Pope Francis Praises Author of LGBT-Inclusive Kids' Book
Through an aide, the pope offers support to a writer whose work was banned by the mayor of Venice, but warns against reading too much into it.
Trudy Ring
www.advocate.com/religion/2015/08/28/pope-francis-praises-author-lgbt-inclusive-kids-book
Kentucky Clerk Who Refuses To Issue Gay Marriage Licenses Begs Supreme Court For Help
After defying multiple orders to issue marriage licenses to gays and lesbians, a Kentucky clerk is taking her case to the Supreme Court.
Rowan County clerk Kim Davis on Friday filed an emergency request with the court to put a temporary hold on a lower-court ruling that effectively forces her to begin serving gay couples, saying that complying with the order would violate her religious beliefs.
According to Davis’ petition, her “conscience forbids her from approving” marriage licenses to gay couples “because the prescribed form mandates that she authorize the proposed union and issue a license bearing her own name and imprimatur.”
“She holds an undisputed sincerely-held religious belief that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, only,” the petition continues. “Thus, in her belief, [same-sex marriage] is not, in fact, marriage.”
Equality Case Files, a nonprofit that tracks litigation around same-sex marriage, posted a copy of Davis’ filing on its website. The filing can be read in full here.
Davis’ request was addressed to Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees emergency petitions from Kentucky. Justices from time to time are asked to review such petitions, which are only procedural in scope and are meant to delay implementation of lower-court rulings. Kagan could either act on Davis’ petition on her own or refer it to the full court for adjudication.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. Following the landmark ruling, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear — who was one of the defendants in that case — ordered state clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to gay and heterosexual couples alike.
But Davis refused. And then refused again after she was sued and was ordered by a federal court to comply. On Wednesday, an appellate court told her that she had “little or no likelihood” of winning her case.
In her Friday petition to Kagan, Davis argues that adding her “name, authorization, and approval” to marriages by gay couples would amount to a “searing act of validation” that “would forever echo in her conscience.”
The petition goes on: “If Davis’ religious objection cannot be accommodated when Kentucky marriage licenses are available in more than 130 marriage licensing locations … then elected officials have no real religious freedom when they take public office.”
That’s the crux of Davis’ legal argument, but any Supreme Court action in response would be much narrower in scope. Rather than opining on whether Davis’ religious freedom is being violated, a ruling from Kagan or from the full court would be limited to deciding whether to halt the original court order requiring Davis to issue marriage licenses to all couples.
According to BuzzFeed’s Chris Geidner, that court order is set to go into effect on Monday.
David Ermold and his partner have been turned away by Davis’ office twice. Ermold told The Associated Press that all the back-and-forth is “getting tedious.”
“We get torn down, built back up, torn down, built back up,” he said. “It’s emotionally draining.”
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Rowan County Clerk asks US Supreme Court to intervene in her standoff against gay marriage
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis is hoping the US Supreme Court will step in and issue a stay on a federal court’s order that she begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
On Friday (28 August), lawyers for Davis made an emergency filing with the nation’s high court stating that Davis ‘holds an undisputed sincerely-held religious belief that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, only.’
It states that Davis does not believe same-sex marriage is marriage.
‘If a S(same-sex marriage) license is issued with Davis’ name, authorization, and approval, no one can unring that bell. That searing act of validation would forever echo in her conscience. And yet, the (same-sex marriage) mandate demands that she either fall in line (her conscience be damned) or leave office (her livelihood and job for three-decades in the clerk’s office be damned).’
Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has previously weighed in telling Davis and other clerks to issue licenses or resign.
Davis and her office have stopped issuing licenses to all couples, including opposite sex couples, because of her religious objections to same-sex marriage. She was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of four couples – two straight and two gay – after a 26 June Supreme Court ruling made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states.
The US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday (25 August) denied a request by Davis to keep denying licenses while she appeals her case. A federal judge ruled earlier this summer that she could no longer legally refuse to issue and a three-judge panel of the appellate court stated they do not believe Davis has much of a chance of prevailing in the lawsuit.
