do you want to tell us, taking Jesus and Mary for a long journey?
- Today I want to tell families that they have a duty of defending their children and wives. Who will defend life, when women unite together in feminist organizations in order to get free of marriage and be free to have abortion? Who will defend life when armies of contemporary Herods and Heriorads, also in Poland, despise of a child’s life? You, fathers, have this duty.
Saint Józef says: - Fathers! Stand in one army to defend family. Fathers of your sacramental and non-sacramental families! Stand together in defence of family against contemporary Herod, whose name is the gender ideology.
Newspapers write, journalists argue on TV that people of the Church are oversensitive. Archbishop Michalik is not an expert. Archbishop Hoser from Warsaw cannot govern his diocese. And, generally, bishops and priests are pedophiles and undereducated. After all, the gender ideology is study on sexes, on equality between men and women.
We must not tell lies to the society. The Church has a duty to unveil a lie, hypocrisy, bad intentions of a theory contradictory with the common sense and which destroys values lying at the base of the culture of Europe, an intention to build a new order on the fundament of sexes and sex.
Bishops of Slovakia in a letter for Advent write: ‘They want to persuade us to think that nobody of us is a woman or a man by nature, they want to deprive a man of a right for his identity as a man, and a woman of a right to her identity as a woman and family of its right to identity as family (…). They want to impose a relationship of two men or two women on the equal level with marriage. Using noble slogans, in the society they are destroying family life, which is holy’. One would like to say that a cow and a dog are happy because none of sexologists imposes any sexes on them.
We should not think that it is a theory on paper. Our educational authorities are beginning to implement this theory. In Silesia, three children were removed from a kindergarten, whose parents did not agree on equal sexual education in the kindergarten, on dressing up boys as girls and girls as boys.
It is not only a theory. A journalist of ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ Mrs. Ewa Siedlecka writes that parents do not have ‘legal and moral monopole to form the worldview of a child’ (Catholic Informative Agency, 14 December 2013). It was commented by Mr. Terlikowski: ‘Supporters of the sex-depravation are liberals only superficially. They do not care about freedom but about promoting their extremely leftist worldview, and allegedly promoting freedom, they want to deprive parents of their right to bring up their children’(Catholic Informative Agency, 16 December 2013). All this is for EU money.
It is not only a theory. It is the beginning of a fight. On 5 December at the Economics University in Poznan, during a lecture entitled ‘Gender – devastation of the man and family’, supporters of feminists and gender ideologists entered an auditorium in order to disrupt the lecture. A young man wearing a golden dress jumped onto a desk, shouting: ‘We invite everybody for the collapse of family’.
Saint Józef and Mary defend Jesus against insane Herod. – Parents! Defend your children against cruel contemporary Herod. You have a right for it! Who gives food to your children? A political party? A political coalition? Who buys them clothes? The Ministry? Who buys them books and educational materials? Journalists, lobbyists? Who pays taxes in Poland? Atheist citizens? Who is an employer at primary schools, junior high schools and secondary schools? Aren’t they voivods, mayors, city presidents? Aren’t they fathers or mothers? Follow Saint Józef. When you are defending family – you are defending the Homeland, your are defending Bethlehem, where God-Man was born.
- It is easier for you to write about it. We feel helpless towards the power of television!
- Be followers of Józef. Be witnesses. He entered a church with Jesus and Mary. Go to church with your children. There you will get stronger with God. You will teach your son and daughter, where to find the truth of life. It is not all. During elections, take an election card and vote for people who love children, family, Homeland, God. Do not look at a political party. Vote for people. You have still got this right. We will not lose the fight for family with the help of Józef. Amen.
Copyright 2013 Sunday Catholic Weekly
http://sunday.niedziela.pl/artykul.php?dz=spoleczenstwo&id_art=00921
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'Gender' named buzzword of 2013
Photo: Glowimages
A panel of Polish academics has named 'gender' as 2013's 'Word of the Year' after a top bishop blamed liberal academics for alleged child sex abuse in the church.
07.01.2014 13:07
“In 2013, the word gender shot into the lexical repertoire of many Poles of various ages, backgrounds, milieus and regions,” commented panellist Professor Halina Zgolkowa of Poznan's Adam Mickiewicz University.
“It's surely here to stay.”
Last October, Gender Studies were hotly discussed in the media after Archbishop Jozef Michalik, head of the Polish Episcopate, criticised the “new ideology of gender” at universities, in the wake of a paedophilia scandal in the Church.
