Immoral behavior

[HisDaughter]

Foremost UK gay activist admits there is no gay gene

One of the untouchable dogmas of the homosexualist movement is the assertion of the existence of a "gay gene", or a genetic marker that causes same-sex attraction. The assertion of a genetic factor in homosexual preference has never been demonstrated by scientists and now at least one prominent campaigner in the British homosexualist movement has admitted this fact, reports Hilary White, LifeSiteNews.com.

Peter Tatchell, an Australian-born British homosexual activist who founded the "direct action" group OutRage! that specialises in media stunts such as disrupting Christian religious services, wrote on Spiked Online that he agrees with the scientific consensus that there is no such thing as a "gay gene."

Contrary to the findings of some researchers who have tried to posit a purely genetic origin for same-sex attractions, Tatchell wrote, "Genes and hormones may predispose a person to one sexuality rather than another. But that's all. Predisposition and determination are two different things."

Homosexual activists have adopted the "gay gene" theory to bolster their assertion that any objection on moral grounds to homosexual activity is akin to objecting to left-handedness or skin colour. It has supported the accusation that Christians and others who object to the homosexual movement are racists and bigots.

Tatchell even went as far as to acknowledge the existence of some who have changed their "sexual orientation." "If heterosexuality and homosexuality are, indeed, genetically predetermined... how do we explain bisexuality or people who, suddenly in mid-life, switch from heterosexuality to homosexuality (or vice versa)? We can't."

Sexuality, he wrote, is "far more ambiguous, blurred and overlapping than any theory of genetic causality can allow."

"Examples of sexual flexibility... don't square with genetic theories of rigid erotic predestination."

Bill Muehlenberg, a Christian writer and philosophy lecturer, called Tatchell's admission a rare and "refreshing" and "very revealing case of homosexual honesty." Muehlenberg said that he has been "howled down" by homosexual lobbyists for years for saying the same things about putative homosexual determinism. Whoever is saying it, he wrote, the conclusion must be the debunking of the myth that homosexuals are "born that way" and cannot help, or change, their inclinations.

The "gay gene" theory has been used by gay activists "to deny choice, to make it appear that homosexuals cannot help it, and to argue that any criticism of the gay lifestyle is as silly as criticism of being left-handed or red-haired."

"And this has been a deliberate strategy by homosexual activists. They have done a very good job to convince a gullible public that homosexuals are born that way and cannot change."

[HisDaughter]

Canadian same-sex couple forces spousal insurance coverage in US

Canadian same-sex "marriages" are being used to deteriorate laws in the US protecting real marriage defined as the union of one man and one woman. Last week, a New York lesbian woman won a lawsuit forcing her insurance company to provide her "spouse," who she "married" in Canada, with insurance coverage, reports Tim Waggoner, LifeSiteNews.com.

According to Boston News, Jeanne Kornowicz asked the New York Civil Liberties Union to file the suit for her on July 9 against Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Western New York for denying health benefits to her "spouse," Joy Higgins.

Just three weeks later, on July 28, the insurance provider released a statement saying they had adjusted their policies and will now cover same-sex couples "married" in a jurisdiction where it is legal to do so.

The case was settled so quickly because of an early 2008 landmark case that forced the Monroe Community College in Rochester to extend health benefits to the "spouse" of a lesbian employee.

Furthermore, New York already has a "marriage recognition rule" that recognizes same-sex "marriages" performed in California, Massachusetts and Ontario. Same-sex "marriage," however, is still illegal in the state.

The specifics of the case are still being addressed, including the monetary value of damages plus interest and out of pocket expenses, such as the insurance Higgins had to purchase when she was originally denied coverage.

[Soldier4Christ]

One step at a time, one law at a time morality goes sharply downhill.

[Shammu]

 California Legislature Approves 'Gay Day' in Public Schools
 

Democrats send AB 2567 to Governor Schwarzenegger

 
Campaign for Children and Families

SACRAMENTO, Aug. 7 /Christian Newswire/ -- Campaign for Children and Families (CCF), a leading California organization protecting parents' rights and children's innocence, condemns the passage of AB 2567, which will instruct all California public schools to "conduct suitable commemorative exercises" in support of the anti-religious, sexual-anarchy agenda of the late San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk.

