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A woman at the center of a complex dispute with her former lesbian partner defied a court order to give up custody of her 7-year-old daughter, an attorney said Friday. A Vermont judge had ordered Lisa Miller to turn over daughter Isabella to Janet Jenkins at 1 p.m. Friday at the Falls Church, Va., home of Jenkins' parents. Miller did not show up with the girl, said Sarah Star, Jenkins' Vermont-based attorney. Jenkins has notified Fairfax County, Va., police that Isabella is missing, Star said. "She's very disappointed, obviously," Star said. "She's very concerned about Isabella and asks that if...

...Miller and Jenkins were joined in a Vermont civil union in 2000. Isabella was born to Miller through artificial insemination in 2002. The couple broke up in 2003, and Miller moved to Virginia, renounced homosexuality and became an evangelical Christian. Cohen awarded custody of the girl to Jenkins on Nov. 20 after finding Miller in contempt of court for denying Jenkins access to the girl. The judge said the only way to ensure equal access to the child was to switch custody. He also said the benefits to the child of having access to both parents would be worth the...

On Wednesday, Liberty Counsel lawyers appeared in court to defend Lisa Miller. Last month a Vermont court ordered the custody of Miller's biological daughter transferred to her former lesbian lover. The ACLU and Lambda Legal Defense Fund are seeking to transfer custody of 7-year-old Isabella to Janet Jenkins, a Vermont resident who lived with Miller in that state before the latter's conversion from the homosexual lifestyle. Miller met with the ire of a Vermont judge after she refused to send her daughter to scheduled visitations with Jenkins because, she says, Isabella has been traumatized by past visits. The Virginia Court...

Dublin, Ireland – As the United States engages in a heated debate over gay marriage, European Union countries are rapidly striding toward total recognition of same-sex civil unions, if not marriage. The most recent example is Ireland.Last Thursday saw Ireland become the latest country to edge toward marriage equality for homosexual couples. The Irish parliament read and debated the Civil Partnership Bill 2009, introduced by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern.Despite Ireland’s socially conservative image, opposition to the bill is virtually non-existent and will likely pass into law this month with widespread support from opposition parties Fine Gael and Labour as...

ACLU’s Request to Jail Lisa Miller Fails in Virginia Court August 25, 2009 www.LC.org Winchester, VA – Earlier today, Liberty Counsel appeared in court to defend Lisa Miller from a complaint filed by the ACLU of Virginia on behalf of Janet Jenkins. The ACLU asked the judge to order Lisa to jail for not delivering her own daughter, Isabella, to Vermont for unsupervised visitation with Janet. The ACLU also requested Lisa to pay attorneys fees and costs. No jail time was ordered and the court rejected the ACLU’s request for money. Although the court ruled that Lisa had violated a...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ___________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release June 1, 2009 LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009 - - - - - - - BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride...

A top constitutional law professor who served as a surrogate for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama told CNSNews.com that he would like to see “marriage” replaced in the legal sense with a neutral “civil license.” “As awkward as it may be, I think the way to untie the state from this problem is to create a new terminology that they would apply to everyone--straight or gay-call it a ‘civil license,’ said Douglas Kmiec, a law professor at Pepperdine University and author of “Can a Catholic Support Him?’ “The net effect of that, would be to turn over--quite appropriately, it seems to...

Believe it or not, often I can see the other side of an argument. I know that tough gun control laws save lives and make our communities safer, for example, but I also see clarity in the Second Amendment. I support affirmative action, but I realize that providing opportunity to some worthy individuals can mean denying opportunity to others. Thinking about some issues involves discerning among subtly graded shades of gray. On some issues, though, I really don't see anything but black and white. Among them is the "question" of granting full equal rights to gay and lesbian Americans, which...

The United Methodist Church's top court recently ruled that clergy, both active and retired, cannot perform same-sex marriages or civil unions. Performing such services is "a chargeable offense," Bishop Beverly J. Shamana ruled last Friday. UMC's Judicial Council affirmed her decision. The council further ruled that an annual conference, or regional body within the UMC, "may not negate, ignore, or violate provisions of the Discipline with which they disagree, even when the disagreements are based on conscientious objections to the provisions." The council’s ruling was on a resolution passed by the California-Nevada Annual Conference last year, months after the California...

It's secularism that has given gay people rights. And in civil partnerships, we have a secular institution fit for their celebration. The question: Is gay marriage a religious issue? Who would have guessed the dainty opinions of a Miss America candidate would have been taken so seriously by gays and liberals? Miss California, a practising Christian, was last week denounced by Miss America gay judge Perez Hilton on his blog as "a dumb bitch" and unworthy of the Miss America crown because she gave the "wrong" answer to his chippy question about gay marriage. Like most Americans – including the...