“You have heard of adults abusing children and this kind of evil is not to be tolerated, but no one asks about the causes of this,” he said.
Besides gender studies, he also blamed pornography, divorce and “the most aggressive Polish feminists who scoff at the Church and years of traditional ethics, who promote abortion and struggle against the traditional model of the family and marital fidelity.”
The remarks prompted criticism from academic circles [ http://www.thenews.pl/1/6/Artykul/155803,QandA-Fighting-against-the-gword ].
Academics from the Polish Language Foundation and the Institute of Language from Warsaw University analyse buzzwords in the media on a continuous basis, with competitions for Word of the Day, Word of the Week and Word of the Month.
Members of the public can submit nominations, and according to the regulations, “the Word of the Year does not have to be the most common word, or one that only appeared this year, although both factors are very important.”
Source: PAP
Copyright © Polskie Radio S.A
http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/157933,Gender-named-buzzword-of-2013-
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(from slideshow at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/nun-gives-birth-baby-italy-francis_n_4619218.html ; http://www.theonion.com/articles/catholic-church-condemns-metrosexuality,4673/ )
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Chicago GOP hopeful: Autism and dementia are God’s punishments for LGBT rights
[Image credit: Daily Herald / Bob Chwedyk]
By David Ferguson
Wednesday, January 22, 2014 12:54 EST
One of the Republicans lining up to challenge Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) for her seat representing the 9th District of Illinois told the Chicago Daily Herald [ http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140121/news/701219738/ ] that God is “angry” with the United States and has sent scourges to punish the American people.
Candidate Susanne Atanus believes that autism and forms of dementia are punishments sent by God because of the growing support for marriage equality in the country and the prevalence of abortion.
“I am a conservative Republican and I believe in God first,” Atanus said at an endorsement session with the Daily Herald on Monday.
God controls the weather, she said, and tornadoes are evidence of his wrath.
“God is angry. We are provoking him with abortions and same-sex marriage and civil unions,” she said. “Same-sex activity is going to increase AIDS. If it’s in our military it will weaken our military. We need to respect God.”
Her primary opponent, David Earl Williams III, 30, is decidedly more moderate in his views, but comes with his own liabilities as a candidate. A former girlfriend filed a domestic violence protection order against the Navy veteran.
He is currently fighting a judge’s ruling that he attend anger management classes and undergo a mental health assessment. The charges that he tried to get his former partner fired from her job and kicked out of school by impersonating her online, Williams said, are all a big misunderstanding.
Rae Ann McNeilly, Williams’ campaign manager, dismissed the court’s findings and the woman’s complaints against the candidate, calling it a “frivolous, unfounded claim” by a spurned ex who is “lashing out” because she thought Williams was more serious about their relationship than he actually was.
Atanus ran in the 9th District’s Republican primaries in 2010 and 2012. She lost both times.
Watch Daily Herald video of the two candidates, embedded below:
[video embedded]
Copyright © 2014 Raw Story Media, Inc.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/22/chicago-gop-hopeful-autism-and-dementia-are-gods-punishments-for-lgbt-rights/ [with comments]
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( http://nypost.com/2014/01/17/lightning-breaks-finger-off-christ-the-redeemer-statue/ )
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British Floods Blamed On Gay Marriage Law By UKIP Councillor David Silvester
CHERTSEY, UNITED KINGDOM - JANUARY 08: Swans explore the Abbey Fields caravan park after the River Thames flooded on January 8, 2014 in Chersey, England. Parts of the United Kingdon are entering a third week of flooding and stormy conditions.
(Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
Agence France Presse
Posted: 01/18/2014 8:16 pm EST | Updated: 01/22/2014 9:49 am EST
A local councillor for the anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP) has blamed recent storms and floods across Britain on the government's decision to legalise gay marriage, it emerged on Saturday.
David Silvester, who defected from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party in protest at the move to allow same-sex couples to marry, made the claim in a letter to his local newspaper.
"I wrote to David Cameron in April 2012 to warn him that disasters would accompany the passage of his same-sex marriage bill," wrote Silvester, an elected member of the town council in Henley-on-Thames, west of London.
He added: "It is his (Cameron's) fault that large swathes of the nation have been afflicted by storms and floods.