Today, the California Assembly passed AB 2567 on a 43 to 26 vote, Democrats for, Republicans silently against. Earlier this week, AB 2567 passed the California State Senate on a 22-13 vote, Democrats for, Republicans against. AB 2567 now goes to Governor Schwarzenegger, whose position is unknown.

"If signed into law, AB 2567 will mean an official day commemorating homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality in California government schools," said CCF President Randy Thomasson. "This will harm children as young kindergarten. Every May 22, AB 2567 will positively portray to children homosexual experimentation, homosexual 'marriages,' sex-change operations, and anything else that's 'in the closet.' Governor Schwarzenegger should say no to this very inappropriate bill, which has nothing to do with academic excellence."

AB 2567 comes on the heels of last year's school sexual indoctrination laws. When fully implemented, SB 777 and AB 394 will teach children in California government schools to support homosexuality, bisexuality, and transsexuality via instructional materials, programs and activities, and school "safety" guidelines. In addition, the California State School Board this year implemented SB 71, requiring public schools that provide sex education to promote unmarried sexual activity with no restraints other than mutual consent.

"AB 2567 will further motivate parents to remove their children from the immoral public school system," said Thomasson. "We're encouraging parents to visit RescueYourChild.org to learn how to save their children while they still can. With public schools becoming sexual indoctrination centers, homeschooling and church schools are no longer parental options, they're parental imperatives."

California Legislature Approves 'Gay Day' in Public Schools

[Shammu]

I know that when parents fight something like this they're told, too bad, if you don't like it send your kids to private school or move out of the state. Which is wehy, I'm now in Arizona. There's a another political element at work in the public school system here and after talking to many parents they truly believe nothing will come of this or that each school can decide IF they'll support something and of course THEIR school would never do that.

The people that hurt homosexuals are wrong. The homosexuals that say their behavior is okay are wrong. Two wrongs don't make a right. Forcing schools to honor a person whose claim to fame was basically due to being trapped in a deviant lifestyle is very wrong!!

This is another reason to Home School your children.

[Shammu]

Nude Dance at Club by Underage Girl ruled "Artistic" 1st Amendment Expression

By Hilary White

HAMBURG, Iowa, August 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Nude dancing in strip clubs is "artistic" even when performed by an under age girl, according to an Iowa judge in a ruling issued late last month. Fremont County Judge Timothy O'Grady called the strip club a "theatre" and agreed with the club owner who argued that the state's indecency law does not apply to "theater, concert hall, art center, museum, or similar establishments."

Hamburg, Iowa, a town of 1,200 just across the Missouri River from Nebraska, has one strip club. After the 17-year-old niece of the local Sherriff, Steven MacDonald, did a nude dance at the club, the owner, Clarence Judy, was charged with violating Iowa's public indecent exposure law.

In a one-day trial on July 17, Judy's lawyer said, "Dance has been considered one of the arts, as is sculpture, painting and anything else like that. What Clarence has is a club where people can come and perform."

Fremont County Attorney Margaret Johnson responded that the case was straightforward: an underage girl danced naked at the club, which is illegal.

"Are you saying that minors can't be protected? Can a group of 12-year-olds come down and go in and dance nude and it's OK? I don't think that's what the Legislature had in mind when it made those additional provisions," Johnson said.

The judge ruled, however, that prosecutors failed to prove that the strip club does not qualify as a theatre.

"Given the First Amendment implications of a statute that may limit expression, it is not the role of the Court to judge the taste or quality of the art represented at Shotgun Geniez when determining whether or not it is a theater," he said.

The club has a "raised stage with specialized lighting" and "chairs and tables arranged for patrons to observe the stage presentations," as well as "a separate dressing area" for "performers."

"Shotgun Geniez is a facility for presentation of stage performances, and meets the definition of theatre," he said.

This recent ruling serves as further evidence of the increasing mainstream acceptance of sexual "dancing." Indeed, it is no longer unusual to find ads on the internet, in newspapers and magazines in Britain and North America offering lessons in lewd sexual dancing for housewives and young working women as an alternative to fitness classes.