The first openly gay Episcopal bishop told a Studio City gathering today that the church should begin mending divisions over the issue of same-sex marriage by getting out of the civil marriage business altogether. During a visit to St. Michael & All Angels Church this morning, the Rev. V. Eugene Robinson said he favored the system used in France and other parts of Europe in which civil marriage – performed by government officials – is completely separate from religious vows. In the U.S., the civil and religious ceremonies are often combined with the cleric signing the government marriage license. "In...

Aloha only goes so far when it comes to same-sex couples in Hawaii, where the Democratic-controlled state Senate let a bill to recognize civil unions die in committee yesterday. But will it have an effect on rainbow travelers, who might consider an unofficial Napa-style boycott? If so, the timing couldn't be worse, since the islands' tourism industry has already been hit at near hurricane-force by the bad economy. "Hawaii ranks among the gay-friendliest destinations on the planet," according to About.com's gay and lesbian travel expert Andrew Collins, in his review of "The Out Traveler: Hawaii." That confirms the impression that...

Civil-unions bill stuck, likely dead Gambling: Akaka Bill amended (again) Hawaii DOE's Special Education Report Raises Questions Governor plans to cut state workers' pay to ease Hawaii deficit SB: Economic recovery requires affordable health care system (Hawaii HHSC & HMSA is Obama's model)

"We want to turn the focus away from civil unions and focus instead on the needs of the people of the state of Hawai'i," said former state Rep. Dennis Arakaki (D-Kalihi), interim head of the Hawai'i Family Forum. "It's more of a distraction from the real issues," Arakaki said. "Obviously the economy should be No. 1, but we're also concerned with cuts in services and programs...."

Well, on Tuesday two people filed an initiative to get the state of California out of the business altogether. The initiative, filed by Kaelan Housewright and Ali Shams, replaces the term "marriage" with "domestic partnership" throughout California statutes, while preserving the rights of marriage. Shams and Housewright are students, 22 and 21 respectively, the AP reported. The next step would be to gather roughly 700,000 valid signatures to place the measure on the ballot -- a tall task. But hey, they have a Facebook group...

Just seven weeks into office, President Obama is being forced to confront one of the most sensitive social and political issues of the day: whether the government must provide health insurance benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. In separate, strongly worded orders, two judges of the federal appeals court in California said that employees of their court were entitled to health benefits for their same-sex partners under the program that insures millions of federal workers. But the federal Office of Personnel Management has instructed insurers not to provide the benefits ordered by the judges, citing a 1996 law, the...

A pro-family activist believes there is a huge battle looming between libertarians and social conservatives in the Republican Party. He says this battle was highlighted by a survey he conducted at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, regarding the homosexual agenda. More than half of the nearly 9,000 conservative activists at CPAC last week in Washington were under the age of 22. Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, says most of the young people he surveyed at CPAC were against the legalization of same-sex "marriage," but notes there was a lot of confusion about the issue...

There was at least one 2012 presidential contender missing from the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington this weekend, traditionally a testing ground for any Republican even remotely considering a White House bid. That could be in part because Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. risked getting booed off the stage for some of his views. -SNIPAfter running for governor in 2004 as a supporter of a ballot measure that year that not only banned gay marriage but also civil unions, Huntsman made national news earlier this month by saying that he had changed his mind on civil unions. Largely under...

Michael Steele is, if nothing else, the smartest man in the GOP. Steele’s getting heat from progressives such as Andrew Sullivan and the operators of the popular pro-Democrat blog Think Progress for remarks he made during his February 23 appearance on Mike Gallagher’s program. The Salem Radio Network star asked Steele if the time had come for Republicans to “…consider some sort of alternative to redefining marriage and maybe in the road, down the road to civil unions. Do you favor civil unions?” In a shrewd response, Steele said: “No, no no. What would we do that for? What are...

Am I opposed to civil unions? Abso-freaking-lutely. In my humble little opinion, civil unions are gay marriage-lite, gay marriage-ette. It is the caffeine free diet Coke of marriage; it's still marriage without the fancy name, and without the delicious taste. In some countries civil unions are identical to marriage. That's reason number one. Reason two, it won't stop there. Civil unions are like the failed "separate but equal" legislation of the past. By granting civil unions a government is stating yes you are equal, but you are different, and you can't join our married club. Thus, civil unions might be...