"He has arrogantly acted against the Gospel that once made Britain 'great' and the lesson surely to be learned is that no man or men, however powerful, can mess with Almighty God with impunity and get away with it, for everything a nation does is weighed on the scale of divine approval or disapproval."
The Conservative member of parliament for Henley, John Howell, said the comments were "not the sort of thing that he should have written in today's age" and said Silvester needed to "consider his position".
A UKIP spokeswoman said Silvester's views were "not the party's belief" but said he was entitled to state his opinions.
Cameron pushed through the gay marriage law last year against fierce opposition within his Conservative party, and the first weddings are expected to take place in March.
In a concession to opposition from the established Churches of England and Wales, however, those institutions are banned from conducting ceremonies.
UKIP prides itself on not bowing to what it terms "political correctness" on social issues and is steadily building support with its anti-immigration and anti-EU message.
It has no MPs but is the third largest party in the opinion polls, with about 12 percent of support, and is expected to do well in May's European Parliament elections.
Copyright (2014) AFP
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/19/british-floods-gay-marriage-_n_4624270.html [with comments]
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( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/18/jesus-statue-lightning-_n_4622673.html [with comments])
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Rep. Mike Rogers Under Fire For Homophobic Joke
AP
By Amanda Terkel
Posted: 02/03/2014 2:14 pm EST | Updated: 02/03/2014 2:59 pm EST
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) is facing heat from a gay rights group for reportedly making homophobic comments during a recent speech before hundreds of realtors.
In the speech, delivered Jan. 23 during the Alabama Association of Realtors' board of directors meeting, Rogers allegedly made derogatory comments about gay people and criticized the atmosphere in Washington, D.C.
"You allegedly joked about how nice it was to be called 'Honey' and 'Sweetie' by a woman at an Alabama restaurant rather than a D.C. men's room," Ben Cooper, chair of Equality Alabama, wrote in a Jan. 28 letter to Rogers [ http://blog.al.com/wire/2014/02/gay_rights_advocacy_group_accu.html ]. "And you went on to mock our nation's capitol as a 'cross between Detroit and San Francisco' -- an obvious reference to Detroit's racial makeup and San Francisco's vibrant gay culture."
"Comments like these are racist, homophobic, and hurtful, and they will not be tolerated," added Cooper.
Michael Hansen, Equality Alabama's communications director, told The Huffington Post his group heard about the remarks from several AAR members who attended Rogers' speech. One member was so offended that he and his colleagues walked out. Another member confronted the congressman after the event, Hansen said, to which Rogers reportedly replied, "Bring it on."
Rogers' office did not return a request for comment from The Huffington Post.
The AAR issued a statement in response to Rogers' remarks, according to AL.com, which first reported the controversy.
"At the Board of Directors meeting this morning one of our speakers made some remarks that were inappropriate [id.] and offensive to some of our members," the statement said. "Those remarks are not reflective of AAR or our policies. Moving forward we will endeavor to prevent such inappropriate remarks at our events or meetings."
Hansen said he emailed the letter to Rogers' chief of staff, deputy chief of staff and press secretary on Friday but has yet to hear back. The group, however, hopes the congressman or one of his staffers will be attending the Feb. 16 Vigil for Victims of Hate and Violence in Montgomery, which will remember LGBT victims of hate crimes.
"I would like to point out that we are approaching the 15th anniversary of the death of Billy Jack Gaither, who was brutally beaten with an ax handle, thrown onto a pile of tires and set on fire," Cooper wrote in the letter. "Billy Jack was murdered because he was gay. He was from your district."
"When you, an elected leader and lawmaker, make comments in public that belittle and demean the very core of LGBT people's being," added Cooper, "you endorse a culture that says it's OK to bully people for who they are or whom they love. It is not."
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/03/mike-rogers-alabama_n_4718002.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Randy Gener, Gay NYC Journalist, Recovering From Brain Surgery After Alleged Hate Crime
Posted: 01/26/2014 11:43 am EST | Updated: 01/26/2014 12:59 pm EST
Authorities are investigating an alleged attack on an openly gay journalist [ http://online.wsj.com/article/APe6a476d4468d40b58b61029b3f29d0cb.html ] just blocks from New York's Times Square as a possible hate crime.
Randy Gener, 46, was reportedly found unconscious in a pool of his own blood near 54th Street and Seventh Avenue in the wee hours of Jan. 17, according to ABC News. Gener, who is of Filipino descent, is currently listed in serious but stable condition at St. Luke's Hospital in New York, where he is recovering from brain surgery [ http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=9407433 ] as a result of the alleged attack.
