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The USA’s first openly gay Episcopal bishop, Gene Robinson, has responded to presidential hopeful Rick Perry's anti-gay TV promotion suggesting that "it must break God's heart to see religion used in a political campaign like this." Bishop Robinson of the Episcopal Church showed his distaste in a TV interview with MSNBC and also by writing an opinion piece in the Washington Post newspaper. Perry had stated in his commercial that “You don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t...

ELCA Presiding Bishop Tells ELCA Leaders it's Time to Move Forward 10-261-JB CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In a report to leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, ELCA presiding bishop, said it is time for the church to move forward and get over being "timid" about mission and ministry. "In the name of Jesus Christ our days of timidity are over," Hanson told the ELCA Conference of Bishops, ELCA synod vice presidents and ELCA seminary presidents Oct. 2. "I just think we have to say it. And we have to say it with the...

If Pastor John Vaswig or Pastor Kim Latterell were to leave their East Pierce County Lutheran churches, their congregations could replace them with a gay or lesbian clergy member. In August 2009, the church-wide assembly of the Ecumenical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) voted to allow churches to call pastors who are in a committed, same-gender relationships to head up their congregations. Many other important issues were discussed and voted on at the assembly meeting in Minneapolis, but this decision is the one that generated the most interest. John Brooks, spokesman for the ELCA, said that most of the churches...

Heiress Casey Johnson Dead at 30 January 4, 2010 Johnson & Johnson heiress Casey Johnson [Pic in URL] in the spotlight recently for a custody battle, grand theft charges and a flashy engagement to reality TV diva Tila Tequila, was found dead Monday morning in her Los Angeles home, OK! Magazine has confirmed. News of Johnson's death began circulating online around 5 p.m. PST, after TMZ reported that the wayward socialite's body had been found. Access Hollywood reported that the family had issued a statement asking for privacy. Johnson, the daughter of New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, had recently...

According to numbers released in December by the Episcopal Church, that denomination’s membership dropped by 3 percent in 2008. That doesn’t sound like much, but I am a bit of a demographics junkie, plus I researched and examined a lot of church membership and growth data in writing my book A Lover’s Quarrel With The Evangelical Church. I can tell you that I have never heard of a major denomination that has ever lost 3 percent of its membership in a single year. What’s even more interesting about these numbers is that the Episcopal Church now says it has only...

BREAKING: Diocese of Los Angeles Elects Non-Celibate Lesbian As Suffragan Bishop

ELCA synods will not have the option of upholding traditional Christian teaching on marriage and homosexuality in their standards for pastors and other rostered leaders according to a draft of candidacy rules released Oct. 10 by the ELCA churchwide organization. No synod or bishop may make decisions on ministry standards that differ from the new policies of the ELCA churchwide organization as defined by the 2009 Churchwide Assembly, the policy draft explains. The ELCA now allows pastors and other rostered leaders to be in committed same-sex relationships. “By the governing documents, all candidacy and call decisions are made on an...

An Edmonton teacher fired after telling a Catholic school board she was changing her gender to a man says the case fuels an unfair stereotype nationwide that Albertans are rednecks. "I do believe it may feed into the myth that Albertans are redneck," said Jan Buterman who this week launched an Alberta Human Rights Commission complaint about the firing from a public Catholic school board in St. Albert that came on her birthday last October. "I really don't think it's really what Alberta is," said Buterman. She's undergoing the process of becoming a man and had been a substitute teacher...

More Photo Galleries 1 of 13 John Ruys, left, of San Ramon embraces friend Stephen Yardbrough of San Francisco at the annual Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco on Sunday. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2009/09/25/folsom_st_fair.DTL&o= [Sorry, this was filed under animals]

SALT LAKE CITY — Gay rights activists are organizing a nationwide string of kissing demonstrations in response to the treatment of gay couples in Utah and Texas who tangled with security guards or police after kissing in public. The Great Nationwide Kiss-In is scheduled for Aug. 15. Events are planned for at least seven cities, including Boston, New York, Houston, Portland, Ore., and three California cities — Irvine, San Diego and San Francisco. A Web page and Facebook page promoting the demonstrations says more events are in the works. A pair of bloggers, David Badash, of New York, and David...

LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. — When word got out that Mr. McBeth, a popular substitute teacher at two southern New Jersey school districts was about to come back to class as Miss McBeth, it caused an uproar. The former William McBeth had undergone sex reassignment surgery and was now Lily McBeth. The schools' 2006 decisions to keep her on as a substitute were hailed around the nation as a model of tolerance and acceptance of transgender Americans. But the storybook ending never happened: She got only a handful of assignments since then and is resigning in frustration.

DETAILS San Diego Pride ParadeWhen: 11 a.m. todayWhere: University Avenue at Normal Street to Sixth Avenue at Upas StreetSan Diego Pride FestivalWhen: From noon to 10 p.m. today, and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrowWhere: Balboa Park, Sixth Avenue at Juniper StreetFestival admission: $20 each dayHillcrest Community CleanupWhen: 7 a.m. MondayWhere: Park Boulevard at University AvenueMore information:www.sandiegopride.orgThe hundreds of San Diegans who marched for gay rights in the mid-1970s walked through a city largely indifferent, even antagonistic, to the cause.What strides they have made.Today, up to 9,000 people will take part in the San Diego Pride Parade, including the...