SANTA FE — "Technically alive" was the best supporters could say about the future of a domestic partnerships bill Monday after a possibly fatal 5-5 vote in a Senate committee. The tie vote left Senate Bill 12 stalled — perhaps permanently — in the Senate Judiciary Committee as one Democrat sided with Republican opponents and another Democrat left the committee room before the vote was taken. Though supporters of the measure described Monday's vote as a setback, Gov. Bill Richardson, who supports the idea of domestic partnerships, might seek to exert his influence in an attempt to move the bill...

Entire headline should read: Evangelical Association Reaffirms Biblical Stance after Statements Supporting Obama, Homosexual Civil Unions By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 9, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) has endeavored to assuage concerns sparked last week when NAE's Chief Lobbyist and Vice President for Governmental Affairs downplayed Obama’s abortion position, and stated that he was “shifting” in favor of same-sex civil unions, and possibly “marriage.” NAE President Rev. Leith Anderson told the association's Board of Directors in an open letter that Rev. Richard Cizik's words “did not appropriately reflect the positions of the...

“It’s better to marry than burn with passion,” declared St Paul. But now marriage itself seems to have become a burning issue - or at least, gay marriage. The re-banning of gay marriage in California earlier this month with the passage of Proposition 8 has been presented by gay marriage advocates as a vicious body-blow for gay rights. Angry gay people and their allies have protested across the US, some reportedly even rioting. The timely release of the Gus Van Sant movie Milk, about the murder in 1977 of Harvey Milk, the US’s first out elected official, has fuelled the...

President-elect Barack Obama Washington DC, Nov 23, 2008 / 07:48 pm (CNA).- Citing what they call America’s “promise of equality,” the Obama administration plans to push for homosexual rights by including protections of sexual orientation, “gender identity” and “gender expression” as civil rights. His office proposes expanding hate crimes statues and the adoption rights of homosexuals while supporting full civil unions for “LGBT couples” to give them “legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples.”The proposals are announced under the Civil Rights section of their agenda presented at Change.gov, the web site of the Obama campaign’s self-described...

I've had a few people wanting to see the video I did on gay marriage that was banned from YouTube. I put up a new video on my website. Hope you'll watch, and keep up the fight to keep marriage between one man, and one woman. God bless ya!

CONCORD – V. Gene Robinson, New Hampshire's Episcopal bishop, entered into a civil union yesterday with his partner of 20 years, Mark Andrew, according to WMUR-TV. The ceremony, held at St. Paul Church, coincided with the fifth anniversary of Robinson's election as the nation's first openly gay Episcopal bishop. The state Legislature passed a law last year allowing gay couples to enter civil unions; the law took effect Jan. 1. In an interview last month on NBC's "The Today Show," Robinson said the decision to enter into a civil union came after he received death threats about his decision to...

Gene Robinson, New Hampshire's Episcopal bishop, entered into a civil union yesterday with his partner of 20 years, Mark Andrew, according to WMUR-TV. The ceremony, held at St. Paul Church, coincided with the fifth anniversary of Robinson's election as the nation's first openly gay Episcopal bishop. The state Legislature passed a law last year allowing gay couples to enter civil unions; the law took effect Jan. 1. In an interview last month on NBC's "The Today Show," Robinson said the decision to enter into a civil union came after he received death threats about his decision to attend the Lambeth...

THE ACT government has been forced to abandon plans to legally recognise same-sex civil union ceremonies after the Rudd government refused to support the move. ACT Attorney-General Simon Corbell today said the Commonwealth had given him clear advice it intended to override the laws if passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly. The ACT government originally passed its Civil Partnerships Bill in 2006 but it was disallowed by the Howard government. Mr Corbell had hoped the new Federal Government would take a different approach, especially after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd promised in December not to interfere with state and territory legislation....

Report says civil unions make 'second-class status' By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press Writer MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) -- A commission established to study same-sex civil unions in New Jersey has found in its first report that civil unions create a "second-class status" for gay couples rather than giving them equality. The report stops short of recommending that the state allow gay marriage. But it does find that gay couples in Massachusetts, the only state that now allows gay marriage, do not experience some of the legal complications that those in New Jersey do. The civil union law sought to give...

After years of emotion on the streets and in the Capitol, the fight for gay rights boiled down to a quiet ruling in a federal courtroom on Friday. U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman's decision means that starting Monday, same-sex couples can start signing up for domestic partnerships, entitling them to most of the duties and benefits that married residents receive. Friday afternoon, Mosman rejected a lawsuit that sought to block the domestic partnership law passed by the Legislature and force a public vote. Mosman's decision was a major victory for gay-rights advocates, who have fought for years to gain the...