Davis is being represented by the Florida-based Liberty Counsel.
H/T: Towleroad
The post Rowan County Clerk asks US Supreme Court to intervene in her standoff against gay marriage appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
WATCH: Focus on the Family Highlights Anti-gay Rally for Lawless Kentucky County Clerks
Anti-gay organization Focus on the Family attended and shot a promotional video at an anti-gay rally at the Kentucky state Capitol last Saturday where Rowan County clerk Kim Davis was a key speaker for the event.
Focus on the Family’s video promotional video asks, “will you stand with them?” in support of Kim Davis and clerks like her in their lawless actions.
Earlier today, we reported Davis had filed an emergency request for a stay on a federal order calling on her to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The post WATCH: Focus on the Family Highlights Anti-gay Rally for Lawless Kentucky County Clerks appeared first on Towleroad.
Anthony Costello
WATCH: Focus on the Family Highlights Anti-gay Rally for Lawless Kentucky County Clerks
Indiana Newspaper Calls for Equal Rights for All
The newspaper that has served Indiana since 1903 takes a bold stand, calling for state lawmakers to enact equality legislation, which its editors proclaim as ‘necessary and right.’
Dawn Ennis
www.advocate.com/indiana/2015/08/28/indiana-newspaper-calls-equal-rights-all
Realtime Popcorn-time
There’s a luscious vegetarian cookbook on my piano. Gourmet recipes and top notch photography in a very artful package. When I flip through the pages, my mouth starts to water. It’s a little like flipping through Bon Appetit — only better. I bought this book for my wife, Sue Ann. Sue Ann is a voracious meat-lover. Type O, high metabolism, long and lean like a cheetah. There’s nothing brontosaurus-like about her. She has mentioned in passing that she’d like to try vegetarianism for the health benefits and her love of animals. It’s also part of her overall forward thinking approach to living. She’s a die hard humanitarian. My ulterior motives are a little less ambitious. If she wants to save the animals, and as a byproduct, cook clean for the both of us, sounds like a happy win-win to me.
I often poke fun of my east coast rearing. My innate separatism, that I consciously shift out of on a daily basis. My first generation Italian-American parents were products of a survivalist, depression era mentality. They were caught in the frozen tundra of cross cultures, the budding generation gap and old-fashioned mindsets of a people who left their expanding culture, prior to its expansion. My grandparents were immigrants and factory workers. I think children of immigrants have a challenging time finding their way. Immigrants, especially impoverished ones, tend to hold tightly to what they know, like choking on a chicken’s neck. I’m reminded of a story my dad used to tell me about my grandmother, Providencia, who would kill one of her chicks for dinner, with a quick stroke of her cooking ax.
There’s an excellent series on PBS called Italian Americans that really captures how four generations of the Italian people made their way in the United States. I feel a million miles away from the northern part of New Jersey I grew up in. Having adopted southern California as my home, I feel infinitely grateful for how living here has broadened my perspective, and worldview. (However resistant I can be to it ).
All this brings me back to Sue Ann. Back to that part about her humanitarianism. The interesting fact that we found each other. She’s a child of Taiwanese immigrants. On September 1, her story as a Mars One Candidate airs on AOL.com. Citizen Mars is a documentary about five Mars100 finalists from all over the globe, their intimate stories, and their personal calling to this unique opportunity. I wrote a blog about my process, adjusting to Sue Ann’s aspirations as a Mars One astronaut and colonist. You can catch up and read about it on the Huffington Post here.
This April, a Stateless Media film crew followed us around for a few days. They interviewed us, filmed Sue Ann climbing mountains in Joshua Tree, we hiked, we ate, I sang, we broke bread and talked about her leaving the earth on a “one way trip” to the red planet. As a performer and individual with a sizable ego, I’m a little afeared of the interview scenes — they were so raw and candid. My segment was filmed after a night of camping, not sleeping, no makeup, just an invitation to share my thoughts. It was one of those, “ah what the fuck” moments. What is this all about anyway? “This” meaning life. So on Tuesday, September 1, we all get to see how this ambitious idea, originating in the mind of Bas Lansdorp, is affecting my world, and the world of those four other candidates and their families at large. I’m sure we will be crying, cringing and reaching for popcorn the entire time.
for music, visit CynthiaCatania.com
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Cynthia also writes for AMNplify, Australian Musician Network
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Actor Darryl Stephens on his struggles with being black and gay in Hollywood
During the years that he starred as a gay man on the TV series Noah’s Arc, Darryl Stephens was quiet about the fact that he was also gay in real life.