VIDEO: Lord of the Rings Film Star Ian McKellen Admits to Ripping Out Hotel Bible Sections Against Homosexuality By John-Henry Westen AUKLAND, NZ, August 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - British Actor Ian McKellen who has used the mega-stardom he achieved playing Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films to promote homosexuality, has admitted to ripping out pages of hotel bibles that refer to homosexuality. In an August 10 interview on New Zealand's TV1 Close Up program McKellen was confronted by the interviewer questioning the truth of the rumour "He's the one, that when he stays in hotels rips the part...

Eileen DiFranco sang the hymns, prayed and took Communion as she had done at countless other Catholic Masses.But yesterday, for the first time, she led the service as an ordained priest - and received a warm reception from hundreds of Catholics and others."Nothing is impossible with our God," she told a congregation at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown. "Not even a woman priest."Applause rippled across the steamy sanctuary, where many fanned themselves with programs titled: "First Mass. Eileen DiFranco."DiFranco, 54, of Mount Airy, had participated in a July 31 ceremony that organizers say made her among the first...

CHICAGO, May 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The following statement was released today by the Rainbow Sash Movement (RSM). The RSM will respond to the fear and intolerance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Transgender (GLBT) persons, by many of our Catholic Bishops on Pentecost Sunday, June 4, 2006. We will be entering, with our straight allies, Catholic Cathedrals across the nation on Pentecost wearing Rainbow Sashes as a sign of identification. Some Bishops have welcomed us in the past, and we are thankful for their welcome.Nationally our Bishops have lobbied against our human rights. Our grief is intensified because many in the GLBT...

"Several years ago Gary Glenn came to Midland as a conservative political activist... Soon thereafter he rekindled the American Family Association of Michigan, based in Midland. Since that time, the AFA has been on a non-stop campaign to deny basic freedoms, safety and dignity to (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered) people. The American Family Association claims to be a 'pro-family' organization, but a recent study by the (National Gay & Lesbian Task Force) Policy Institute showed that the AFA and similar groups do little for families, but instead spend their time trying to outlaw abortions, stop equal rights for gay...

She says she considered quitting her role as campaign adviser over the issue of gay marriage, but Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Mary Cheney tells ABC News "Primetime" anchor Diane Sawyer her sexuality has never created problems within her family. Mary Cheney discussed the campaign, her feelings about President Bush, life with her partner of 14 years, and what it was like to come out as gay to her parents. "I struggled with my decision to stay on the 2004 campaign," Cheney told "Primetime." Her personal challenge came when President Bush said the nation must defend the sanctity of marriage.

What's the deal with all the dead scientists?

With much still to be decided, the homosexual "marriage" debate reached new heights in 2004, starting with President Bush's State of the Union Address. "Activist judges ... have begun redefining marriage by court order, without regard for the will he people and their eqqqlected representatives," he said. "On an issue of such great consequence, the people's voice must be heard." A few weeks later, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that homosexuals have a state constitutional right to "marry." Shortly thereafter, the mayor of San Francisco, in a particularly disturbing display of civil disobedience, began "marrying" homosexuals, an act a...

Films featuring steamy homosexual sex scenes were shown at an independent film festival in Delaware on the event's "Kid's Day," while children were entertained in another part of the building. The Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival in Rehoboth Beach, Del., took place Nov. 11-14. The seventh annual event set an attendance record with 22,660 moviegoers. On Nov. 13, which the festival dubbed "Kids Day," children were shown independent children's films in an upstairs screening room of the Movies at Midway multiplex while explicit sex scenes were screening in other theaters. Also, other non-festival children's movies, including "The Incredibles" and "Polar...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A year after a lesbian mother said her son was disciplined in a Lafayette, La., school for merely talking about what the word "gay" means, the teacher at the center of the dispute is fighting back with a lawsuit. Terry L. Bethea and her husband Kenneth claim in their suit that the mother, Sharon Huff, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and several ACLU employees, publicly made numerous false claims. The Bethea's say they suffered more than $50,000 in damages — including physical and emotional pain and damage to their reputations. They seek a jury...

San Bernardino, CA, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- The Pacifica Lutheran Synod has revoked a San Bernardino, Calif, mission's congregational status because its pastor is in a committed lesbian relationship. The decision to remove the Central City Lutheran Mission, an urban ministry that serves poor and homeless people, of its official recognition is the harshest punishment of a Lutheran congregation with a gay pastor in more than a decade. (snip) "This is the first time in 14 years that any congregation or any pastor has been dealt with this harshly. We thought those days were over," said Pastor David Kalke, who...

ATHENS, Nov 19 (Reuters) - A group of Greek lawyers are threatening to sue Warner Bros film studios and Oliver Stone, director of the widely anticipated film "Alexander," for suggesting Alexander the Great was bisexual. The lawyers have already sent an extrajudicial note to the studio and director demanding they include a reference in the title credits saying his movie is a fictional tale and not based on official documents of the life of the Macedonian ruler.