The impromptu debate, over light beers and dirty martinis, was at once mundane and remarkable. Provoked by a reporter, four middle-aged men at a Greenwich Village gay bar made fiery pitches for the Democratic presidential front-runners. Two backed Senator Barack Obama, one argued for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the fourth made an emotional plea for the cause of John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina. "Edwards is the only one who really cares about the underdog," one of the men, Farid Martinez, 41, a clothing designer from New York, shouted above the din at the bar, the Monster,...

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — For many who lived through Vermont's not-so-civil debate over civil unions, the memories remain painfully fresh: hate mail, threatening telephone messages, tense public meetings. This time around, as the state weighs whether to legalize gay marriage, the debate is noticeably tamer with little of the vitriol and recrimination that surrounded its groundbreaking 2000 decision to legally recognize gay and lesbian couples. It's early: Lawmakers say they're unlikely to push for a vote this year on pending legislation that would legalize gay marriage, although a state-appointed panel has been gathering public input and is due to report...

Registrar who says she won't do gay weddings... and is now taking council to a tribunalBy MARTIN DELGADO - More by this author » Last updated at 21:07pm on 12th January 2008  A crucifix worn prominently around her neck, this is the marriage registrar at the centre of a landmark legal case over her opposition to gay weddings.   Lillian Ladele has launched proceedings against Islington Council in North London, claiming that to officiate at civil partnership ceremonies between same-sex couples is incompatible with her religious principles. Her refusal to supervise such unions has brought her into conflict with the...

Current Results with 51,827 votes Support 53% Oppose 41% Not Sure 6%

An attorney with Liberty Counsel says an unusual legal case could be a backdoor attempt to get legal recognition of civil unions in the state of Mississippi. The case pits against each other two women who were "partners" in a homosexual relationship. The plaintiff claims that her former partner verbally agreed to give her an interest in real property. However, the pair lived in Florida at the time of the alleged oral agreement, and now both live in Mississippi. Recently, a chancery court in Mississippi denied a request from the defendant to dismiss the case. Steve Crampton, vice president for...

The colorful brochure from Mitt Romney's presidential campaign looks like many of the political fliers flooding Iowa mail boxes this time of the year. But there is a difference. The piece is Romney's first to single out his rivals by name, a shift that shows him becoming more aggressive in the final weeks before the Jan. 3 caucuses. The mailing juxtaposes photos and quotes from Romney showing his support for a federal constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman with photos and quotes showing Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Fred Thompson all oppose...

Republican presidential candidate who led a Senate inquiry into illegal foreign fund raising in the 1996 presidential campaign, Fred Thompson of Tennessee, is warning that the phenomenon may be repeating itself with Senator Clinton's current White House bid. "From what I read in the papers, it looks to me like some of the same familiar refrains are playing when I look at Senator Clinton's situation," Mr. Thompson told reporters yesterday during his first campaign swing through California. "I'm not going to jump to any conclusions or make any accusations until all the facts are in, but when I see people...

San Francisco -- Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson - in a city that tried to sanction same-sex marriages - said today he is personally opposed to civil unions and domestic partnerships, although he'd leave those issues up to states to decide. Thompson, during his first public visit to the Bay Area, also spoke on the volatile issue of whether the use of waterboarding to gain information from terrorists amounted to torture. The former Tennessee senator didn't support the practice outright, instead, he said he would "do what I think is in the best interest of my country" regarding approving waterboarding...

CONCORD, N.H. — Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson told New Hampshire voters Monday that efforts in some states to recognize same-sex marriage are a "judge-made controversy." Civil unions will become legal in New Hampshire on Jan. 1, allowing gays to apply for the same rights as married people. Same-sex unions from other states also will be recognized in New Hampshire if they were legal in the state where they were performed. Questioned about civil unions after a speech at a dental benefits company, Thompson said, "I would not be in support of that." But when he elaborated, he switched from...

The bitter dispute ripping apart the social fabric of Ocean Grove, N.J., a lovely Victorian enclave 40 miles south of Manhattan, began simply enough. Long-time residents Harriet Bernstein, 65, a retired schoolteacher, and Luisa Paster, 60, a Princeton University staff developer, wanted to celebrate their civil union on the town's boardwalk pavilion. The ceremony would have been legal, since New Jersey in 2004 had become the fifth state in the nation to recognize homosexual civil unions. But Ocean Grove isn't just any pretty town. Founded as a Methodist camp in 1869, it was the first permanent camp meeting dedicated to...

Maryland's highest court Tuesday upheld a state law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, ending a lawsuit filed by same-sex couples who claimed they were being denied equal protection under the law. A divided Court of Appeals ruled that Maryland's 1973 ban on gay marriage does not discriminate on the basis of gender and does not deny any fundamental rights, and that the state has a legitimate interest in promoting opposite-sex marriage. The decision essentially sent the gay-marriage issue back to the legislature, where lawmakers on both sides of the debate predicted a flurry of...