Unfortunately, details of the incident are scarce, sister Jessica Blair Driessler told ABC, partly because Gener "can't answer the questions of what happened that night."
"He doesn't really exactly know who we are or where he's at sometimes, and it's really painful to see him here the way that he is because he's the most articulate person," she is quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, friend Liz Casasola told CBS Local that the suspect(s) did not steal Gener’s wallet: "He’s always there for everyone in the theater and Filipino community [ http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/01/26/cops-investigate-beating-of-journalist-randy-gener-as-possible-hate-crime/ ], it’s hard to picture it happening to someone like him."
Gener has reported and written for The New York Times, National Public Radio, the Village Voice, Time Out New York and New York Magazine, among other media outlets, according to his website [ http://www.randygener.org/ ]. As Broadway World points out, he is widely known in the city's theater community for his award-winning arts and culture coverage [ http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Theater-Journalist-Randy-Gener-Recovering-From-Brain-Surgery-After-Assault-20140124 ].
A candelight vigil in support of Gener [ https://www.facebook.com/events/726060234073344/ ] is currently planned for the evening of Jan. 26.
"We, as New Yorkers, demand an end to hate violence in our city," organizers wrote on Facebook. "We as LGBTQ folks, Filipino Americans, people of color, and allies want to feel safe on our streets again."
Meanwhile, a youcaring.com page has been created to help cover Gener's medical expenses, which can be viewed here [ http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/for-randy-gener/130589 ].
The case is merely the latest in a disturbing spate of alleged attacks [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/brooklyn-man-hate-crime_n_4024792.html ] which appear to be targeting New York's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in recent months. In May 2013, 32-year-old Mark Carson was fatally shot in the head [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/18/new-york-gay-hate-crime-shooting-_n_3299277.html ] while walking through Manhattan's West Village neighborhood.
Law enforcement officials began investigating that case as a hate crime after learning suspect Elliot Morales [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/30/elliot-morales-not-guilty-plea_n_3677963.html ], who was arrested just blocks from the alleged attack, had apparently hurled a series of anti-gay insults at Carson before shooting him.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/26/randy-gener-journalist-hate-crime_n_4669477.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Jimmy LaSalvia, Former GOProud Founder, On Republican Party's 'Cultural Disease,' Aaron Schock
01/22/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/20/jimmy-lasalvia-republican-party-_n_4626851.html [with embedded video report, embedded audios ( https://soundcloud.com/siriusxm-news-issues/signorile-lasalvia-gop-no-backbone , https://soundcloud.com/siriusxm-news-issues/signorile-lasalvia-gop-cultrual-disease , and https://soundcloud.com/siriusxm-news-issues/signorile-lasalvia-pres-noms ), and comments]
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(from slideshow at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/nun-gives-birth-baby-italy-francis_n_4619218.html ; http://www.theonion.com/articles/im-not-one-of-those-love-thy-neighbor-christians,11432/ )
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Putin: Gays Must 'Leave Children In Peace'
01/22/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/putin-gays-must-leave-c_n_4616505.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Putin Claims He's 'Friendly' With Gay People
01/22/2014
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/19/putin-gay-people-homosexuality-russia_n_4626934.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2014/01/cover-story-barry-blitts-jury-of-his-peers.html [with comments] [also at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/27/new-yorker-putin-olympics-cover_n_4673420.html (with comments)]
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Sochi Mayor Says There Are No Gay People In His City
In this Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013 photo Sohi's Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov poses with count-down clock in Sochi.
Associated Press
By Cavan Sieczkowski
Posted: 01/27/2014 9:37 am EST | Updated: 01/27/2014 1:59 pm EST
The mayor of Sochi is under the impression that there are no gay people in his city.
Anatoly Pakhomov spoke with the BBC ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics and discussed how gay people would be treated in the Russian region with the country's "homosexual propaganda" law [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/russia-gay-propaganda ] in place. Pakhomov said gays are welcome at the Games [ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25675957#TWEET1024869 ] in spite of this, so long as they "respect the laws of the Russian Federation and [don't] impose their habits on others."
He claimed gay people do not have to hide their sexuality in Sochi.
