Texas AG Ken Paxton Fights Contempt Hearing Over Gay Marriage Opposition

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants a federal judge to cancel a hearing on whether he should be held in contempt of court for resisting the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of same-sex marriage.

And despite the possibility of being held in contempt, Paxton’s office continues to defy the high court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, according to Lambda Legal.

As we mentioned last week, U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia has ordered state officials to issue an amended death certificate to a gay man (right) whose husband died earlier this year. The amended death certificate was issued a day later.

Garcia also ordered Paxton to appear in court on Wednesday to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt over the state’s refusal to issue the amended death certificate for 40 days after the high court’s decision. Now, Lambda Legal says state officials continue to deny accurate birth certificates to same-sex couples, and another gay widower says he still hasn’t received and accurate death certificate despite repeated requests.

A same-sex couple that was denied an accurate birth certificate, as well as the widower who still hasn’t received an accurate death certificate, are expected to join the contempt hearing in San Antonio this week to testify against Paxton. The Texas Observer reports:

Ken Upton Jr., senior counsel for the LGBT civil rights group Lambda Legal, wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia today that the Department of State Health Services continues to deny accurate birth certificates to the children of same-sex couples.

Upton and his clients, Susan Leigh Jorgensen and Robin Bass Jorgensen, plan to attend a hearing next week on a contempt motion against Paxton and Kirk Cole, the interim health department commissioner, over their refusal to issue an amended death certificate to John Stone-Hoskins listing him as the husband of James Stone-Hoskins. James Stone-Hoskins died in January after the couple married in New Mexico last year. …

“While it appears the defendants have issued the specific corrected death certificate you ordered, they are by no means complying with the permanent injunction you entered against them in this matter,” Upton wrote in his letter to Garcia, adding that the state health agency has “steadfastly refused” to do so.

Paxton’s office responded to Garcia’s order by filing an 11-page motion asking the judge to cancel the contempt hearing since the state has finally issued an amended death certificate to one gay widower. In the motion, Paxton’s office argues it’s unclear whether the high court’s ruling should apply retroactively to death certificates:

The post Texas AG Ken Paxton Fights Contempt Hearing Over Gay Marriage Opposition appeared first on Towleroad.

John Wright

Texas AG Ken Paxton Fights Contempt Hearing Over Gay Marriage Opposition

Sydney marches for marriage equality

A march took place on Saturday calling for the government to legalize gay marriage.

The march comes three days before it is believed a cross-party marriage equality bill will be lodged in the Australian parliament (August 11).

More than 2000 people marched Sydney town hall before chalking rainbow colours into the street at the intersection of Flinders Street in Darlinghurst.

Yesterday Brisbane held a rally for marriage with around 6000 taking part.

The rally coincides with two other prominent pro-marriage equality initiatives.

In the capital of Australia, Canberra, the airport has been lit in rainbow colours to greet MPs returning from their winter break.

The post Sydney marches for marriage equality appeared first on Gay Star News.

Jack Flanagan

www.gaystarnews.com/article/sydney-marches-for-marriage-equality/

Mr Gay World 2010 Charl Van Den Berg has died aged 33

Charl Van Den Berg has died just aged 33 in South Africa on Thursday night.

He was known for having won Mr Gay South Africa in 2009 and the 2010 Mr Gay World competition in Oslo, Norway.

It is believed he died from lymphoma.

A Facebook post stated: ‘Charl was admitted to hospital earlier this week but lost his battle to Lymphoma (Cancer).

‘Charl’s funeral will take place on Friday the 14th of August at 14hoopm at Mosaiek.’

Van Den Berg engaged in a lot of charity and LGBTI rights adovocacy work before and after his time as Mr Gay World, including on the It Gets Better campaign and working with Health4Men, which educates men about HIV.

In statement quoted on his Wikipedia page he once said: ‘It is my understanding that people are people before we are different.

‘Mr. Gay World presents me with a platform to work from and creates an opportunity in which to do that andit is an honour to serve the global community in this capacity.’

The post Mr Gay World 2010 Charl Van Den Berg has died aged 33 appeared first on Gay Star News.

Jack Flanagan

www.gaystarnews.com/article/mr-gay-world-2010-charl-van-den-berg-has-died-aged-33/

Without a Trace’s Anthony LaPaglia: Australia needs to catch up on same-sex marriage

‘If the United States beats Australia to making gay marriage legal, you’re in trouble,’ Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia told AAP on Saturday. ‘It says a lot about the current administration here.’

