2012 Kentucky Guardian - KYGuardian.com

While several Seattle Catholic parishes have oped out of the anti-same-sex marriage campaign, a Kirkland pastor said Sunday that marriage was “created and defined by God” and that Gay marriage “is simply not possible.”

The Rev. Kurt Nagel, pastor of Holy Family Parish, said he would “honor” Archbishop J. Peter Sartain’s letter saying parishes can be used to gather signatures on Referendum 74, which would force a vote on the state’s new marriage quality law.

“It is very rare that the Catholic Church allows such political activity on her property (you may remember a similar process some years ago regarding an initiative on abortion),” Nagel said in a homily. “It only happens when the political issue touches upon a clear and important teaching of the church.”

Nagel said those who oppose legal civil marriage for same-sex couples “are being called ‘bigots’ by some.” But he argued that there are “two completely different ways of looking at the issue.”

Read more: http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2012/04/23/gay-marriage-simply-cant-happen-catholic-pastor/

Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city. Mexico is the 14th largest nation-state in the world and the 11th most populous.

Mexico City, like Washington, D.C. is a federal District controlled by the federal government and are not sovereign states or entities. However, the 8-2 vote by justices of the Mexican Supreme Court said marriage is a matter of equal rights, as well as states’ rights that should include the District.

Washington, D.C. legalized gay marriage earlier this year after a District Superior Court rejected a citizens anti-gay marriage referendum.

In March U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts rejected a last-minute request by traditional marriage supporters to stop the District’s same-sex marriage law from taking effect. As a “matter of judicial policy,” Roberts said in an opinion that it has been the practice of the U.S. Supreme Court not to intervene in local matters.

Earlier this year, Mexico City became the first capital city of Latin America allowing gay couples to marry and adopt, giving them the same rights as the heterosexual couples. The law was passed despite protests by Mexico President Calderon’s conservative government and his right-wing National Action Party or PAN. Gay marriage was called “immoral” by the Catholic hierarchy in Mexico and PAN has stated gay marriage would be destructive to families.

The Mexican Supreme Court will now decide if the city’s approval of gay adoption is constitutional, and examine whether gay couples married in Mexico City are married elsewhere in the federation.

According to the NotieSe news agency, 173 male couples and 147 female couples have gotten married. In 27 of the marriages, one partner was a foreigner — from Austria, Canada, Colombia, England, France, Germany, Guatemala, Italy, Panama, Romania, Spain, the United States, or Venezuela.

Last month, Argentina became the first South American nation to legalize same-sex marriage, while the Governor of Hawaii vetoed legislation legalizing same-sex civil unions.

In another victory for our community, last month, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act‘s denial of federal rights and benefits to lawfully married Massachusetts couples “offends” the notion of states’ rights as enshrined in the 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts sued the federal government for not recognizing legally married couples under Massachusetts law.

Néstor Kirchner applauds his wife and successor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, upon her inaugural in 2007.

The Argentine Republic (famously known as the “Land of Evita”) on Thursday became the first nation in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, turning aside protests from the Roman Catholic Church to give gay couples the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts.

The Argentine Senate approved the measure in a hard-fought 33-27 vote, with three abstentions.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the first female president, indicated that she will sign it into law quickly.

The 4:05 a.m. vote came after an exhaustive debate that dragged on for more than 14 hours. Hundreds of supporters of the law, waiting outside Congress in freezing temperatures, erupted in cheers and tears of joy when news of the vote reached them.

It was not immediately clear if the provinces will accept the Federation’s legalization of same-sex marriage.

Argentina is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth-largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico, Colombia and Spain are more populous.

Argentina Flag: "In Unity and Freedom"

Each province has also its own government, with a provincial constitution, a set of provincial laws and justice system, a supreme court, a governor, an autonomous police force (independent of the Federal Police), and a congress: in eight provinces the parliament is constituted by an upper chamber (senate) and a lower chamber (deputies), while in the remaining fifteen provinces and in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires the congress has just one chamber.

Since the return of democracy to the country in 1983, some provinces have had governments traditionally controlled by a single family; in one case, it is still the situation as of 2009: the Province of San Luis was ruled almost without a break by the Rodríguez Saá family since December 1983.

FATIMA, Portugal –

Benedict made the comments to Catholic social workers, health providers and others after celebrating Mass before an estimated 400,000 people in Fatima. The central Portuguese farming town is one of the most important shrines in Christianity, where three shepherd children reported having visions of the Virgin Mary in 1917.