"No, we just say that it is your business, it's your life. But it's not accepted here in the Caucasus where we live. We do not have them in our city," he said. He later admitted that he isn't absolutely certain there are no gay people in Sochi [ http://abcnews.go.com/WN/gay-people-sochi-mayor-claims/story?id=22166765 ]. "I am not sure, but I don't bloody know them."
There are at least two gay clubs [ http://rt.com/politics/sochi-gays-mayor-claim-240/ ] in the city, Russia's RT noted. Russian social networks also point to multiple lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities in the area.
Nikolay Alekseyev, a Russian gay rights activist, compared Pakhomov's comments to those of Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who once reportedly said, "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/24/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-homosexuality-gay-rights_n_1909548.html ]." Alekseyev said, per RT, gay people are present “in any city, any country, any culture and any historical epoch."
Russia's anti-gay law makes it illegal to disseminate information about "nontraditional sexual relations [ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/russian-anti-gay-bill-passes-protesters-detained/ ]" or "relations not conducive to procreation" to minors, the Associated Press reported. Individuals found in violation of the law could face fines up to 5,000 rubles ($156) or up to 1 million rubles ($31,000) for media organizations. Tourists have already reportedly been detained [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/22/dutch-tourists-jailed-russia-gay_n_3635803.html ] under this law.
Various celebrities and political figures have in turn backed a boycott of the Sochi Games [ http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/olympics/who-has-boycotted-sochi-games-so-far/ncMkB/ ].
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/27/sochi-mayor-no-gay-people_n_4673232.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Amnesty International reveals the simple acts that can land you in jail when visiting Sochi
This might look like a harmless gathering, but doing this in Sochi is likely to result in police attention. Amnesty International says laws that restrict gay rights, free speech and freedom of association are changing Russian society for the worse.
January 17, 2014
http://www.news.com.au/travel/world-travel/amnesty-international-reveals-the-simple-acts-that-can-land-you-in-jail-when-visiting-sochi/story-e6frfqai-1226803730310 [with embedded video report]
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IOC's Mario Pescante Rips U.S. For Including Openly Gay Athletes In Official Delegation To Sochi
01/15/14
ROME (AP) — A senior Italian IOC member criticized the United States on Wednesday for including openly gay athletes in its official delegation for next month's Sochi Olympics.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/15/ioc-italy-mario-pescante-us-gay-delegation_n_4604568.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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Steven Seagal Praises Putin And FSB Ahead Of Sochi
American actor Steven Seagal (right) chats with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi in August 2012.
Tom Balmforth
January 28, 2014
A suicide bomber on the loose. Western governments warned of an imminent terrorist attack. Nearby American warships on stand-by.
That was the grim security scenario laid out for next month's Sochi Winter Olympics by former Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on his Fox News talk show on January 26.
But martial arts expert Steven Seagal knows better, apparently.
Speaking as Huckabee's guest on the conservative U.S. TV news station, the action-movie hero assessed the danger of an attack in Sochi as "extremely remote," citing his acquaintances in the Russian security forces.
Although he acknowledged that absolute security is impossible ("You could walk out to go buy a bag of sugar and get hit by a car" was how he put it), Seagal used the Fox News appearance to lavish praise on Russia's President Vladimir Putin and its Federal Security Service (FSB).
Seagal also urged U.S. President Barack Obama to pursue closer relations with Russia.
"They are a very powerful country with spectacular natural resources and a wonderful leadership," he said. "And, I believe that they are our friends and I think one of the only ways we are going to survive without getting swallowed by other superpowers or adversely affected is to be best friends with Russia. I think they should be our great allies."
On Sochi, Seagal reasoned that the colossal security presence in the region would prevail during the games.
"The chances of any of these suicide bombers actually being able to pull it off are extremely remote by virtue of the fact that Sochi is on such high alert," he said. "They've got amazing assets in place with great liaison over the world. President Putin is doing the very, very best he can. And, like I said, the FSB and [their elite counterterrorism taskforce] Alfa Spetsnaz are really some of the best on Earth, so it's going to be pretty tough for anybody to pull it off."
WATCH: Steven Seagal On Sochi Security Measures [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB9b2zrN5pU (next below, as embedded)]
Huckabee introduced Seagal as "the unofficial ambassador who’s developed a friendly relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, something our president has not been able to do."
The comment appeared to be a jibe aimed at the cool relationship between Putin and Obama, who is one of several Western leaders skipping the Olympic opening ceremonies.