Dance studios that offer classes in Tango, wedding and ballroom dancing now routinely offer pole dancing and strip dancing classes. A dance studio in Las Vegas advertises its pole dancing classes saying, "Strip away your inhibitions to a whole new FIT you! Learn new exotic dance moves on the floor to work up an incredible sweat and top it off with basic pole movements, tricks, and combinations for a work out you'll have fun with."

Nude Dance at Club by Underage Girl ruled "Artistic" 1st Amendment Expression

[Shammu]

Hindus demand Christian school eliminate cross emblem
Teachers threatened with 'serious attacks' if idols not installed
Posted: August 08, 2008
11:40 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

A new report from India documents the storming of a Christian school by radical Hindus who demanded the cross emblem on students' uniforms be replaced with a Hindu om logo, and Hindu idols be installed in the facility.

The report comes from a website that documents persecution of Christians in India, as well as on a website for International Christian Concern, which advocates for persecuted Christians around the world.

The reports say the attack happened earlier this week at the Samuel Memorial Convent School in Mudhol, Balagkot District, which is in Karnataka state.

Dozens of Hindus armed with flags and wooden stocks broke open the gate and charged into the principal's office, the reports said.

They reportedly were members of several radical Hindu factions, including the Rashtriya Swayam Sevaks and the Bajarag Dal.

Under the threat of "serious attacks" if their demands were not met, they insisted that the Christian cross emblem on student uniforms be replaced and that Hindu idols be placed in the building.

"Mrs. Margret Samuel, a widow, has been teaching children of Mudhol over last 25 years prior to which she was a teacher in Bill Memorial Rotary School established by a missionary from [the] U.S.A.," the original report said.