Benedict’s visit to Fatima on the anniversary of the apparitions was the spiritual centerpiece of his four-day visit to Portugal, which ends Friday. It was cast by Vatican officials as evidence that he had turned a page in weathering the abuse scandal, which has dogged him for months.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, pointed to the turnout in Fatima and said it was “very beautiful and encouraging” that pilgrims hadn’t been deterred in expressing their faith despite months of revelations in Europe about priests who molested children and bishops and Vatican officials who turned a blind eye.

The faithful understand “the capacity of the church to effectively overcome — via conversion, penance and prayer — the dimension of real sin there is in our community,” Lombardi said.

Benedict himself admitted to the “sins within the church” on the first day of the trip, his most explicit admission of Church culpability in the scandal. By Thursday, however, he had moved on to stressing core church teachings in the largely Roman Catholic country, where abortion on demand has been available since 2007 and where Parliament in January passed a bill allowing same-sex marriage. In addition, a judge in 2008 made it easier to obtain divorce even when one spouse objects.

Benedict told the gathering of lay Catholics that he appreciated their efforts fighting abortion and promoting the family based on the “indissoluble marriage between a man and woman” — the Vatican’s way of expressing its opposition to divorce and same-sex unions.

Such initiatives “help respond to some of the most insidious and dangerous threats to the common good today,” he said. “Alongside numerous other forms of commitment, such initiatives represent essential elements in the building of the civilization of love.”

The admonition was a break of sorts from the continuous message Benedict has delivered in Portugal about the suffering of the world and church — a message which resonates in Fatima, where the sick and infirm flock seeking remedies for ailments.

In a special message to the sick during Mass, Benedict urged them to take heart, saying they should “overcome the feeling of the uselessness of suffering which consumes a person from within and makes him feel a burden to those around him.”

“In suffering, you will discover an interior peace and even spiritual joy,” he said.

His message struck a chord with many in the huge gathering, among them elderly and infirm people who, with their heads bowed, fingered rosaries.

Aurora Clemente, a 65-year-old cook from Portugal’s northeastern tip, close to the border with Spain, said she had been coming to Fatima on May 13 for more than 30 years.

“Fatima makes miracles. When my son was seriously ill, I prayed to the Virgin of Fatima and he survived,” she said.

“I find it very moving here. For me, this is the most beautiful place in the world,” she said, sitting beneath a red umbrella on the fringe of the crowd.

Like Lourdes in France, Fatima attracts millions of pilgrims a year seeking cures. One of the rituals pilgrims perform at Fatima involves casting replicas of body parts — eyes, lungs, hearts — on sale at local shops into a big bonfire while reciting a prayer asking for healing.

Pope Paul VI visited Fatima in 1967. Pope John Paul II — who was shot in St. Peter’s Square on May 13, 1981 — came three times before his death, believing that the Virgin’s “unseen hand” had saved him.

During his third and final visit in 2000, the Vatican announced the “third secret” of Fatima: the third part of the message the Virgin is said to have told the three children: a description of the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.

The first two secrets of Fatima were said to have foretold the end of World War I and the outbreak of World War II and the rise and fall of Soviet communism.

After the third secret was revealed, the Vatican essentially implied the Fatima case was closed. But on Thursday, Benedict said its message continued to be relevant.

“We would be mistaken to think that Fatima’s prophetic mission is complete,” Benedict said in his homily during the Mass. Lombardi was asked if such comments were merely an effort to keep Fatima’s fascination relevant to the faithful at a time when the Cold War and John Paul’s assassination attempt are no longer front-burner issues.

“The term ‘prophetic’ doesn’t mean an announcement of concrete facts that one sees in a crystal ball but rather knowing how to read history and events in the light of faith,” Lombardi said.

© 2010 The Associated Press, © 2010 Yahoo News.  All Rights Reserved. Associated Press writer Barry Hatton contributed to this report.

Students Protest the University's Decision. Photo Credit: Journal Sentinel

Marquette University has come under considerably controversy after initially offering, then withdrawing, a dean position to openly-gay professor Jodi O’Brien. The sudden shift in attitude toward O’Brien is leaving some of her defenders to allege discrimination based on her sexual orientation.

According to The New York Times, the school decided to withdraw the job offer because O’Brien’s writings did not possess “the ability to represent the Marquette mission and identity.

A university spokeswoman said the decision to withdraw an offer to hire Seattle University professor Jodi O’Brien wasn’t about her sexual orientation or the quality of her scholarship. It did have to do with some of O’Brien’s published writings “relating to Catholic mission and identity,” Marquette spokeswoman Mary Pat Pfeil said.