It was part of an agreement with the powers that be to not discuss his sexuality with the media.
‘When we made Noah’s Arc, every interviewer was asking: “Are the actors gay or straight?” Now, with Jack Falahee on How to Get Away with Murder, we know straight and gay actors can play straight or gay characters. It’s less an issue for the press,’ Stephens tells Salon.
‘The culture is changing a lot, and you are seeing 12-13 year-olds coming out. There is no way I could have come out when I was that age.’
Stephens shares his journey as an out black actor in his new memoir Required Reading: How to Get Your Life For Good.
‘There were a lot of lessons about what people expected of us as black gay men, and I learned to have a thick skin about how black gay men are representing themselves. Everyone has an idea of what we should look like,’ he says.
His character on Noah’s Arc was somewhat effeminate but he’s also played more butch gay men in the films Boy Culture and Another Gay Movie as well as the TV series DTLA. But because Noah is his most well-known role, Stephens says: ‘I get called in more often for sassy black queen roles. It’s learning to adapt. But I’m more a character than one type.’
Stephens has the lead role in the currently filming From Zero to I Love You written and directed by his Noah’s Arc co-star Doug Spearman. In the film, he plays a gay man with a history of getting involved with married men.
‘I love seeing all of the different types, and not prioritizing one over the other. Sissies can be powerful,’ he says.
‘The term “thug” has been co-opted by conservatives as term for a black male – but there is a clear admiration for hyper-masculine depictions of black gay men. Being black and gay in America both come with heavy doses of self-loathing. I think it’s extremely important for people who are taught explicitly or implicitly to think less of themselves, to have an alternate perspective. I wanted to be the best, most realized version of myself.
‘I have had some self-loathing come up. You have to be honest in processing those moments. One of the gifts of being a gay man is to express our emotions, and that vulnerability of being raised that we are “less than,” and having to experience that, and work through that, and do it together, is important.’
The post Actor Darryl Stephens on his struggles with being black and gay in Hollywood appeared first on Gay Star News.
Greg Hernandez
Ellen Page Says It’s Borderline Offensive To Be Called Brave For Playing A Gay Character
Maybe this is a bad thing to say, but I have a hard time when people call actors brave. I don’t really get that, because our job is to read something on a page. When people are [called] brave in regards to playing LGBTQ people, that’s borderline offensive. I’m never going to be considered brave for playing a straight person, and nor should I be. It’s hard to say this, because the context of the film is so deeply tragic, but for me there was a deep sense of peace on set that I had not felt in a really long time, potentially since I was a teenager and first having these really beautiful, fortunate moments in films. There was something about being out, getting to play a gay character, and getting to play a woman who is so inspiring to me—it was such an amazing experience for me. Honestly, if I played gay characters for the rest of my career, I’d be thrilled. I wish I could, honestly!”
— Ellen Page, who stars as half of a lesbian couple opposite Julianne Moore in the upcoming fact-based drama Freeheld, speaking her mind in an interview with Time
Jeremy Kinser
Here’s Anti-gay Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis’s SCOTUS Emergency Stay Request: READ
As expected, Rowan County clerk Kim Davis is attempting to get the highest court in the land to intervene in her anti-gay crusade.
In an emergency application filed today, Davis asked U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan to issue a stay on a federal order calling on her to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The Sixth Circuit denied a similar motion from Davis earlier this week. The temporary hold on U.S. District Judge David Bunning’s ruling in expected to expire on Monday at the latest.