It said her husband died in an accident in 2001 and she later fulfilled her husband's dream of establishing a school for Mudhol children.
~~~~~~~~

I'm pretty sure that this will escalate, to be put later into "Christian Persecution Around the World".

[Shammu]

San Francisco fest features public sex with no arrests
'This is what the gay agenda is all about'
Posted: August 07, 2008
12:35 am Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Nude men engaged in multiple instances of public sex on a municipal street while police officers, on foot and bicycle, congregated nearby making no attempt to enforce public indecency regulations, according to a report on the latest homosexual-fest in San Francisco.

The behavior was documented in photographs of an event called "Up Your Alley," which is sponsored by the same group that organizes the city's fall "gay"-fest, the Folsom Street Fair, on which WND has reported.

"Consider how liberal government authorities like Mayor [Gavin] Newsom have corrupted the men in blue by stipulating that police not prosecute public nudity and indecency at homosexual festivals," said a report from Americans for Truth on the graphic activities documented at the event.

"What honor can there be in protecting the public practice of heinous perversions and nudity in the city's streets? The shame of pandering politicians is transferred to the cops who were intended to be guardians of the law and public order," said the organizer's chief, Peter LaBarbera.

(Story continues below)

His organization is one of the few in the country to call officials from San Francisco on the issue of the obscene behavior, including public acts of sex, documented during the festival in late July.

Americans for Truth previously worked to raise the nation's awareness of the Folsom Street Fair, which last fall broke into the headlines with its promotional image mocking the Last Supper scene of Jesus Christ and his disciples, replacing the biblical leaders with leather-adorned men and the bread and wine with sex toys.

LaBarbera, who had to edit photos to conceal full nudity in images from the public street festival before he could post them as part of his report, said there were exhibitionists who "walked around baring their genitals, with no fear of being arrested." Other websites, to which WND is unable to link because of their graphic content, published fully explicit photographs of various public acts of sex and nudity. They featured explicit photographs of oral and anal sex between men and men urinating on each other, among other activities.

The Americans for Truth report follows the July 27 event, "one of the city's two open-air celebrations of sadomasochism (euphemistically called the 'leather' lifestyle by practitioners)," AFT said. "It is telling to us that the same city whose mayor, Gavin Newsom (D), ignited the 'same-sex marriage' crusade in California by illegally issuing 'gay marriage' licenses – openly tolerates and celebrates gross perversions, nudity and sexual lawlessness on its streets."

The images captured in the photos were described by one WND reader as "vomit-inducing."

"This is what the gay agenda is all about," the reader said. "I'll go even further and call [the images] depraved and disgusting.

"Remember, this is on the public streets of San Francisco," the reader said.

"These photos do not fit in with the slick, national 'gay' marketing plan, to be sure," LaBarbera wrote. "Nevertheless, the pathetic and debased spectacle is as much an offspring of the 'GLBT' movement as the current quest for homosexual 'marriage.' The latter radically redefines and corrupts an ancient institution created by God to order relations between man and woman as the basis for family life. Perverse events like 'Up Your Alley' … mock any notion of right and wrong – as the reckless pursuit of anything-goes 'tolerance' leads governmental authorities to enable and promote evil, turning freedom into sexual anarchy while causing a breakdown in law and order."

WND made multiple attempts to reach officials in San Francisco for a comment on the apparent lack of obscenity and indecency regulation enforcement during the festival.

Officials with the San Francisco police department's media relations office declined to return a message left by telephone. Also declining to return a message requesting a comment was the office of Newsom. Officials in the media office for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who represents the district, also declined to comment at all on the XXX-rated festival.

"One San Francisco policeman told our volunteers that the police were instructed not to make arrests for indecency on the city streets at "Up Your Alley" – but merely to 'contain' the activity to the street fair, which encompassed several city blocks," Americans for Truth reported.

"San Francisco's extreme political correctness has turned cops into impotent Perversion Protectors," the group said.

The organization said the events included whippings, public sex between men, and even advocacy for slavery, with one man wearing nothing but cuffs and chains.

"Homosexual activists mock and deride Americans For Truth relentlessly for exposing sordid realities like 'Up Your Alley' – and showing you what happens when sexual radicals come to dominate a major city," LaBarbera said.

"They don't want Americans to see this side of their agenda … But we must face reality and come to grips with the truth that 'rights' based on aberrant sex are not genuine civil rights," he said.

"Like the pantless perverts wandering around in sneakers-only at 'Up Your Alley,' the liberals' pro-homosexual 'tolerance and diversity' program is now fully exposed as a soulless and bankrupt ideology," LaBarbera said. "According to its precepts, nothing can be judged as wrong (sexually-speaking) – except, of course, normal, historic Judeo-Christian mores."

[Shammu]

It's like a modern Sodom and Gomorrah. Should anything like this surprise us? Unfortunately, it shouldn't any longer.