“This was a decision based on a totality of factors, specifically related to the fit for the candidate to the college,” she said in an interview.

Psychology professor Stephen Franzoi, who served on a search committee for the post, said faculty members forwarded two candidates to Marquette President Father Robert A. Wild and Provost John Pauly. In their recommendation, committee members warned Wild and Pauly not to pick O’Brien if the university was not willing to support her if her sexual orientation or if her scholarship were criticized, Franzoi said.

Nancy E. Snow, a philosophy professor, helped O’Brien hunt for houses in Shorewood last month. She said the discussion of O’Brien’s work is a smokescreen.

She sent an e-mail to several faculty members saying that she suspects donors criticized the hire and that Wild feared losing their support.

“This is a travesty that will have long-term impact for our ability to retain and hire high quality faculty,” Snow said. “It’s a public disgrace and an embarrassment.”

Pfeil said she didn’t know of a donor threatening to pull a donation from Marquette because of the hire.

Seal of Marquette University

About 100 students, some carrying signs, protested the decision in front of Marquette’s Alumni Memorial Union, blocking part of Wisconsin Ave. on Thursday afternoon just before an award dinner for Marquette faculty. Some faculty members wore pink and lavender clothing and flowers in protest.

Margaret Steele, a doctoral student in philosophy department, said the decision “was made behind closed doors and very quietly” and seemed to be a “violation of MU values.”

Several faculty members said the decision raised concerns about academic freedom and the university leadership’s discomfort with the subject of O’Brien’s published work – including a sociological study of vignettes on lesbian sex – rather than any issues of quality.

Marquette University is a private, coeducational, Society of Jesus, Roman Catholic university located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1881, the school is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. The university is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and currently has a student body of 11,500. Marquette is one of the largest Society of Jesus universities in the United States, and the largest private university in the state of Wisconsin.

© 2010 Journal Sentinel, © United We Stand – Kentucky’s LGBTI News, © CN College News.

As a matter of history, the U.S. Supreme Court never gets too far ahead of public opinion, or ahead of the laws in the majority of the states.

In their ongoing fight, traditional marriage supporters rallied to either get Congress, which has absolute authority over the District to overturn the measure, or to have it placed on a city-wide ballot. Congress, during its 30-day review period, did not act to overturn it.  (previous story)

At least 50 same-sex couples lined up to apply for marriage licenses when city offices opened Wednesday as the unions became legal in the District.  At the same time, Catholic Charities stopped healthcare coverage. (previous story)

Cheering erupted from the crowd when the first couple signed in at the city’s marriage bureau inside the Moultrie courthouse, just blocks from the U.S. Capitol. Because of a mandatory waiting period of three business days, however, couples won’t actually be able to marry in the District of Columbia until Tuesday.

The District of Columbia will be the sixth place in the world’s oldest federation [the United States of America] same-sex couples can legally wed, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts led the fight with the the states of Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire and Vermont following years later.

As of January 1, 2009, thirty states have constitutional amendments explicitly barring the recognition of same-sex marriage, defining civil marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman. More than forty states explicitly restrict marriage to two persons of the opposite sex, including some of those that have created legal recognition for same-sex unions under a name other than “marriage”, e.g., civil unions and domestic partnerships.

In the District of Columbia today, the marriage bureau changed its license applications so they are gender-neutral, asking for the name of each “spouse” rather than the “bride” and “groom.” And at civil marriage ceremonies to be performed in the courthouse, a booklet for the official performing the marriage now reads, “I now pronounce you legally married” instead of “I now pronounce you man and wife.”

“I am deeply saddened and troubled that such blatantly ignorant and hate-filled legislation would see the light of day anywhere in today’s world. It needs to be stopped in its tracks immediately,’ stated U.S. Representative Ilean Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), the senior Republican on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. “Ugandan leaders must come to their senses and reject this impending massive blow to human rights and decency in their country.”

Ros-Lehtinen also wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and stated she would seek unspecified ‘appropriate action‘ from Washington if Uganda passes the bill into law.

The response from openly gay U.S. Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) was significantly weaker that that of U.S. Representative Ilean Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida).  Baldwin, in an interview with the Bay Area Reporter stated that American officials should leverage the loss of HIV/AIDS funding in their talks with Ugandan officials.  “I don’t want to wait for them to pass the bill to then take the funds away,” said Baldwin.  “At the same time I am not going to tell Secretary Clinton how to exercise U.S. diplomacy.”

