Twenty-seven states have passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriages and next November, Florida could become the 28th.

But backers of the amendment shouldn’t expect Florida voters, most of whom do not approve of gay marriage, to be exercised about this issue during an election year in which there are so many other important matters to talk about.

Gay marriage is last season’s politics.

Besides, Florida already has a law outlawing marriage between people of the same sex, so formalizing a ban in the state constitution hardly merits front-burner status.

Florida law says a marriage made somewhere else between persons of the same sex is “not recognized for any purpose in this state.” The language is clear.

Plus, there’s the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law that says states don’t have to recognize gay marriages from other states. That law protects Florida, if the state needs protection, just as it does the other 49.

Yet Florida4Marriage, the sponsor of the proposal, has collected the 611,000 signatures needed to put the amendment, already cleared by the Florida Supreme Court, on the ballot in 2008.

It’s easy to accuse the group of prejudice, as its critics have, but Florida4Marriage insists its purpose is to defend traditional marriage and its foundational role in a stable, civil society. The group says state laws are not enough when judges, with the swipe of a pen, can overturn them.

But the issue has also helped forge the political landscape. Republicans have effectively used the gay-marriage ban amendments against Democrats, who want gay votes but don’t want to alienate the majority of voters who don’t sanction same-sex marriages.

In 2004, when President Bush was up for reelection, 11 states passed marriage bans with vote totals averaging 67 percent. Two years ago, when the Republicans lost control of Congress, seven more states passed bans. However, Arizona voters refused to go along.

We’re sympathetic to those who would protect traditional marriage as a sacred trust. These are people who fear for our culture and lament the loss of respect for the institution. But changing the constitution, when it hasn’t proven necessary, is not the way to do it.

Americans have grown more tolerant of their gay and lesbian neighbors and are appalled by the violence and discrimination some have faced.

A number of state and local governments have responded by outlawing discrimination based on a person’s sexual preference. And an increasing number of businesses are granting spousal benefits to homosexual partners as a way of retaining valuable employees.

Homosexuals should not be denied employment, public accommodation or any of the civil liberties enjoyed by Americans.

But marriage is not simply a civil rights issue. It is an amalgam of faith, values and tradition. Changing its definition is no trifling manner.

But make no mistake. Gay marriage is not the biggest threat to the institution of marriage. Bigger assaults are exposed by divorce rates and the growing number of out-of-wedlock births. Almost half of marriages today end in divorce. In Florida, one in four babies is born to an unwed mother.

To best defend the institution of marriage, we should quit looking for bogeymen where there are none.

Source: tbo.com

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>BOSTON (AP) - Religious leaders who took opposing sides in Massachusetts’ turbulent gay marriage debate have found something to bring them together again: casino gambling.

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Do you remember the years you spent in high school? How about the pressure, social scrutiny, and the numerous other problems that you, as a teenager, dealt with daily? Now, imagine that you were to be faced with all of this, along with the confusion of your sexual orientation and the anxiety over the possibility of not being accepted by society, your friends and even your own family, over something that you cannot change.

We are responding to the commentary on Central’s Gay-Straight Alliance in the People’s Forum as well as at the Bay City Public School board meeting, both on Dec. 10.

We are members of the GSA and after reading the letter written by Kimberly Bublitz, we decided to attend the board meeting to hear her arguments. Toward the end of the meeting, audience members were allowed to speak and Mrs. Bublitz approached the microphone. Her argument was unjustifiable.

She said she had completed ”hours upon hours of Internet research on Gay-Straight Alliances,” but it is hard to believe any of her sources are credible. If you are looking for something on the Internet, you will be sure to find it. Research online will turn up anything imaginable.

”In choosing not to notify parents of this club, you are in essence taking away a parent’s right to determine what is appropriate or inappropriate for his or her child.” This was an opinion of Bublitz’s that was brought up during her proclamation, when truly, all of the information is available for parents who are willing to look.

The announcements read over our PA can be read at any time on Central’s Web site (www.baycitycentral.com). All that it takes is the slight effort required to simply visit the site. If your child has failed to inform you about being in such a club, or even that the meetings were taking place, the school system is not at fault for your lack of interest and involvement in your child’s life. It is also possible that you have instilled such a belief within your child that it is so incredibly wrong to be open-minded to opinions other than your own, that they either feel that they will be shamed or punished for mentioning the matter.