From the SCOTUS filing:
“She holds an undisputed sincerely-held religious belief that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, only. Thus, in her belief, SSM is not, in fact, marriage. If a SSM license is issued with Davis’ name, authorization, and approval, no one can unring that bell. That searing act of validation would forever echo in her conscience. And yet, the SSM Mandate demands that she either fall in line (her conscience be damned) or leave office (her livelihood and job for three-decades in the clerk’s office be damned).”
Here’s the full filing:
Courtesy of Equality Case Files
The post Here’s Anti-gay Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis’s SCOTUS Emergency Stay Request: READ appeared first on Towleroad.
Kyler Geoffroy
Here’s Anti-gay Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis’s SCOTUS Emergency Stay Request: READ
This Catholic High School Is Standing Up To The Church
A Catholic high school in Portland, Oregon, made history this week by instituting a policy that forbids employment discrimination against gays and lesbians.
St. Mary’s Academy adopted the policy after its earlier decision to rescind a job offer to Lauren Brown, an academic counselor, triggered a backlash. Brown was offered the job in April, and over the summer, she told a top school official that she was gay.
That’s when things changed. According to documents obtained by a local news source, the school offered Brown a year of pay in exchange for her agreeing not to sue and to stay quiet about the matter. Brown turned down the offer. When current students, alumni and donors learned about the story, they were outraged.
It’s hardly unusual for a Catholic school to fire a teacher for being openly gay: Despite Pope Francis famously asking “Who am I to Judge” in response to a question about gay priests, gay marriage is still considered a sin and a violation of Catholic teachings. But St. Mary’s has never been a typical Catholic school, which perhaps explains the heated reactions from current and former students after learning of the rescinded job offer.
More than a dozen current and former students told The Huffington Post that the news sharply conflicted with their understanding of St. Mary’s, a well-loved institution that prioritizes social justice and once recruited students with the slogan “free to be me.”
As Jade Osilla, a 2005 graduate of the academy still living in Portland, put it, “St. Mary’s Academy was or is an incredibly progressive place for being a Catholic school.”
“People always seem to think that Catholic schools are about nuns and uniforms and rigidity,” she continued. “But social justice and equality were part of the soul of the high school, and I think I can say that every girl who has left that high school has kept that in mind. So when we saw this happen it sent up a lot of red flags for all of us. We were sad, angry, hurt, and betrayed.”
Osilla, like many of her friends and former classmates, learned the news of the rescinded offer in an email from the school president on Wednesday morning. “We understand that others may hold different values, and we respect the right of individuals in society to do so,” the letter, obtained by HuffPost, read. “At the same time, as a Catholic high school we are obligated to follow current Catholic teachings regarding same-sex marriage in our employment practices.”
“We ask for your prayers during this difficult time,” the letter concluded. Facebook groups for St. Mary’s alumna promptly exploded with angry comments. The letter was particularly painful for current and former students who identify as queer.
“I was like please, ‘pray for you,’ are you kidding? This is so fucked,” said Mac Reid, a 2007 graduate who now identifies as gay. “I still communicate with the staff there because they’re so passionate about making sure that these girls know their worth as human beings and what they’re capable of as young people. They typically lead by example, and this was the opposite.”
In a letter to administrators that has been widely circulated on Facebook, Claire Willet, a class of 1999 graduate who is also gay, wrote about how damaging the school’s initial decision was to queer students at the school.
“You are not supporting the young queer women of St. Mary’s by denying them the chance to have a role model of their own on staff,” her letter read. “You are not supporting them by teaching them that they are welcome in the Catholic Church as long as they keep their heads down and don’t make a scene. You are not supporting them by saying, ‘We’re happy to take your tuition money but we would never hire you.'”
Although the queer alumna and current students interviewed this week spoke of the school in glowing terms and said they always felt supported by teachers and staff, they also pointed out that St. Mary’s has never been completely immune from the mainstream Catholic teachings on homosexuality.