Best known for his FBI agent Jack Malone character on the American TV series Without a Trace, the Adelaide, South Australia-born actor is back in his home country to promote the screen adaptation of gay activist Timothy Conigrave’s memoir Holding The Man.

The book charts the Australian activist-actor-writer’s 15-year relationship with the captain of his high school’s Australian rules team, John Caleo, who the former met when the pair attended an all-boys school in Melbourne during the 1970s.

LaPaglia, who plays the captain’s father, Bob Caleo, says moves to legalize same-sex marriage in Australia is long overdue.

‘It just shocks me that we are culturally behind like that,’ said the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.

The government needs to take note of the growing support for same-sex marriage around the world, he said.

‘Denying people their rights is like trying to fight your way against a rip tide.’

‘You hear a lot of shit being thrown out against the US, but we need to look here,’ said the actor who was also on TV show Frasier as Simon Moon.

‘We should be a much more progressive country than we are.’

He believes the love story in Holding the Man will touch many Australians.

‘It will strike a chord with people who have an opinion on this issue, some negative, and it will turn some people’s opinions.’

Australia’s federal parliament is likely to see a cross-party bill to legalize gay marriage when it resumes on Tuesday following its winter break.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has not granted his Liberal party a free vote while the Labor party says it supports same-sex marriage.

The post Without a Trace’s Anthony LaPaglia: Australia needs to catch up on same-sex marriage appeared first on Gay Star News.

Sylvia Tan

www.gaystarnews.com/article/without-a-traces-anthony-lapaglia-australia-needs-to-catch-up-on-same-sex-marriage/

Ugandan LGBTI community marks 1 year after overturn of anti-gay law

Several dozen members of Ugandan’s LGBTI community marked gay pride on Saturday at the Entebbe Botanical Gardens just outside the capital Kampala.

About 100 marchers holding rainbow flags and banners marched a short distance as music blared, according to media reports.

‘We are here to send a message to the wider population that we do exist and we want rights like any other Ugandan,’ said Moses Kimbugwe, one of the marchers. ‘We think this is a step moving forward.’

Just a year ago LGBTI people were at risk of long jail terms including life sentences for ‘aggravated homosexuality’.

For several years, Uganda attracted a storm of international condemnation after enacting one of the harshest anti-gay laws in Africa.

A constitutional court last year overturned the law because of legal technicalities.

Several lawmakers have since threatened to re-introduce anti-gay laws in parliament.

LGBTI Ugandans continue to live secretive lives as being openly gay is more than likely to attract stigma and hostility from family and society.

The post Ugandan LGBTI community marks 1 year after overturn of anti-gay law appeared first on Gay Star News.

Sylvia Tan

www.gaystarnews.com/article/ugandan-lgbti-community-marks-1-year-after-overturn-of-anti-gay-law/

Ugandans Celebrate Gay Pride, But Stigma Tempers Joy

ENTEBBE, Uganda (Reuters) – Several dozen Ugandans marked Gay Pride on Saturday, cheering that such a parade could go ahead in a country that only last year tried to impose long jail terms for gay sex.

At a secluded beach in Entebbe, on Lake Victoria just outside the capital Kampala, a group of about 70 people holding banners including “I have a relationship with Jesus and I’m gay”, marched a short distance as music blared out.

Gays and lesbians in Ugandans often live secretive lives, fearful that coming out will attract stigma and hostility from family and friends, or the loss of a job or an apartment.

 “We are here to send a message to the wider population that we do exist and we want rights like any other Ugandan,” said Moses Kimbugwe, one of the marchers. “We think this is a step moving forward.”

Although some of the revellers described the march – the culmination of a week of gay rights events in Uganda – as a triumph, they said their joy was tempered by the fact that society was still largely hostile to them and that attitudes were unlikely to change quickly.

A constitutional court later overturned the law because of legal technicalities. Despite threats by some lawmakers that the bill would be re-introduced in parliament, that has not happened and analysts say it would be unlikely to succeed in the face of strong pressure from Western donors.

Another marcher, who identified herself only by her first name, Mariam, because she was unwilling to be identified publicly as gay, said it was “exciting” to march alongside other gay people, but added she lived in fear of being found out.

“I would never ever reveal my gay lifestyle to my parents or friends. They would denounce me,” she said.

(Editing by Edith Honan and Alison Williams)

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