The U.S. Supreme Court decision that private sexual behavior between consenting adults applies to same-sex couples just as it applies to opposite-sex couples has given encouragement to gay Americans and their families and has infuriated leaders of the Religious Right. In his dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia said Americans don’t want homosexuals “as partners in their business, as scoutmasters for their children, as teachers in their children’s schools or as boarders in their home.” Court observers note that this is reminiscent of segregationist sentiment of another era.
Angered by what the Court’s decision, Pat Robertson is calling for a “prayer offensive” that calls on his followers to pray three justices into retirement, noting: “One justice is 83 years old, another has cancer and another has a heart condition.”
Conservative columnist William Safire applauds the anti-sodomy ruling as “a victory in the war to defend everyone’s privacy.” Recognizing that others strongly disagree, especially as they see same-sex marriage on the horizon, he cautions: “Don’t underestimate the depth of feeling about this on the religious right.” He explains that “one reason is that straight marriage is showing signs of strain.” But “rather than wring our hands and cry ‘abomination!’, believers in family values should take up the challenge and repair our own house.” He ends by saying: “I used to fret about same-sex marriage. Maybe competition from responsible gays would revive opposite-sex marriage.”
Asked what she thought would be the major cases in the Supreme Court in the 21st century, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor replied: cases “relating to how homosexuals are treated legally. We see a lot of these.” She was addressing students at Gonzaga College High School, a Jesuit prep school in Washington, DC, on May 1. The session was carried on C-SPAN.
“Now you’ve come back as yourself.” That’s how President Bush greeted one Yale classmate as he grabbed her hand at a reunion held at the White House in June. Since college days, that classmate underwent a male-to-female sex-change.
A new Gallup Poll finds that six in ten Americans favor health care benefits for same-sex couples equal to those for opposite-sex couples. Another finding: half of Americans favor and half of Americans oppose civil unions for same-sex couples.
The British Parliament is considering a “civil partnership” proposal for same-sex couples. If adopted, the U.K. would join in a legal recognition of same-sex couples with Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Gay marriage, the full equality for same-sex and opposite-sex couples, is now the law in the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada.
Wal-Mart Stores, America’s largest private employer, has expanded its anti-discrimination policy to gay and lesbian employees. As a result of Wal-Mart’s decision, 9 of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies now bar such discrimination. “It’s the right thing to do,” said the vice president for communications.
Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., president of Calvin Theological Seminary, addresses the Reformed theme of “redeeming every square inch” in his new book, Engaging God’s World (Eerdmans). An excerpt: “God isn’t content to save human beings in their individual activities; God wants to save social systems and economic structures too. If the management/labor structure contains built-in antagonism, then it needs to be redeemed. If the health-care delivery system reaches only the well-to-do, then it needs to be reformed. The same goes for hostile relationships of race, gender, or class. The same goes for proud and scornful attitudes among heterosexuals toward homosexuals.”
“Ex-gay” spokesman John Paulk has left his “ex-gay” post at Focus on the Family. He says “it’s time for me to pursue other endeavors.” Says FOF, Paulk “has carried around the label ‘ex-gay’ like a second first name. Now he’s putting it down.” (Gary Scheeberger) FOF and Paulk insist he’s still “ex-gay.” Three years ago, Paulk was caught at a gay bar in Washington, DC and was thereafter removed as chairman of the “ex-gay” Exodus International.
North Carolina Southern Baptists have expelled a congregation for baptizing two gay men. By a vote of 250-11, McGill Baptist Church of Concord was kicked out of the county Baptist association.
In Durango, Colorado, a Lutheran church has splintered over the baptism of the son of a lesbian couple.
The Tennessee Baptist Convention has dropped a congregation because its pastor is a lesbian. The congregation, Glendale Baptist, accepts the Southern Baptist ouster and supports its pastor.
Presbyterian officials in Cincinnati have fired the minister of a Presbyterian church for blessing gay unions. The action was taken against when the pastor refused to stop his blessings after an ecclesiastical rebuke.
