Rhode Island Catholics Support Gay Marriage – 2:1! - Gay Agenda

…The two factors most commonly quoted as reasons for the failure to secure gay marriage have been the implacable opposition of the current governor Don Carcieri, and the high proportion of Catholic voters. (At 46%, this is the highest in the US). However, a new state level poll confirms what has become apparent at the national level. Support for marriage equality has grown, local Catholics support gay marriage – and support has grown faster among Catholics than among other groups…

…There are effectively twice as many Catholics who support equality, as those who oppose it – providing their are suitable assurances that it applies only to civil marriage, and on the separation of church and state. Bishop Tobin is on a losing battle.

Politicians are addicted to reading the public mood. With two thirds of Rhode Islanders now saying they approve of legal recognition of same sex marriages, and a convincing majority of Catholics agreeing, the will be very few state legislators next year who would want to resume their previous opposition- and the smoke screen that so many of the voters are Catholic will be blown away by the knowledge that local Catholics seem to put Catholic commitment to justice ahead of blind obedience to Bishops and patently flawed Vatican body theology. Read complete article:

http://www.gayagenda.com/2010/08/rhode-island-catholics-support-gay-marriage-21/

Rhode Island - Poll: Public support for same-sex marriage grows

Maria Armental - Providence Journal

http://www.projo.com/news/content/MARRIAGE_EQUALITY_08-19-10_28JJMIQ_v16.22a4d8c.html

Gay Marriage -> Restores “Hope of Love”

To Children In Early Childhood

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/gay-marriage-restores-hope-of-love-to.html

Gay marriage - Sexual orientation

is less about sex and more about love, being one with another human being

Attachment Theory - LOVE & RELIGION

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/gay-marriage-sexual-orientation-is-less_3483.html

Gay Marriage - Galileo Condemned As A Heretic

Misinterpretations of The Bible

Homosexuality? Natural Law? Benedict XVI?

Kids Are Being Hurt!!!

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/gay-marriage-galileo-condemned-as.html

Facts About Sexual Orientation

Dr. Gregory Herek,

University of California at Davis &

Yale University & City University of New York

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts.html

Sexual Orientation: Science, Education, and Policy

Dr. Gregory Herek,

University of California at Davis &

Yale University & City University of New York

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/useful_links.html

Sexual Orientation: Science, Education, and Policy

Dr. Gregory Herek

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/index.html

On Prop 8, it's the evidence, stupid

By Lisa Bloom – CNN.com

and

related links:

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/on-prop-8-its-evidence-stupid-by-lisa_18.html

Plutarch "No sensible person can imagine that the sexes differ in matters of love as they do in matters of clothing.”

John Boswell: The Church and the Homosexual

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/1979boswell.html

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century

by John Boswell

http://www.clgs.org/john-e-boswell-lecture

The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS)

was established at

Pacific School of Religion in

Berkeley, California

and opened its doors in the fall of 2000.

http://www.clgs.org/about/about-clgs

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality:

Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the

Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century

by John Boswell

http://books.google.com/books?id=v-MR5_AdG68C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Christianity,+Social+Tolerance,+and+Homosexuality:+Gay+People+in+Western+Europe+from+the+Beginning+of+the+Christian+Era+to+the+Fourteenth+Century&source=bl&ots=uNQ2ozgLPa&sig=R9igrrnPUaYPgIeE8iNOuNJKHzU&hl=en&ei=03xsTLDoAY3LnAeRo9WyAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe. By John Boswell.

New York: Villard Books, 1994, 412 pp. N.p. (cloth).

Bennison, Charles, Book reviews.., Vol. 77,

Anglican Theological Review, 04-01-1995, pp 256.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/bosrev-bennison.html

Do Religions Reject Gay Marriage?

By Daniel C. Maguire – Consortiumblog.com

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/081810a.html

The Pope Is Not Gay

Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Dish – The Atlantic

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/pope-is-not-gay-by-andrew-sullivan_17.html

9th Circuit Ruling on Motion for Stay Pending Appeal - AUGUST 16, 2010

and

related links

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/9th-circuit-ruling-on-motion-for-stay.html#more

“Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well considered and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.” Erik Erikson

Kids Are Being Hurt!!!

…whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6

Important note: No disrespect meant to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children.

Kids Are Being Hurt !!!

Rhode Island - Poll: Public support for same-sex marriage grows - Maria Armental - Providence Journal

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A poll on same-sex marriage released Wednesday shows that support for legalizing same-sex marriage in Rhode Island is growing while opposition is decreasing.

“It shows, for the first time, a convincing majority of Rhode Island voters supporting equality,” said David Walker, vice president of Greenberg Quinlan and Rosner Research, a Democratic polling firm based in Washington, D.C., that conducted the poll in July…

…When pollsters clarified the question pertained to civil marriages and that church and state would remain separate, 66 percent said they would favor legalizing same-sex marriage, with 28 percent saying they opposed it. Among those who identified themselves as Catholics, 63 percent said they would favor it, 32 percent said they oppose it. “Rhode Islanders are ready to include loving, committed same-sex couples in civil marriage and gain the dignity and respect that marriage brings, along with all the legal rights and protections,” said Kathy J. Kushnir, executive director of Marriage Equality Rhode Island.

The bill has stalled every year since former Rep. Michael Pisaturo, D-Cranston, introduced the first same-sex marriage proposal in 1997.

Read complete article:
http://www.projo.com/news/content/MARRIAGE_EQUALITY_08-19-10_28JJMIQ_v16.22a4d8c.html

Same Sex Unions In Pre-Modern Europe, by John Boswell

Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe. By John Boswell.

New York: Villard Books, 1994, 412 pp. N.p. (cloth).

Bennison, Charles, Book reviews.., Vol. 77,

Anglican Theological Review, 04-01-1995, pp 256.

To have met John Boswell, the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History at Yale, whose premature death late last year is an ineffable tragedy for both the academy and the church, was to have come into the presence of a brilliant, learned, engaging, talkative, and insistent man. In his Sam-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, the much-anticipated and long- awaited sequel to his award-winning Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (1980), Professor Boswell has left as his principal legacy a brilliant, learned, engaging, talkative, and insistent argument that the ancient and medieval church celebrated the same-sex equivalent of its heterosexual marriage ceremony.

One would not absolutely have to be gay to write this book, but it certainly helped. Boswell was gay--indeed, the first openly gay individual to be granted tenure at an ivy league university. While asserting that "it is not the province of the historian to direct the actions of future human beings, but only to reflect accurately on those of the past," the historical reality he in this book is able to construct is advantaged by his social location in a nation and church embroiled in a culture war over the issue of the normative status of homosexuality. In the face of "the psychological landscape of the modern West," which he describes as obsessed with romantic love, "causally interrelated and largely coterminous" with heterosexual marriage, and as filled with "a salient horror of homosexuality," he comes down on the opposite side of the "epistemological divide" among those for whom "it is relatively easy to recognize and absorb ideas about a ceremony of same-sex union, because they have a place to locate the information"

This is to say, not that Boswell is careless with history, but that he brings to the over sixty manuscripts "containing ceremonies of same-sex union" he consults a hermeneutic not exercised heretofore. One strength of the book, in fact, is the modesty of the claims he makes based on the texts before him. "Speculation," he volunteers, "has been kept to a minimum, although many questions remain unanswered by the sources." Read more:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/bosrev-bennison.html

The History of LGBTS at Yale - John Boswell

and

Related links:

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/history-of-lgbts-at-yale-john-boswell.html

The History of LGBTS at Yale - John Boswell

The Origins of Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale, 1980-1994

Yale has played a leading role in the development of LGBT and queer studies for almost thirty years. In 1980, the Yale medievalist John Boswell published Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century. This magisterial, highly acclaimed, and highly controversial study argued that the modern Catholic Church's condemnation of homosexuality departed from the tolerance and even celebration of homosexual love that had characterized the first millennium of the Church's teachings. The book's electrifying implications for one of the central religious debates of our time made Boswell the best known gay studies scholar of his day. Its phenomenal erudition also earned him an American Book Award and helped establish the scholarly rigor and compelling significance of gay studies.