Just wait, God will have the last say in this matter.............

[Shammu]

Westboro Baptist Church members enter Canada, aiming to picket bus victim's funeral

August 8, 2008 | 2:57 PM CT
CBC News

Members of a fundamentalist American church group planning to stage a protest at the funeral for a Winnipeg man brutally killed on a Greyhound bus have managed to enter Canada, a spokeswoman told CBC News on Friday.

Canadian border guards are under orders to prevent members of the Westboro Baptist Church, a controversial Kansas-based sect, from entering the country.

The group intends to picket the funeral of 22-year-old Tim McLean to tell Canadians his slaying on July 30 was God's response to Canadian policies enabling abortion, homosexuality and divorce and remarriage.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's office sent an alert to border patrol to "look out" for people with signs and pamphlets consistent with the messages that the church promotes and to keep them out of the country.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of church founder Fred Phelps, said a group of church members was turned away from a border crossing at Niagara Falls, but a small group did manage to get into Manitoba overnight.

"They were looking for picket signs and they were looking for leaflets. Well, we don't do leaflets, and the picket signs, you know, Fed Ex ships them overnight," she said.

However, Phelps-Roper said the reaction the group has raised from some police and public officials has her questioning whether the planned protest will go ahead.

"The question to my mind [is] whether or not we ought to get them the heck out of that country, because that's some crazy stuff when you've got your officials talking like they are in a back-alley brawl and not government officials who took an oath to obey the law and so forth."

Phelps-Roper said she would advise church members not to go ahead with the protest if there is a concern they might be arrested or harmed.
Counter-protest planned

A counter-protest against the church's picket plans was launched on the social networking site Facebook on Thursday.

More than 700 people have since joined the group; postings indicate they plan to form a "human wall" around the family to shield them from the church protest, if it takes place.

Winnipeg NDP MP Pat Martin said the group should be "sent packing," and should not try to show up in Winnipeg "for their own safety."

"We're not going to allow these people to compound the tragedy of the McLean family loss, and Canadians simply won't tolerate these lunatics disrupting what should be a respectful service," he told CBC News on Friday. (Praise God   DW)

"Your freedom to swing your arm in the air ends when it touches the end of my nose," he added. "What these people were going to do was hurtful, harmful and disruptive to the peace, order and good government that we guarantee to our citizens, so they have no place in this country."
Family in shock, requests privacy

Meanwhile, Tim McLean's mother released a short public statement Friday morning, saying the family is in "complete shock at the horrifying loss of our loved one."

Carol deDelley expressed frustration that some media outlets have not identified McLean's family members properly; the statement identifies Tim's parents and step-parents and the six siblings in his blended families.

DeDelley asked for privacy during the family's time of mourning.

Westboro Baptist Church members enter Canada, aiming to picket bus victim's funerall

[Shammu]

I would expect this kind of hate from nazi skinheads, or klan members, and the fact they do this in God's... sorry... god's name (i shouldn't capitalize it as they obviously do not follow my God) makes me ill, and to tell you truth even makes me very angry. By the way the website is very offensive. Just a warning before someone does a search and jumps on in not expecting it.

I usually try to find the good in folks even when some of their actions I question but this group seems to be pure evil. To have this much hate inside you must be a horrible thing for these folks to live with.

[HisDaughter]

More gay men embrace marriage, fatherhood
Changing laws, surrogacy programs create options for same-sex couples
 
 NEW YORK - The cost remains high, and a good lawyer is essential. Yet despite complications, the idea of becoming a biological dad with help from a surrogate mother is gaining allure among gay men as the status of "married with children" grows ever more possible.

With same-sex marriage now legal in California even to nonresidents, and Massachusetts extending its 4-year-old gay-marriage policy to out-of-staters, in-wedlock parenting is suddenly a realistic option for gays and lesbians nationwide, even if their home state won't recognize the union.

Fertility clinics and surrogacy programs report increased interest from gay men, while couples who already have children are getting married — or considering it — to provide more security for those kids.

"We wanted our daughter to know her parents were married — that was the big thing for us," said Tommy Starling of Pawley's Island, S.C., who wed his partner of 12 years, Jeff Littlefield, on July 11 in Hollywood.

Daddy and Dad
Among those at the ceremony was their daughter, Carrigan, who was born in California two years ago.

Starling said he and Littlefield had tried previously to adopt a child in South Carolina, but encountered anti-gay hostility and instead opted to become parents through a surrogacy program run by Los Angeles-based Growing Generations. Since 1996, it has matched hundreds of gay men with surrogate mothers who are paid to carry an implanted embryo produced from a donor egg fertilized with the client's sperm.

"Our journey to parenthood was not easy, cheap or fun," Starling and Littlefield wrote in an account of their family. "The result, however, has been the most amazing experience in the world; being called Daddy and Dad by our loving daughter."