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) elected a pro-gay moderator in May. Susan R. Andrews, pastor of a Maryland congregation, won the one-year post as the most theologically and politically liberal candidate.
The new editor of the United Church of Christ magazine is gay. Rev. J. Bennett Guess will edit United Church News beginning this summer.
The Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire elected an openly gay man to the office of bishop. Antigay Anglicans, especially from Africa and other parts of the third world, are opposing his confirmation.
Jeffrey John, a gay Anglican scholar who was selected to become the new bishop of Reading in the UK, has asked – reportedly under pressure – that his selection be withdrawn for the peace of the church. He’d already indicated that his 27-year-long relationship with his male partner (also a cleric) is now a celibate relationship.
His appointment was harshly attacked by a number of Anglican bishops, clerics and lay people from as far away as Nigeria, where Archbishop Peter Akinola threatened to bolt – with his 17.5 million Anglicans – if the election went through. The Archbishop of Canterbury has accepted his withdrawal, noting the opposition’s “shocking level of ignorance and hatred towards homosexual people.”
Troy Perry, founder of the mainly gay/lesbian Metropolitan Community Churches, has been given an honorary doctorate by Massachusetts-based Episcopal Divinity School. The school’s president said Perry “stands with us [for] justice, compassion and reconciliation for all God’s people.” Antigay Episcopalians are calling the award a “slap in the face” of their wing of the church. Perry and his partner plan to marry in Toronto.
An openly gay minister delivered the opening prayer at the U.S. Capitol on May 1, the U.S. National Day of Prayer. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) had invited Stephen Torrance, a Metropolitan Community Church minister and police officer, to give the prayer. His prayer made no mention of homosexuality. While on the Hill he met with House Speaker Denny Hastert.
The board of the YWCA has appointed bisexual abortion rights advocate and former NOW director Patricia Ireland to head the 145-year-old association. Against those who say the “Y” should stick with its Christian roots, she says she’s “not the head of a Christian organization. I’m the head of a social justice women’s organization …enriched by many faiths.”
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship has won a dispute with Rutgers University. In an out-of-court settlement, school officials admit to having wrongly disciplined the IVCF chapter for not permitting gay advocates to hold positions of leadership. (IVCF membership is open to all.) Rutgers’ diversity policy would have required a Democratic club to allow a Republican officer, a Jewish group to allow a Muslim officer, and a gay/lesbian club to allow an officer who held that all homosexual sex is sin. The case is expected to influence the more than 560 campuses served by IVCF.
As many as 15 percent of men who leave the Roman Catholic priesthood do so because they want an “open, long term relationship” with another man – a finding of Catholic University sociologist Dean Hoge. And about half of all priests who leave have fallen in love with a woman.
The Vatican has issued a 900-page lexicon that states that homosexuality has no “social value.” This Lexicon on Ambiguous and Colloquial Terms About Family Life and Ethical Questions is designed to assist Catholics in understanding reports by the United Nations and other international agencies.
Holy Family Church, the largest Catholic parish in Rockford, Illinois, has fired its gay organist because he and his male partner of 10 years want to adopt a child. The choir protested the priest’s defended the firing by standing and singing, “God be in my heart and in my understanding.” Applause rang out from opposing factions.
Gay Muslims met together in Toronto in June. Delegates to the weekend conference hailed from the U.K. and South Africa as well as from the U.S. and Canada. It was sponsored by the gay Islamic group, Al-Fatiha and aimed to help gay and lesbian Muslims integrate their faith and their sexual orientation.
Israel’s annual Gay Pride parade was held in Jerusalem in June. Thousands of gay Israelis, waving rainbow flags, marched in this year’s event. After the parade, the Pride festivities featured concerts hosted by drag queens, face-painting parties, and prayer sessions. A Pride parade was also held in Haifa.
AND FINALLY:
Unhappy with media enthusiasm for the Supreme Court’s ruling against sodomy laws, Religious Right pundit Cal Thomas, on the Fox News Watch program, asked rhetorically if, when reporting on gay rights, should you have to reveal “your proclivities?” He did not ask whether his dissatisfaction and suspicion might be related to a heterosexual’s “proclivities.”