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NEWS ITEMS AFFECTING GAYS AND LESBIANS
2002 - JULY to SEPTEMBER
Sponsored link.
News of 2002-JUL:
 | 2002-JUL-6: MA: Plebiscite restricting marriage being
held up: About 130,000 voters in Massachusetts have signed a
petition in favor of a state-wide referendum which would define marriage
as "a union of one man and one woman." The Gay and Lesbian
Advocates attempted to invalidate the petition on technical grounds,
but lost their case in the state Supreme Court. However, before the
measure can be placed on the ballot, 25% of the members of the House and
Senate, meeting in joint session as a Constitutional Convention,
must affirm it. Senate President Thomas Birmingham has twice blocked a
vote. The next meeting of the Convention is scheduled for JUL-17. Time is
of the essence. The latest polls indicate that about 60% of voters would
approve such a plebiscite. This number is dropping fast. Thus, if the
plebiscite is delayed too long, it might be rejected by the voters.
1 |
| 2002-JUL-12: ON: Ontario court declares marriage acts
unconstitutional: The Ontario Superior Court ruled that
the Ontario provincial marriage act and the Canadian federal
marriage act are unconstitutional. Faced with a national
constitution, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which
prohibits government discrimination on the basis of gender and
sexual orientation, and two marriage acts which discriminate
against gays and lesbians, the court appears to have had no choice
but to declare the latter unconstitutional. They gave the
governments 24 months in which to modify their legislation in
order to allow same-sex marriage. Because of the political
structure of Canada, marriage is defined by the federal
government, and the details of administering marriages are handled
by the individual provinces. So a change to the federal law has
repercussions across the entire country. Surprisingly, there was
very little reaction to this decision. There were only a few
letters to the editors of large newspapers; they represented both
sides of the issue.
After waiting until the last possible day, JUL-29, the federal
government "asked leave to appeal the ruling" to the
Ontario Court of Appeals. More details |
| 2002-AUG-1: CA: Two gay-positive bills pass California
House: The following bills are in the state Senate:
 | Assembly Bill 2651 is sponsored by Assemblyperson
Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park). 2 It relates to
foster children in the state. Some children are now in their
early teens when they realize that they are gay, lesbian,
bisexual or transgender. A substantial percentage get thrown
out of their home when their parents learn of their status.
Foster homes need to be found in which they can be lovingly
supported until they are adults. The bill, if signed into law,
would require the youth to be given "developmentally
appropriate information and resources about sexuality and sexual
health, including gay or lesbian issues." Their foster
parents would have to attend sensitivity training classes. The
state would attempt to find homosexual foster parents for them.
There is a clause in the bill that is unrelated to the sexual
orientation of the youth. It states that if a child is old
enough to consider themselves affiliated with a particular
religion, that every effort will be made to place the child in a
foster home of the same faith. Youth would have access to a
toll-free "hot" line to report abuse, discrimination, etc. A
search on the www.google.com
search engine using the string: bill 2651
california homosexual foster turned up dozens of
conservative Christian web sites who object to the bill. Some
want it amended so that homosexual youth would be taught that
they can change their sexual orientation through
reparative therapy -- a counseling
method that has been assessed as ineffective and dangerous by
the major mental health professional organizations. James Dobson
of Focus on the Family "expressed outrage" over the bill.
He said: "These are children who have come from fractured
families. Many of them have been abused, they have gone through
horrible experiences. They have, in most cases, no role models
and most importantly, no one to defend them. There are no
parents out there to come to their defense and to try to protect
them from this crazy legislation. But they are about to be
subjected to the most outrageous training mandated by the law."