She had also stated, ”Unless I missed something in my research, the battle to stop Gay-Straight Alliance groups in Michigan has not yet been fought.” According to our sources, this is true. But why, if there are supposedly so many things wrong with Gay-Straight Alliances and all that they stand for, would the state officials tolerate such a disruptive and inappropriate organization to meet within their halls of learning? This is because it would be a useless battle. It would be both a waste of time and money. The students involved with GSA throughout the nation have done nothing wrong. The members of Central’s chapter have followed every rule and procedure to attain the right of having this organization.

All that we are attempting to do is create awareness for our peers on the discrimination and hate crimes that have been targeted towards the gay community.

Today’s teenagers, homosexual or not, need a group in which they belong. They need friends and a support system to help them surpass their struggles. Central’s GSA offers this to students. Any parent should be perfectly content with their child finding other students with whom they can relate.

To all of those who are still wary of having a Gay-Straight Alliance within your child’s school, let us make it clear to you that we do not force any student to become a member or to agree with the opinions brought up during the meetings by any individual member. Joining is absolutely voluntary. You don’t have to worry about your student ”catching” anything; if you didn’t already know, homosexuality isn’t contagious.

- Glenn Madigan and Kaitlyn Skrzypczak are juniors at Bay City Central High School and members of the Gay-Straight Alliance, which meets at the school.

Today’s teenagers, homosexual or not, need a group in which they belong. They need friends and a support system to help them surpass their struggles. Central’s GSA offers this to students.

Source: mlive.com

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>(Fort Worth, Texas) Real estate agent Joel Burns has become the first openly gay member of Fort Worth City Council in a race that was marked by homophobia.

>Burns defeated school trustee Juan Rangel Jr. a fellow Democrat, in a runoff election Tuesday.

>During the campaign Republicans tried to use Burns’ sexuality as a wedge issue.

>Fort Worth City Councilman Chuck Silcox told a GOP audience to vote for candidate Chris Turner for city council because he is both straight and a Republican, unlike his opponent.

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>John Edwards, the former US Vice Presidential candidate who is seeking the Democratic party’s nomination for President, said yesterday that he will end “discriminatory” policies towards gay people if elected.

Speaking in New Hampshire, he pledged to try to repeal the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA), passed in 1996, that banned the federal government from recognising gay marriages or unions and allowed states to refuse to recognise same-sex unions from other states.

DOMA was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, the husband of Mr Edwards’ rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton.

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>(New York City) A new study says there are at least 3,800 people under the age of 25 living on the streets of New York and that almost 30 percent are gay, lesbian or bisexual.

>The study, by the Empire State Coalition of Youth and Family Services, has been turned over to City Council, which paid for it.

>Nearly half of all homeless young people were Black, about 25 percent were Latino the study said.  Those numbers would be proportionate to Black and Latino populations in New York.

>But the high number of gays on the streets is about three times the estimated percentage of New York’s LGBT community.

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One of New Hampshire’s leading gay rights groups has endorsed former North Carolina senator John Edwards for president. The New Hampshire Freedom to Marry Coalition cited Edwards’s commitment to equal rights and fighting discrimination in all forms, according to a press release.

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Allan Berube, a MacArthur Award-winning independent scholar whose history of gay men and lesbians in the military in World War II is widely considered the definitive book on the subject, died Tuesday in Liberty, N.Y. He was 61. A former resident of San Francisco and Manhattan, Mr. Berube had lived in Liberty in recent years.

The cause was complications of stomach ulcers, said a friend, Wayne Hoffman.

“Coming Out Under Fire” (Free Press), published in 1990, explores the uneasy but at times surprisingly benign relationship between the U.S. military and its gay members.

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It doesn’t matter if you’re gay or straight, you can’t get legally married at Lyndale United Church of Christ.

The small, liberal church in south Minneapolis was the first of several Twin Cities congregations last year to stop performing civil marriage ceremonies as long as gay marriage is illegal. These churches, and a handful of others around the country that took the same step, will still hold a religious ceremony to bless the unions of straight and gay couples - but straight couples must go separately to a judge or justice of the peace for the marriage license.

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With more and more Americans turning 50 each year, a growing number of people with HIV and AIDS are entering their golden years. HIV and AIDS service organizations are struggling to meet the needs of their aging clients.The Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Service & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America and the Brooklyn, N.Y., based-Griot Circle launched the Eldersexual Campaign in New York on Tuesday, December 11, 2007, as a way to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS among people over 50. The initiative features four separate advertisements that will run in 15 weekly and two monthly publications across the Five Boroughs. Thirty-nine telephone booths across Brooklyn and Manhattan will also display the ads.

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