Seagal does indeed enjoy good relations with Russia. He has been photographed with Putin, and he was asked in March last year by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to lobby in the United States for opening up the American market to Russian rifles.
The actor was also scheduled to lobby for Kalashnikov rifle sales [ http://http//rostec.ru/en/news/3603 ] at an arms exposition in Las Vegas earlier this month.
Seagal was less voluble, however, when asked about U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who has been given temporary asylum in Russia.
Without knowing the actual content of the material Snowden leaked, Seagal said, "it's not easy for me to comment [on the matter]."
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty © 2014 RFE/RL, Inc.
http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-sochi-security-steven-seagal/25245846.html [with comments]
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Dave Agema: Russian anti-gay propaganda law is 'common sense'
Republican National Committeman Dave Agema.
MLive file photo
[ http://www.washingtonblade.com/2014/01/11/agema-endorses-russia-anti-gay-law/ ]
By Garret Ellison
January 12, 2014 at 12:30 PM, updated January 14, 2014 at 8:49 AM
GRANDVILLE, MI — Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law is “common sense” according to a Facebook posting by Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema.
Agema, known for making inflammatory statements about gay people, reportedly endorsed the Russian law that makes it illegal to discuss LGBT issues in front of children.
According to the Washington Blade [ http://www.washingtonblade.com/2014/01/11/agema-endorses-russia-anti-gay-law/ ], a news site that covers LGBT issues, Agema’s post was screen-captured on Jan. 7 by Republican Party members with access to the former Grandville state representative's Facebook news feed.
According to the Blade, Agema posted a link to an Illinois Family Institute blog post by Laurie Higgins titled “Russia’s Anti-Propaganda Law Riles Pro-Homosexuality Crowd.”
Above the article, Agema added the words “Read their law. Common sense in Russia!”
The law imposes fines for "propaganda" about "nontraditional sexual relations" as a way to protect minors.
Higgins of the IFI writes [ http://illinoisfamily.org/homosexuality/russias-anti-propaganda-law-riles-pro-homosexuality-crowd/ ] that it “hardly sounds unreasonable to fine adults $150 for trying to inculcate other people’s children with their subjective beliefs about sexual morality, but nothing angers homosexual activists quite like being denied access to the hearts and minds of other people’s minor children.”
Russia passed the law in June, prompting international outcry from activists that has intensified [ http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2014/01/gay-rights-advocates-prepare-for-the-sochi-olympics.html ] in the run-up to the 2014 Winter Olympics starting Feb. 7 in Sochi.
Activists allege the law has led to an increase in harassment, bullying and violence.
Agema’s apparent endorsement comes on the heels of his support for "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson, whom Agema defended [ http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/12/dave_agema_finds_kinship_with.html ] against the “LGBT Gestapo” in December after Robertson was suspended for equating gay men to sinners.
Also in December, Agema was harshly rebuked after suggesting [ http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/michigan_gop_committeeman_dave.html ] that gays are seeking same-sex benefits because they are dying young from AIDS.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, legislative leaders and other prominent Republicans publicly criticized Agema's anti-gay remarks with words including "discriminatory [ http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/michigan_gov_rick_snyder_dave.html ]" and "disgusting [ http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/michigan_house_speaker_jase_bo_4.html ]." But they stopped short [ http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/12/no_comment_by_dave_agema_at_mi.html ] of calling for a public apology or other action.
In March, Agema sparked outcry [ http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/03/furor_grows_over_michigan_repu.html ] after posting an article on Facebook that painted gay people as "filthy" and promiscuous, riddled with sexually transmitted diseases.
Not everyone has repudiated Agema's remarks, however. Former State Rep. Jack Hoogendyke called Agema "a prophet [ http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2013/12/dave_agema_is_a_prophet_says_f.html ]" on Dec. 18.
© 2014 MLive Media Group
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2014/01/dave_agema_russian_anti-gay_pr.html [with comments]
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'Homosexual And Stealth Jihad Agenda' Has Apparently Taken Over The Michigan GOP
By Kate Abbey-Lambertz
Posted: 01/30/2014 2:55 pm EST | Updated: 01/31/2014 10:59 am EST
For some Michigan Republicans, their biggest enemies are members of their own party.