Worldwide Protests

Large protests have been held outside Ugandan Embassies in London, Berlin, Washington, D.C., Ottawa, and United Nations World Headquarters in New York City. San Francisco and Chicago also held protests on December 10th “Local action lets officials in Washington, D.C. know these issues matter,” said openly gay Michael Guest, former U.S. Ambassador to Romania (previous story) and the founder of the Council for Global Equality.

The proposed law, supported by Uganda’s president, is causing a firestorm at the Commonwealth of Nations, which Uganda is a member state.

The Commonwealth of Nations is an intergovernmental organization of 54 member states, all but two of which were formerly part of the British Empire. The member states co-operate within a framework of common values and goals as outlined in the Singapore Declaration which include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace. The symbol and Head of the Commonwealth is Queen Elizabeth II.

Activists are urging the Commonwealth to make it clear that it will suspend Uganda’s membership if the law passes. Suspension of Uganda’s membership in the Commonwealth of Nations would be disastrous given Uganda’s dependence on the Commonwealth for international trade.  The Commonwealth represents 2 billion people around the world, and accounts for more than $3 trillion in trade.

The proposed legislation was a slap in the face to Queen Elizabeth II, who recently called on the Commonwealth of Nations to increase support for the development of youth. Queen Elizabeth II challenged member states to look beyond achievements as they reflected over the past 60 years, and aspire without complacency to reach the core values freedom, democracy and development. “Yet despite its size and scale, the Commonwealth to me has been sustained during all this change by the continuity of our mutual values and goals,” stated Elizabeth II.  “Our beliefs in freedom, democracy and human rights; equality and equity; development and prosperity mean as much today as they did more than half a century ago.”

Queen Elizabeth II also presided over the Commonwealth’s 60th anniversary summit in November.

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni told the Commonwealth of Nations that it did not need “instructions” and “obstructions” from developed nations.  However, Uganda has modified the bill once already after receiving stern warnings from powerful Commonwealth states such as the United Kingdom and Canada. The original bill called for the death penalty for men who have gay sex with disabled people, people 18 years or younger, or when the accused is HIV-positive.

U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton added America’s muscular support to calls for the bill to be scrapped, saying the United States would not tolerate efforts to criminalize homosexuality among countries that receive U.S. funding to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Commonwealth member states, including the United Kingdom and Canada have condemned the proposed legislation. The proposed law has polarized Commonwealth states like few other subjects, pushing the more liberal countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, into direct opposition with many African and Caribbean member states.

Human-rights groups, including Gay Rights Uganda, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have condemned the bill.  They say it is a product of a campaign by evangelical churches and anti-gay groups that has led to death threats and physical assaults against Ugandans suspected of being gay.

Within Uganda, deeply-rooted homophobia, aided by a U.S. linked evangelical campaign alleging that gay men are trying to “recruit” schoolchildren, and that homosexuality is a habit that can be “cured”, has ensured widespread public support for the bill.

Popular U.S. bloggers Andrew Sullivan (source) and Andrew E. Mathis (source) have slammed U.S. President Obama and Rev. Rick Warren for the situation in Uganda.

LGBT blogger Michael Jones with change.org has issued an action alert about the Uganda bill to urge U.S. Representative Bart Stupak (D-Michigan), a member of the influential evangelical network in Washington, D.C. known as “The Family” to condemn Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill.  “The Family” network has very close ties to both Parliamentarians and the President in Uganda.

Truth Wins Out Reports:

In March, American anti-gay activists traveled to Uganda for a conference that pledged to “wipe out” homosexuality. Seven months later, a draconian bill has been introduced that pledges to make good on this threat.  The “Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009” is so severe that it is designed to shred the spirit and suffocate the soul of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Ugandans. If it passes, Uganda will become a predator state that actively hunts down GLBT people to destroy them.

United Nations Response

A United Nations General Assembly panel met this week and reported new momentum for ending human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.  The meeting included discussion of discriminatory and draconian “anti-homosexuality legislation” currently before the Ugandan parliament, and of the role of American religious groups in promoting that bill and homophobia across Africa.

In a groundbreaking move, a representative of the Pope in the audience read a statement strongly condemning the criminalization of homosexual conduct.

The statement from the Roman Catholic Church stated:

“The Holy See opposes all forms of violence and unjust discrimination against homosexual persons, including discriminatory penal legislation which undermines the inherent dignity of the human person. … [T]he murder and abuse of homosexual persons are to be confronted on all levels, especially when such violence is perpetrated by the State.”

The panel discussion was held on December 10th on the 61st anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), a United Nations observer, has been trying to add the Declaration on the Universal Decriminalization of Homosexuality to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights for years.  Human Rights Watch, Kentucky Equality Federation, and Georgia Equality are among the supporters of ILGA in the United States.