Six years later, Boswell chaired a committee of faculty and students that established the Lesbian and Gay Studies Center at Yale (LGSCY, or "Legacy"), one of the first such centers in the nation and the predecessor of today's LGBTS. Read more: LGBT Studies at Yale University

http://www.yale.edu/lgbts/lgbts_history.html

Plutarch "No sensible person can imagine that the sexes differ in matters of love as they do in matters of clothing.” John Boswell: The Church and the Homosexual

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/1979boswell.html

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century – by John Boswell

http://www.clgs.org/john-e-boswell-lecture

The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS)

was established at

Pacific School of Religion in

Berkeley, California

and opened its doors in the fall of 2000.

http://www.clgs.org/about/about-clgs

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century

by John Boswell

http://books.google.com/books?id=v-MR5_AdG68C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Christianity,+Social+Tolerance,+and+Homosexuality:+Gay+People+in+Western+Europe+from+the+Beginning+of+the+Christian+Era+to+the+Fourteenth+Century&source=bl&ots=uNQ2ozgLPa&sig=R9igrrnPUaYPgIeE8iNOuNJKHzU&hl=en&ei=03xsTLDoAY3LnAeRo9WyAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

Plutarch "No sensible person can imagine that the sexes differ in matters of love as they do in matters of clothing.” John Boswell: The Church and the Homosexual

Excerpts from the keynote address made by Prof. Boswell to the Fourth Biennial Dignity International Convention in 1979.

…Romans did not consider sexuality or sexual preference a matter of much interest, nor did they treat either in an analytical way. An historian has to gather together thousands of little bits and pieces to demonstrate the general acceptance of homosexuality among the Romans.

One of the few imperial writers who does appear to make some sort of comment on the subject in a general way wrote, "Zeus came as an eagle to god­like Ganymede and as a swan to the fair­haired mother of Helen. One person prefers one gender, another the other, I like both." Plutarch wrote at about the same time, "No sensible person can imagine that the sexes differ in matters of love as they do in matters of clothing. The intelligent lover of beauty will be attracted to beauty in whichever gender he finds it." Roman law and social strictures made absolutely no restrictions on the basis of gender. It has sometimes been claimed that there were laws against homosexual relations in Rome, but it is easy to prove that this was not the case. On the other hand, it is a mistake to imagine that anarchic hedonism ruled at Rome. In fact, Romans did have a complex set of moral strictures designed to protect children from abuse or any citizen from force or duress in sexual relations. Romans were, like other people, sensitive to issues of love and caring, but individual sexual (i.e. gender) choice was completely unlimited. Male prostitution (directed toward other males), for instance, was so common that the taxes on it constituted a major source of revenue for the imperial treasury. It was so profitable that even in later periods when a certain intolerance crept in, the emperors could not bring themselves to end the practice and its attendant revenue.

Gay marriages were also legal and frequent in Rome for both males and females. Even emperors often married other males. There was total acceptance on the part of the populace, as far as it can be determined, of this sort of homosexual attitude and behavior. This total acceptance was not limited to the ruling elite; there is also much popular Roman literature containing gay love stories. The real point I want to make is that there is absolutely no conscious effort on anyone's part in the Roman world, the world in which Christianity was born, to claim that homosexuality was abnormal or undesirable. There is in fact no word for "homosexual" in Latin. "Homosexual" sounds like Latin, but was coined by a German psychologist in the late 1 9th century. No one in the early Roman world seemed to feel that the fact that someone preferred his or her own gender was any more significant than the fact that someone preferred blue eyes or short people. Neither gay nor straight people seemed to associate certain characteristics with sexual preference. Gay men were not thought to be less masculine than straight men and lesbian women were not thought of as less feminine than straight women. Gay people were not thought to be any better or worse than straight people-an attitude which differed both from that of the society that preceded it, since many Greeks thought gay people were inherently better than straight people, and from that of the society which followed it, in which gay people were often thought to be inferior to others… Read complete address:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/1979boswell.html

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century – by John Boswell

The John E. Boswell Lecture

Twenty-five years ago John Boswell published a book that historian of sexuality Michel Foucault called "a truly groundbreaking work." Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century charted bold territory in both historical and religious scholarship, setting a new benchmark of academic excellence for gay and lesbian studies. Equally significant, if not more controversial, was his 1993 book, Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, in which he tried to show historical precedence for the religious blessing of same-sex relationships.