In a Facebook post Sunday [ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=582641005147729 ], the Delta County Republican Party published a list condemning "the Republicans Who Have Blatantly Surrendered to the Homosexual and Stealth Jihad Agenda." The 18 listed individuals include Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, Michigan Republican Party Chairman Bobby Schostak, the state attorney general, several U.S. Reps., the state Senate majority leader, party officials, Republican candidates and even one gay Democrat mayor.
The last one might have been a mistake, but all won their spots for perceived condemnation of Dave Agema, the Michigan Republican National Committee member who has received continued criticism for his anti-gay comments, but is apparently still supported by the Delta County Republican Party.
"If you continue to stand behind those who are not committed to your platform and values," the Facebook post said, "you enable the false notion that they have, which is that the constituency of the GOP will follow them no matter what they do or don't do."
The Michigan Republican Party did not immediately return a request for comment.
Priebus and Schostak called on the RNC member to resign last week [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/reince-priebus-dave-agema-resignation_n_4660373.html ], following a Facebook post from Agema earlier this month that seemed to support Russia's anti-gay, anti-human rights law. He also posted a message that included the line, "Have you ever seen a Muslim do anything that contributes positively to the American way of life?"
In previous months, he's compared homosexuality to alcoholism and accused LGBT individuals of supporting health care reform because they die earlier in life.
Agema has refused to resign, and while he said he regretted some of his statements [ http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140124/POLITICS03/301240083 ] in an interview with the Detroit News, he said the grassroots conservatives who elected him are counting on him.
“The easiest thing for me would be to just bail out, but the harder decision was to say, ‘OK, I’m going to stay in because of the people who are depending on me to stay in and fight the fight,’ ” Agema told the paper.
Delta County is in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Republican candidate Mitt Romney won the county by a small majority in the 2012 presidential elections.
Here's the full, unedited text of the Facebook post [ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=582641005147729 ]:
In Case You Are Not Keeping Record: The Following Are the Republicans Who Have Blatantly Surrendered to the Homosexual and Stealth Jihad Agenda (By Virtue of their attacks on Dave Agema)
Republican National Chair Reince Priebus
Michigan Republican Party Chair Bobby Schostak
Michigan Attorney General. Bill Schuette
Terri Lynn Land, GOP Senatorial Candidate
U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph
U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland
U.S. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton
U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township
U.S. Rep. U.S. Rep Mike Rogers, R-Brighton
U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Zeeland
U.S. Rep. U.S. Rep Justin Amash, R-Cascade Township
Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monore
State Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw
State Rep. Kurt Heise, R-Plymouth Township
David Trott, Republican candidate for Michigan's Eleventh Congressional District
Brian Ellis, Republican candidate for Michigan's Third Congressional District
Ferndale Mayor David Coulter
David Worthams, Kalamazoo County GOP Chair
Note: What you must remember is that, if you continue to stand behind those who are not committed to your platform and values, you enable the false notion that they have, which is that the constituency of the GOP will follow them no matter what they do or don't do.
Copyright © 2014 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/30/michigan-gop-republicans_n_4696236.html [with embedded video report, and comments]
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'Gay Cat' Named Bull Allegedly Disowned By Owner In Nigeria
01/25/2014
A Nigerian woman is making some eyebrow-raising headlines after reportedly disowning her cat for "an unnatural sexual behavior [ http://leadership.ng/news/339272/woman-disowns-cat-for-being-gay ]" -- allegedly, same-sex attraction.
As the Nigerian newspaper Leadership notes, the woman (identified simply as being middle-aged) rid herself of Bull, whom she owned for seven years, after the cat was deemed to "be in the habit of making sexual advances" only to other male cats in the household.
"By this, the cat has made a record as the first cat to be so publicly declared gay and disowned by its owner," writer Donatus Nadi notes in the article. As for the cat's disgruntled owner, she would only add, "Anybody interested in this gay cat can have it because I have no further use of it.”
The news comes just days after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/13/nigeria-anti-gay-bill-law-_n_4589227.html ] signed a controversial bill banning same-sex marriage, gay "amorous relationships" and participation in LGBT rights groups.
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/nigeria-gay-cat-_n_4661477.html [with comments]
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Nigerian Man Received 20 Lashes For... Being Gay
A 20 year old Nigerian has received 20 lashes after being convicted for "homosexual offences" seven years ago.
1/17/2014
http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/archive/segment/nigerian-man-received-20-lashes-for-being-gay/52d979d678c90a2f7f0003cb
===
this is part 5 of a multi-part post -- continues with my next post, a reply to this one
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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