He suggested that the bill would discourage many good foster
parents who would refuse to undergo sensitivity training because
of their religious views about homosexuality. Dobson concluded:
"Can you imagine these Christian parents out there loving
these kids having to go through a sensitivity training? Can you
imagine them putting up with that?" The Family
Research Council also criticized the bill saying that it "would
have transformed the state's foster care system into a
pro-homosexual haven." 4 The Senate Appropriations committee
held a hearing on AUG-5. The bill was passed by the legislature
in mid AUG. Under intense pressure from Fundamentalist Christian
groups, like Focus on the Family, Capitol Research Institute,
and Family Research Council, Governor Davis vetoed the bill. |
| House Bill AB 1080 was sponsored by Christine Kehoe
(D-San Diego). 3 It would prohibit the State
from signing any contract with a business which does not provide
benefits to all its employees -- both heterosexuals and
homosexuals. There would be no exception clause that would allow
religious organizations to continue discriminating against their
gay and lesbian employees. James Dobson commented: "The net
effect will be less humanitarian effort in California. This has
implications for the Salvation Army, it has implications for
Catholic Charities, it has implications for every evangelical
outreach in that state, because they are going to have to offer
domestic partnership benefits in order to do business with the
state, or reject it. And most, I think, will reject it." |
|
| 2002; date uncerain: MI: Student suing school board:
Betsy Hansen, a Roman Catholic graduate
from Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor MI is suing her
school because she allegedly was not allowed to deliver part of
her speech containing her church's views on homosexuality at a
school "2002 Diversity Week." The deleted section is only
two short sentences. However, they included five important points:
| She defines a person's "sexuality" in
terms of behavior rather than sexual orientation. |
| The first sentence apparently refers
to bisexuals, who are sexually attracted to both males and
females. |
| She wishes to reserve the right to be intolerant of people
of different religions -- people who differ from Roman
Catholicism. |
| She reserves the right to be intolerant of people with minority
sexual orientations. |
| Same-sex behavior is "wrong."
|
The text read: "Sexuality implies an
action, and there are people who have been straight, then gay,
then straight again. I completely and wholeheartedly support
racial diversity, but I can't accept religious and sexual ideas or
actions that are wrong."
Her attorney, Rob Muise complained that
"The 'thought police' were in full force" In favoring equal
rights for persons of all sexual orientations the school favored a
specific agenda that is being "pushed in public schools all
over the country by certain special interest groups." He
asked: "Why is this social engineering taking place? They
usurped parental rights. They didn't even tell parents that this
was happening." 5 |
| 2002-SEP-2: KS: Fred Phelps of GodHatesFags.com fame
pickets in St.Joseph KS: Members of the Westboro Baptist
Church of Topeka KS allegedly blocked traffic in St. Joseph. They
carried signs that read "God Hates Fags," "God Hates
America," and "Thank God for Sept. 11." They were
distressed at the decision of the Royal Bank of Canada who closed
the bank account of a group which is opposed to bringing the Gay
Games to Montreal in 2006. Rather than go all the way to Canada,
they went to an investment banker in St. Joseph which is
affiliated with the Royal Bank. Joseph Phelps, 13, was one of the
picketers. He didn't mind giving up his Labor Day holiday. He
said: "I'm with the church. There’s nothing better than telling
the truth." Local citizen Joanne Doolan protested the protest.
She said "My kids were taught that God loves everyone."
Another angry resident, Jason Rhodes, said: "It just makes me
sick. Why would people do that? I think it’s stupid."
6 |
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References:
- "Defenders of Marriage and Democracy Press On in
Massachusetts," CultureFacts news release from Family Research
Council, 2002-JUL-5.
- The text of Bill 2651 is at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/
- The text of Bill 1080 is at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/
- "Gay foster parents? Not in California -- partly thanks for FRC
alert!," Washington Watch, 2002-NOV, Vol. 13, #11, Page 3.
- Brad Taylor, "School Censors Christian, Girl Sues," at:
http://suppressednews.com/newsitems/
- Alonzo Weston, "Anti-gay protesters appear on Belt," St.
Jopseph News-Press Online, 2002-SEP-3, at:
http://www.stjoenews-press.com/Main.asp?
Notice:
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. sec 107: The news items
contained in the above hyperlinks are provided without profit by the
Ontario Consultants for Religious Tolerance, Box 27026, Kingston ON,
Canada, and are intended to be available to anyone
interested in the topics included, for educational purposes only. Any
editor, author, Webmaster, writer, publisher, news service, etc. that
objects to being part of this listing may request that future works be
excluded. We will also attempt to delete previous entries from the
same source.
Copyright © 2002 by the Ontario
Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2002-NOV-30
Compiler: B.A. Robinson
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