In a prepared statement, ILGA stated:

This bill will not only punish those consider offenders, it will punish the innocent people, break up family, interfere with honorable businesses, ruin people’s livelihoods, promote fear, discrimination and hatred.

Treaty bodies have repeatedly affirmed that laws criminalizing homosexuality violate international rights to privacy and non-discrimination.  As the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations, Ms N. Pillay emphasized in December 2008, that, “there remain all too many countries which continue to criminalize sexual relations between consenting adults of the same sex in defiance of established human rights law.”

The current penal code of Uganda Article 140 continues to threaten the existence of sexual minorities, and this law violates the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Uganda is a party.

According to the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s 1994 ruling in the case Toonen v. Australia, laws criminalizing homosexual conduct violate the right to privacy protected by article 17 of the ICCPR. As you are aware, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has also found that arrests for consensual homosexual conduct are, by definition, human rights violations.

It is our hope that the bill will be reconsidered to promote rather than criminalize and alienate homosexuals in Uganda.

Sweden organized the panel in coalition with Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, France, the Netherlands, and Norway. It was sponsored by a group of six non-governmental organizations that defend the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. The audience of 200 people included delegates from over 50 nations according to Human Rights Watch.  Kentucky Equality Federation issued an action alert about the lack of U.S. support earlier this year.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is warning the District of Columbia Council that the church will stop contracting to provide social services if the city approves same-sex marriage as planned. To which the only valid response is, “OK.”

The church hopes to change wording in the marriage legislation that could require its charitable arm, Catholic Charities, to facilitate adoptions to gay and lesbian couples and extend employee benefits to spouses in same-sex marriages. That, the church says, would require it to go against its religious teachings on homosexuality.

There are times when the aims of government and religious organizations are in sync: bringing food to the hungry, beds to the homeless and medical care to the sick. At other times, their aims veer apart. That’s fine, but at such times, government must not be diverted from its own course. The District of Columbia Council is expected to approve same-sex marriage next month. If it does, those marriages must receive the same recognition as all other marriages, at least in matters under the city’s jurisdiction. The council cannot dictate how a religious organization spends its private money, but it has an obligation to set rules for the use of public funds.

This is a situation the Catholic Church has faced before, most notably after Massachusetts banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. As a contractor with the state for adoption services, Catholic Charities placed hard-to-adopt children in gay and lesbian households until the church hierarchy pressured it to stop. It ended its contract with the state and closed its adoption service. But Catholic Charities could have continued doing private adoptions with church money, as the Mormon Church does. No one was telling the nonprofit how to practice religion — just how it could and could not use state funds.

So far, the District of Columbia Council is showing more backbone on this issue than the Obama administration. Barack Obama promised during his presidential campaign that he would end the practice of allowing faith-based groups receiving federal money to discriminate in hiring — for example, by not employing people who hold other religious beliefs. But he has backed off from that vow. In contrast, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray said the city would find another contractor if the Catholic Church severed its ties. That was the right response, and we hope it rang loud enough for Obama to hear.

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

“It’s no secret that the Catholic Diocese led the ‘Yes on 1′ effort in Maine, among many other churches encouraging their congregations to vote ‘Yes,’ handing out signature forms and collection plates during service, and constantly asking for ‘sacrificial contributions’ from churchgoers,” Maine Marriage Equality charges.

Indeed, United We Stand posted a article about the Catholic Churches involvement in September 2009.  (story)

Maine Marriage Equality is urging supporters and gay rights advocates to file an IRS complaint against churches that were a part of the effort in passing the ballot measure, Question One, which rejected the state’s same-sex marriage law.  Equality Maine, another LGBTI civil rights organization has yet to officially comment on any of the issues, or post any news of the repeal on their website.

Maine Marriage Equality scanned a letter from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and posted it on their website.  The IRS letter thanks a Maine citizen for reporting a church that entered a political debate and changed social policy.

Maine Marriage Alliance, an organization that was in favor of amending Maine’s constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage has an extensive list of churches and individuals that contributed to the “Yes on 1″ campaign.

The law was repealed last week when 53 percent of voters chose to repeal the law using Maine’s unique system of law called “the people’s veto.” (previous story) Maine citizens effectively vetoed legislation passed by both houses of Maine’s Legislature and signed into law by the Governor John Baldacci in May 2009. (previous story)

The situation is now similar to that of California, where gay marriage was legalized but the right was withdrawn in November 2008 by the state’s voters.

Gay marriage is legal in five states – Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Iowa – but this right has been granted by courts or legislature, rather than voter preference.