Showing posts with label daily. Show all posts
Showing posts with label daily. Show all posts
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Protest held at Northern Ireland ‘gay cure’ conference
Around 50 gay activists held a protest today outside a small ‘gay cure’ conference held in Northern Ireland.
The event, held by the Core Issues Group, featured David Pickup, an American speaker who says gay people can be turned straight.
The protesters gathered outside Belvoir Church of Ireland earlier today with placards bearing messages such as ‘your cure kills’.
Mr Pickup told the BBC: “I don’t cure anybody – The client always determines if there are root causes for homosexuality.
“I don’t force anybody or cure anybody – a client naturally spontaneously grows into his authentic heterosexual self.”
John O’Doherty, director of the Rainbow Project, responded: “It is the same ridiculous comments we have been hearing for 30 years that gay people are gay because they have had an overbearing mother and an absent father and quite often that they are sexual abuse cases.
“We are here to tell the people who are attending and the wider public that there is real therapy and real support here in Northern Ireland from a gay affirmative approach which will help people be the best person they can and also reinforce with them that being gay is not something to be ashamed of.”
Belvoir Church said it had nothing to do with the conference and occasionally allows other groups to use the space.
New York ‘close to legalising gay marriage’
New York is reportedly on the brink of marriage equality after another Republican senator said yesterday he would support the move.
Governor Andrew Cuomo introduced the legislation in both houses yesterday.
With the new support of Sen Roy McDonald, 31 out of 62 Senate members are expected to back it, leaving the bill in need of just one more vote.
Another Republican and three Democrats have also said they will back the bill after opposing gay marriage in the past.
In the Democrat-controlled Assembly, which has backed gay marriage a number of times, the bill is expected to pass.
Mr Cuomo has said before that he will not introduce a bill until he is sure it will succeed. A gay marriage bill suffered a surprise defeat in 2009 after support levels were overestimated.
This bill does not offer protection to individuals who refuse to officiate or provide services to gay weddings. However, religious groups are not obliged to perform the ceremonies.
If the bill passes, it will come into law 30 days after Mr Cuomo signs the legislation, making New York the sixth US state to allow gay couples to marry.
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington DC currently have marriage equality.
California’s ban is under review
Federal court upholds gay judge’s ruling on California gay marriage ban
A US federal court has upheld a ruling by a gay judge that California’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional.
This is the latest round in a long legal battle over the issue.
US District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled in August 2010 that the ban should be lifted. In the following months, it emerged that he was gay and in a long-term relationship.
Opponents of gay marriage complained that as a gay man, he had a conflict of interest. They claimed he planned to marry his partner but could show no evidence for this.
Chief US District Judge James Ware ruled yesterday that the fact Judge Walker is in a relationship would not make him “so interested in marrying the person that he would be unable to exhibit the impartiality which, it is presumed, all federal judges maintain”.
The ruling means gay marriage campaigners in the state are one step closer to reaching their goal.
After Judge Walker’s ruling last year, opponents applied – and won – a stay while they appealed the decision.
The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeal is currently considering that decision but says it will not make a ruling until the state Supreme Court rules on whether gay marriage opponents have the legal standing to appeal the original judgement.