For lesbian couples, biological parenthood is usually a far simpler proposition than for gay men, since there's no need for surrogacy and there are various options for becoming pregnant. A lesbian couple faces neither the cost of surrogacy, which can run as high as $150,000, nor the legal complications which call for a carefully negotiated contract with the surrogate mother.

"All the realms involved with men are much more complex," said Gail Taylor, president and founder of Growing Generations.

But Taylor believes the option of marriage will, over time, lead to more biological gay dads.

"For future generations, knowing they can fall in love, get married, have a child — absolutely, that will become a way of life more than it is," she said.

‘Something to prove’
Starling, 36, and Littlefield, 52, face the likelihood that their marriage will not be recognized anytime soon in South Carolina, one of 26 states with constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriages.

In contrast, Joe and Brent Taravella, who are raising three children in South Orange, N.J., already have a civil union and are optimistic that New Jersey will soon join California and Massachusetts in legalizing same-sex marriages.

"As a couple with kids, you really see the importance of it, trying to get as many protections as you can," Joe Taravella said.

They have a 2-year-old daughter through a surrogacy handled by Growing Generations, and twins born in May 2007 through a surrogacy arranged by a New Jersey lawyer, Melissa Brisman.

"My relatives were screaming with excitement when they found out we were going to be parents," Joe Taravella said. "I think we still have something to prove, to show America we can do a great job with these kids."

Becoming a biological dad
Brisman, who specializes in reproductive legal issues, said laws dealing with surrogacy vary widely from state to state, as do the options for same-sex couples who become parents.

"Legally, being able to get married will help in some states but not others," she said. "I would never tell clients to get married. ... But I tell them straight out, 'If you do get married, it's going to be easier."'

The Taravellas (Brent has taken Joe's last name) both donated sperm — a fairly common practice among gay male couples who say they don't care which partner is the biological dad. Some other couples decide to have two biological babies simultaneously, each providing sperm and using two surrogates.

Among the enterprises offering such services for prospective gay fathers is the Fertility Institutes, which has offices in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Mexico, and plans to open a branch soon in New York City even though New York is among a half-dozen states banning paid surrogacy.

"It's not going to happen in New York as the law stands now," said the Fertility Institutes' director, Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg. "You can't bring the surrogate into the state, but we can make the arrangements, fly the client elsewhere."

Overall, Steinberg says inquiries from gay men to his offices have increased 30 percent in the past six months.

"There are more couples that had been holding off because of the marriage situation who are now starting to show up," he said. "We've definitely seen an upswing."

‘Surrogacy is getting easier’
For now, adoptions, rather than surrogacy, remain the most common way for gay men to become fathers, but Steinberg believes a shift is under way.

"Adoption is not getting any easier — surrogacy is getting easier," he said. "You rarely hear horror stories about surrogacy."

In fact, there are occasional surrogacy cases which become anguishing — including lawsuits by surrogate mothers seeking custody of the child, and wrenching cases in which triplets or quadruplets are conceived, and a debate ensues over whether any of the fetuses should be aborted.

Lawyers say airtight contracts can head off such problems, but legal costs run high. Beyond that, there usually are medical costs in the tens of thousands of dollars, and fees to the egg donor and surrogate that together can exceed $25,000.

Dr. G. David Adamson, director of Fertility Associates of Northern California and president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, says gay couples considering the option of surrogacy should receive thorough medical and psychological counseling, as well as candid legal advice.

"What we've tried to do is have consent forms that make it very clear what the intentions of the people are," he said. "Who's going to be the mom, who's going to be the dad, what might happens if relationship ends, if someone dies."

"If you don't have an exit strategy, the usual result is that you have potentially several years of litigation, which is extremely damaging to the child," Adamson added. "It's incumbent on everyone to be very thoughtful about entering these arrangements."

A social support system
The challenges of gay fatherhood can seem relatively less daunting in gay-friendly communities such as New York, where Jeffrey Parsons and Chris Hietikko are raising a 2-year-old son, Henry. They've also remained in touch with the surrogate mother, a lesbian who lives with her own family in Oregon.

"As gay men, so much depends on where you live, what your social support system is like," said Parsons, a 41-year-old psychology professor at Hunter College.

"Our child will go to school with other kids with gay parents," he said. "I had a job option upstate, but I knew he'd be only kid like that there."

Parsons, who has been conferring with Hietikko about getting married, says he's a rarity among gay men his age — even as a youth, realizing he was gay, he was convinced he'd become a father.

More typical are men like Jeff Littlefield, who said that in his 20s, "I'd completely given up on the idea of ever having a child."

[Shammu]

Gay unions gaining global favor