In 1975 Dr. Boswell joined the Yale University faculty as an assistant professor after studying at the College of William and Mary and Harvard University. In 1990 he was named the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History at Yale where he later served a two-year term as the chair of the history department. In 1987 he also helped organize the Lesbian and Gay Studies Center at Yale. Read more:

http://www.clgs.org/john-e-boswell-lecture

The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS)

was established at

Pacific School of Religion in

Berkeley, California

and opened its doors in the fall of 2000.

http://www.clgs.org/about/about-clgs

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century

by John Boswell

http://books.google.com/books?id=v-MR5_AdG68C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Christianity,+Social+Tolerance,+and+Homosexuality:+Gay+People+in+Western+Europe+from+the+Beginning+of+the+Christian+Era+to+the+Fourteenth+Century&source=bl&ots=uNQ2ozgLPa&sig=R9igrrnPUaYPgIeE8iNOuNJKHzU&hl=en&ei=03xsTLDoAY3LnAeRo9WyAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

Do Religions Reject Gay Marriage? – By Daniel C. Maguire – Consortiumblog.com

Editor’s Note: A landmark ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Vaughan R. Walker, striking down a California referendum that narrowly banned same-sex unions, concluded that the alleged negative effects of gay marriage weren’t backed by evidence.

Instead, the resistance was based more in prejudice and religious conviction, not in genuine harm either to heterosexuals or to children of same-sex couples. However, in this guest essay, Daniel C. Maguire, professor of moral theology at Marquette University, questions even the religious basis:

Through much of history, especially prior to the Fourteenth Century, many Christians did not share the view that marriage was a reward for being heterosexual, nor that a same-sex union was objectionable.

An icon from St. Catherine’s monastery on Mount Sinai illustrates this point. It shows two robed Christian saints getting married. Their pronubus (official witness, or “best man”) is none other than Jesus Christ.

It is a standard Roman portrayal of a wedding. The difference: the two saints are both male, Fourth Century Christian martyrs, Saint Serge and Saint Bacchus, close friends in the Roman army who were purportedly singled out for their secret adherence to Christianity before being tortured and killed.

Their unity, considered romantic by some historians and depicted through the image of marriage at St. Catherine’s monastery, was commemorated in many subsequent liturgies. The late Yale historian John Boswell found evidence for other Christian same-sex marriage ceremonies continuing even into the Eighteenth Century…

…The religious view supporting same-sex unions coexists with equal standing alongside the conservative, restrictive view.

Lawmakers take note: because religions give this warranty and allow for this freedom of same-sex unions, laws that would legalize only the conservative religious view are in violation of religious freedom.

Religions are pluralistic on same-sex unions. It is not the function of law to curtail freedoms granted and authorized by mainstream religions.

Conservative Christians who insist that "traditional marriage" has always been "between a man and a woman" are wrong and historically uninformed. Thus, they are poor guides for lawmakers and judges…

Read complete article:

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/081810a.html

An Open Letter to Judge Vaughn Walker from All Saints Church, Pasadena – Rev. Susan Russell – An Inch At A Time

August 15, 2010

The Honorable Vaughn R. Walker

Chief Judge, United States District Court

for the Northern District of California

450 Golden Gate Avenue

San Francisco, CA 94102

Dear Judge Walker,

We write to you as members of All Saints Church, where our baptismal covenant calls us to respect the dignity of every human being. In the context of that covenant, we thank you for ruling in favor of dignity and against discrimination for gay and lesbian couples seeking marriage in California.

We write to you as a congregation committed to turning the human race into the human family. In the pursuit of that commitment, we thank you for equally valuing the gay and lesbian members of that human family and for rejecting “the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples.”

We write to you as a church that has been blessing the relationships of same sex couples since 1992 and which had the privilege of marrying 46 same sex couple between May and November in 2008. We thank you for the hope your decision gives us that California will once again be a state where we can offer both equal blessing and equal protection.

And we write to you as religious people who are convinced that no one has the right to write their theology into our Constitution. We believe our first amendment rights to freedom of religion are strengthened by your ruling and that it moves us closer to that goal of a nation of liberty and justice for all our founders intended.