Presidential hopefuls seeking to win conservative voters were quick to voice criticism of an Iowa county judge’s ruling to allow gay “marriage” in his county despite the state’s ban on same-sex civil “marriage.” Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was the first to denounce the decision by Polk County Judge Robert Hanson, who last Thursday ruled that the state’s decade-old same-sex “marriage” ban violated the couples’ constitutional rights. Romney even voiced support of a federal ban on same-sex “marriage.” “The ruling in Iowa is another example of an activist court and unelected judges trying to redefine marriage and disregard the will...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Same-sex marriage was legal here for less than 24 hours before the county won a stay of a judge's order on Friday, a tiny window of opportunity that allowed two men to make history but left dozens of other couples disappointed after a frantic rush to the altar. At 2 p.m. Thursday, Judge Robert Hanson ordered Polk County officials to accept marriage license requests from same-sex couples, but he granted the stay at about 12:30 p.m. Friday. By then 27 same-sex couples had filed applications, but only Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan of Ames had made...

London, Aug 23, 2007 / 10:49 am (CNA).- The openly homosexual Episcopal bishop, Bishop V. Gene Robinson, has planned to enter into a civil partnership with his long-term partner just weeks before next year's Lambeth Conference, reports the Church of England Newspaper. Robinson, whose consecration as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003 has placed the Anglican Communion on the brink of schism, unveiled his intention during an interview to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 next week, in a program entitled Choice.In an interview with Michael Buerk, the bishop denied that his plan to hold the ceremony next June had...

Adults in the New Jersey are split over allowing gay and lesbian partners to enter wedlock, according to a poll by Zogby International for Garden State Equality. 48 per cent of respondents agree with giving same-sex couples the same freedom to marry as heterosexual couples, while 45 per cent disagree. In addition, 48 per cent of respondents would let gay couples get married, 30 per cent would retain the current structure that allows New Jersey’s same-sex partners to enter civil unions, and 20 per cent would prefer to grant no legal recognition to homosexual partnerships. In 2004, marriage certificates were...

A Methodist ministry at the Jersey Shore has sued the state, accusing the Attorney General's Office of trying to compel the group to allow gay civil union ceremonies in its boardwalk pavilion. The federal lawsuit, filed on Saturday by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, is the latest salvo in a case that's drawing statewide attention from gay rights advocates and religious conservatives. "Religious groups have the right to make their own decisions without government interference," Brian W. Raum, lawyer for the association, said in a statement Monday. "The government can't force a private Christian organization to use its property...

Democratic Candidates Attempt to Outdo Opponents in "Gayness" in Public Gay-"Debate" By John Jalsevac August 10, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last night's falsely advertised gay "debate," broadcast on LOGO, was an opportunity to answer the question about the various Democratic presidential hopefuls: "Who is the gayest of them all?" The day after the event, however, and the question appears to have no real answer, since all of the candidates that accepted the invitation to participate in the all-gay-issue forum seemed intent on outdoing each other in toeing the line of total homosexual orthodoxy, with the minor exception of the gay doctrine...

Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday he wanted to tap into the "core decency" of Americans to fight discrimination against gays and lesbians, and argued that civil unions for same-sex couples wouldn't be a "lesser thing" than marriage. At a televised forum focusing on gay rights, the Illinois senator was asked to explain how civil unions for same-sex couples could be the equivalent of marriage. He said, "As I've proposed it, it wouldn't be a lesser thing, from my perspective. Obama belongs to the United Church of Christ, which supports gay marriage, but Obama has yet to go that far. All...

I just got off a conference call with John Edwards' deputy campaign manager Jonathan Prince and two supporters in the LGBT community in which the campaign sought to portray Edwards as the Democratic field's best champion of gay rights ahead of tonight's debate on gay issues in Los Angeles. Predictably, most questions focused on gay marriage. Edwards, like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, does not support gay marriage but backs civil unions. For the most part, Prince ducked the question of why Edwards does not support marriage by emphasizing the candidate's advocacy for civil unions, which he called "an issue...

Democratic presidential candidates are confirmed to participate next month in the first-ever presidential forum on issues concerning the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. Hosted by MTV's homosexual cable network, Logo, and sponsored by the nation's largest homosexual activist organization, the Human Rights Campaign, the one-hour event on Aug. 9 will feature Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who will engage in conversation on marriage, hate crimes, HIV/AIDS and other issues. '“We’re honored to give the presidential candidates a historic opportunity to share their views directly with the LGBT audience,” said Brian Graden, president of Logo, in a released statement. Conservatives...