Back in 2007, When Angie Goffredi was a junior, she and a few friends formed a queer students’ alliance with a supportive guidance counselor, but they weren’t allowed to advertise or put up posters like the other school groups. They called it “Geography Club,” after a young adult novel about a similar secret school support group, and recruited by word of mouth. “I always felt like I had to tiptoe around [the administration] to be myself, but I wasn’t ever outrightly punished or anything for being out,” Goffredi wrote in an email.
Stevie Dod, a junior at St. Mary’s, said that things started to change at the Geography Club last year. Dod is a leader with what is now called the Student Alliance For Equality, though the club still cannot advertise or put posters up in the halls. “But it is not a secret like in the past,” Dod wrote in an email. “I feel comfortable telling other students about it, or talking about future meetings on social media.” Wednesday’s news came as a total shock. Dod recalled that old recruiting slogan, “Free to be me.”
“That no longer seemed accurate,” Dod wrote.
The school’s reversal came quickly. A little over 24 hours after the first email, the St. Mary’s president announced the school board’s unanimous decision to add sexual orientation to its equal employment opportunity policy.
“St. Mary’s is a diverse community that welcomes and includes gay and lesbian students, faculty, alumnae, parents and friends, including those that are married,” Christina Friedhoff, the president, wrote. “We are proud of our work preparing the next generation of women leaders for service and leadership. We are still deeply committed to our Catholic identity.”
According to Willamette Week, Brown has not been offered her job back because the school already gave it to someone else. But Friedhoff says the school wants to offer “reconciliation
St. Mary’s students and alumni are now busy figuring out what exactly happened. “The thing that’s irritating most of us is just why they had to make that first decision at all,” Reid said. “If it was easy enough to repeal, to do the right thing, then why did they have to do that in the first place?”
Many point the finger at the Portland Archdiocese. Since the pope asked “Who am I to judge?” a small group of Catholic leaders around the world have spoken in support of gay people generally and the importance of employment nondiscrimination policies that protect gays and lesbians in particular. The Portland archbishop is not among them. Last month, he wrote a column explaining why Pope Francis’ question does not translate to Catholic support for the “gay lifestyle” or “gay marriage.”
“If a person with same sex attractions engages in homosexual acts, these acts are intrinsically and gravely disordered, and objectively constitute grave sin,” he wrote.
While it is unclear exactly what role Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample played in the school’s decision to resend the offer, he voiced support for the decision earlier this week when the news broke. “We expect that given certain reassurances by the federal government in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling making ‘same-sex unions’ the law of the land, our religious liberty would be protected in this case as well as any future cases of this sort,” he said.
Since the school changed its policy, a spokesperson for Sample declined HuffPost’s request for an interview. “The Archdiocese is aware of the decision made by St. Mary’s Academy, and will continue our conversation with school officials,” David J. Renshaw, the director of communications for the Archdiocese of Portland, wrote in an email. Asked whether the school may lose its Catholic affiliation, Renshaw declined to say. “As the statement indicates, conversations are ongoing. We all hope for the best resolution.”
The school likewise turned down HuffPost’s request for an interview on the week’s tumultuous events. ”We are focusing on our internal community right now. We are engaging in dialogue with our parents, students, alumnae, and faculty and staff so that healing within our community can begin,” Friedhoff said in a statement.
Perhaps the midweek turn occurred, as some have suggested, after two top donors to the academy slammed the school’s decision to rescind the job offer.
“We are extremely disappointed in the decision by St. Mary’s Academy to terminate an offer of employment based on sexual orientation and objections to marriage equality,” wrote Mary Boyle, who graduated from St. Mary’s in 1967, and her husband, Tim Boyle, the CEO of Columbia Sportswear. “We feel strongly that the position taken by St. Mary’s, as reported in the press and reflected in communications from the school, was wrong and should be reversed.”
The Boyles did not respond to HuffPost’s request for an interview.
Regardless of the reasoning, the school now stands as an important test case. Can a Catholic institution deviate from church doctrine and remain Catholic? LGBT Catholics everywhere hope so. “This is a landmark,” said Francis DeBernardo of the New Ways Ministry, an LGBT Catholic group. “I don’t know of a single other school that has stood up in this way.”
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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