August 10, 2008
Hilary Stohs-Krause

If California were an independent country, it would be among a "Group of 10" economic powers, with a population greater than Canada's or Australia's.

So, when California moves on something as controversial as same-sex marriage, it affects not only other U.S. states, but countries around the world.

A California court decision in May establishing a right to same-sex marriages - which faces a ballot challenge in November - is a major battle in a global culture war that is slowly winning legal acceptance for some form of gay union.

"Every year, a new country is joining the club," said Katharina Boele-Woelki, a professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands who specializes in international and comparative family law.

About 20 countries and 10 U.S. states now allow either same-sex marriage, civil unions or domestic partnerships.

"Worldwide, I think the countries that allow this will increase slowly but steadily," Ms. Boele-Woelki said.

According to the Los Angeles Times, more than 6,300 marriage licenses - more than double the average for that time period - were granted in California in the first week after the state Supreme Court's ruling allowing same-sex marriage went into effect June 16.

However, the issue isn't settled yet. The initiative slated for the November ballot, if passed, would amend the state constitution to define marriage as a union of one man and one woman. While a May 28 Field Poll concluded that a majority of Californians support gay marriage, a first in the state's history, polls since have been inconclusive.

Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, a group that promotes traditional marriage, called the vote the "ninth inning in the World Series of the marriage debate."

Generally, governments that adopt same-sex marriage legislation lean to the left on the political spectrum. They include the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada.

In European countries, there's a more laissez-faire attitude toward sex and marriage, said Kimberly Richman, a professor of sociology and legal studies at the University of San Francisco.

Religion also plays a role. While the U.S. religious right has made opposition to same-sex marriage a central tenet of its political agenda, "that just doesn't exist in Canada, or the Netherlands orSpain," said Paula Ettlebrick, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Campaign.

Sylvia Brasselman, a German scientist living in San Francisco with her partner, Kathy Emery, agrees.

"I think that Americans are generally less tolerant, and I'm talking really about both the left and the right, both liberals and conservatives," she said. "I find this a very split society, and neither group is very willing to compromise. ... That's different in Germany or Europe."

Rights enshrined in the more-than-two-centuries-old U.S. Constitution are hard to redefine. Countries with newer constitutions are finding it easier to adapt.

After operating for more than a century under British rule, Canada adopted a separate constitution in 1982 - and incorporated sweeping anti-discrimination measures.

"We were able to learn from some of the roadblocks in the U.S.," said Hillary Cook, a board member and legal committee chairwoman of Egale Canada, a group that promotes equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual Canadians and their families.

Although sexual orientation isn't specifically protected from discrimination in the Canadian Constitution, it's considered to be on "analogous ground" with those that are listed, such as race, age and religion.

Similarly, South Africa wrote its constitution in 1996, with the wounds of apartheid still fresh.

"South Africa is a specific and kind of unique place in that their national constitution prohibits sexual-orientation discrimination," said Christopher Anders, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union's Lesbian & Gay Rights Project. "It represents the commitment of South Africa and its government to make sure that discrimination of all forms was prohibited."

In Europe, the drive to formulate a uniform set of rights for European Union member states has had an effect, even though marriage rights are left to individual member countries to decide. Now three EU states - Netherlands, Belgium and Spain - allow same-sex marriage, and 10 other countries allow gay civil unions.

Uruguay became the first country in Latin America to legalize same-sex unions with a parliamentary vote in December 2007. Elsewhere in the region, some city and state jurisdictions in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil have voted to extend marriage benefits to same-sex couples.

In Asia, repeated attempts between 2000 and 2006 by advocacy groups to legalize gay marriage in China failed. In many countries in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, homosexuality itself is illegal, punishable by prison terms, public flogging or even execution - making decriminalization the immediate focus of the rights debate.

In the United States, Vermont was the first to allow civil unions for homosexuals in July 2000, followed by Massachusetts in 2004, by court decree - and now California.

Americans who oppose same-sex marriage say the issue should be left to the states, pointing to the nearly 30 states that have banned the practice in their constitutions or plan to do so.

Advocates of same-sex marriage rights have turned to the courts, and say it's a matter of time before same-sex marriage is permitted throughout the United States.

"I think that having California ... take this step to treat gay and lesbian couples equally will have a huge ripple effect on people in other states," said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. "We will see people getting used to the reality of having hundreds of thousands of married gay and lesbian couples" living both in California and other states.

However, Ms. Gallagher, of the National Organization for Marriage, said opponents are not giving up.

"It was four judges in California and four judges in Massachusetts," she said, adding that the Massachusetts legislature would never have passed a gay marriage law on its own.

While the future of gay marriage in the U.S. remains unclear, the experiences of other Western nations may suggest a way forward.

Ms. Cook, of Egale Canada, said that by the time the federal government officially sanctioned gay marriage in Canada in 2005, most provinces had already legalized various types of same-sex relationships, beginning with a court ruling in Ontario in 2003. This led to a case of patchwork privileges, similar to that of the United States and the European Union.

As the EU seeks to make more and more policies uniform, the ACLU's Mr. Anders said, continentwide gay marriage will likely be addressed.

"Given the eternally open borders in Europe right now," he said, "we would expect that marriage will be both recognized and allowed throughout Europe very soon."

Ms. Gallaghersaid that if voters in California repudiate the court's decision in November, it will give momentum to a wave of cases and states now considering the issue.

"I think it will be a great and continuing victory," she said. "It will start the next great wave" of legislation outlining conservative definitions of marriage.

"The idea that this 2,000-year-old tradition ... doesn't have legs anymore, I don't buy it," she said flatly. "It's at the front of the culture war, but ... the only certainties are death and taxes."

Gay unions gaining global favor

[Shammu]

Marriage is a man and a woman. Even in societies where that meaning has been twisted, it still involves a man taking a woman as wife. The only difference is that polygamous societies allow that to be done more than once.

Two men, or two women is not a marriage. That is a abomination before the eyes of God!!

[Shammu]

'Cult' Starved Toddler Who Wouldn't Say 'Amen'

Monday , August 11, 2008

BALTIMORE —
A toddler whose remains were found inside a suitcase in Philadelphia this spring was starved to death by members of a religious cult, including his mother, in part because he refused to say "amen" after meals, police said.

Ria Ramkissoon, the mother of Javon Thompson, was charged Sunday with first-degree murder in the boy's death, and Baltimore police said Monday that three other members of a group called 1 Mind Ministries have also been charged with first-degree murder. Police and Ramkissoon's family say the group is a cult.

Members did not seek medical care for Javon when he stopped breathing, and the boy died in his mother's arms, according to court documents that described police interviews with a confidential informant and two children. He would have been about 19 months old when police say adults stopped feeding him in December 2006.

Ramkissoon, 21, was being held Monday in the psychiatric ward of Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center, and a bail review was postponed until Tuesday. Her public defender declined comment.

The three other people charged in Javon's death — Queen Antoinette, 40, also known as Toni Ellsberry or Toni Sloan; Marcus Cobbs, 21; and Trevia Williams, who turns 21 Tuesday — were already in custody. They were arrested in May in New York City on warrants charging them with failure to appear in court in Baltimore. Those charges stemmed from a scuffle with police in a child custody dispute.

No one answered the phone Monday afternoon in the office of a public defender assigned to Antoinette, Cobbs and Williams.

A fifth alleged cult member, Steven Bynum, has been charged in a warrant with first-degree murder and remains at large, police said Monday. He was believed to be in New York.

Ramkissoon's family said she should not be held responsible for her son's death.

"She had no control over that situation at all," her stepfather, Craig Newton, said Monday.

Ramkissoon's mother, Seeta Khadan-Newton, told The (Baltimore) Sun on Sunday that it wasn't her daughter's decision not to feed the boy.

"My daughter was a victim, just like my grandson," Khadan-Newton said. "Somebody made that decision to not feed that child, and my daughter had to follow instructions."

Members of 1 Mind Ministries wore all white, swore off medical care and referred to some members with titles including queen and princess, according to court documents. The group was also accused of insisting that a pregnant woman give birth without access to doctors.

Ramkissoon joined 1 Mind Ministries after Javon was born. Ramkissoon's mother last saw her in April 2006; she later sued for custody of her grandson, writing in a letter to a judge that "the cult leaders" were preventing her from contacting her daughter.

The documents show police interviewed two school-age children who had been part of the group but were taken away from members by Philadelphia police. The children told investigators that members stopped feeding Javon in December 2006, in part because the boy refused to say "amen" after dinner. Members also viewed Javon as "a demon."

Another unnamed informant told police that after Javon died, Antoinette left the boy's body in a room for more than a week, claiming "God was going to raise Javon from the dead," the documents show.

Afterward, Antoinette burned the boy's clothing and a mattress and placed his body in a green suitcase, which she would periodically open and spray with disinfectant to mask the odor, police claim in the court documents.

In early 2007, the group members left Baltimore for Philadelphia. They left the green suitcase and other luggage inside a shed belonging to a man they befriended while there, police said, and then relocated to Brooklyn, N.Y.

Police recovered the suitcase in April after they got a tip from the confidential informant. The remains of a small child were inside. DNA tests are pending to confirm the boy's identity.

'Cult' Starved Toddler Who Wouldn't Say 'Amen'