Read more:
http://inchatatime.blogspot.com/2010/08/open-letter-to-judge-vaughn-walker-from.html

"An Inch A Time"

http://inchatatime.blogspot.com/

Klarman: Is public opinion on gay marriage ahead of the Supreme Court's? - Michael Klarman – Harvard Law School

Courts are almost never at the vanguard of social change. In general, they have required sweeping cultural shifts such as school desegregation only when it was clear that a substantial percentage of Americans supported them. So what does this portend for same-sex marriage litigation, which is likely to end up before the Supreme Court eventually, especially in light of recent federal court rulings in Boston and San Francisco in favor of same-sex marriage?

The first same-sex marriage cases, filed by gay couples in the 1970s, were nearly laughed out of court. But by the time of last week's ruling in support of same-sex marriage, more than 40% of the nation — and an even greater percentage in California — supported it. The question now will be whether that's enough of a cultural shift to influence the Supreme Court's thinking.

Before World War II, the NAACP refused to challenge school segregation, knowing that a case would lose in court because most Americans supported the status quo. But by the time the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, half the country agreed with the outcome. Read more:

http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2010/08/18_klarman.html

The Mental Health Consequences of Anti Gay-Marriage Laws - by Shankar Vedantam - March 31, 2010 – Psychology Today

Do anti gay-marriage laws trigger mental disorders?

Gays & lesbians in 16 U.S. states suffered steep increases in depression, anxiety & addictions between 2001-05. The states were Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Utah.

What happened in those states in that time period that may have caused such distress? Those states all passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage in that time period, according to new research by Mark L. Hatzenbuehler, Katie A. McLaughlin, Katherine M. Keyes and Deborah S. Hasin. Heterosexuals in those states did not show the same increase in mental disorders/distress, and gays and lesbians living in the other 34 U.S. states (that did not pass such constitutional bans) also did not see such increases in distress and disorder…

…In making what is essentially a civil rights argument against constitutional bans on same-sex marriage, the researchers write, “although the constitutional amendments largely codified policies that existed de facto, the sociocultural environment surrounding the approval of these amendments made them no less psychologically harmful. Creating constitutional amendments banning gay marriage reinforced the marginalized and socially devalued status of lesbian, gay and transgendered individuals. Moreover, the negative political campaigns against gays and lesbians by proponents of these amendments, which were well-circulated in the media, further promulgated the stigma associated with homosexuality.”

Since the time the study was completed other states, including California, have passed similar bans. Research is ongoing about whether the same changes in mental health among gays and lesbians is occurring in those states.

Read complete article:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-hidden-brain/201003/the-mental-health-consequences-anti-gay-marriage-laws

California decision pulls mask off fears, prejudice

by Ron Eachus – August 10, 2010 - Statesman Journal.com

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100810/COLUMN0703/8100310/1097/OPINION

Prop 8 trial witness: Being gay not a choice - Psychologist testifies in case challenging California’s gay marriage ban – AP - January 22, 2010 – msnbc.com

And

Related links:

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/prop-8-trial-witness-being-gay-not.html

California decision pulls mask off fears, prejudice - by Ron Eachus – August 10, 2010 - Statesman Journal.com

Forced to rely on a factual basis to justify their discrimination against the rights of same-sex couples to marry, the proponents of California's Proposition 8 couldn't hold up in court.

After a California Supreme Court ruling in 2008 that denying marriage to same-sex couples violated the state constitution, a coalition calling itself Protect Marriage convinced 52 percent of California voters that the solution was to amend the state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriages.

But there's a federal constitution as well and last week a federal judge, Vaughn R. Walker, decided that such restrictions violate the 14th Amendment's provisions for due process and equal protection…

…After that come the rants about the will of the people being thwarted. Someone needs a lesson in civics. You'd think right-wing anger management gurus would understand checks and balances and constitutional protections against the tyranny of the majority.

In America, constitutions are written to protect citizens from irrational and unwarranted discrimination. But proponents of amendments like Proposition 8 aren't using the Constitution to eliminate discrimination; they're using it to put discrimination back in.

Read complete article:
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100810/COLUMN0703/8100310/1097/OPINION

Prop 8 trial witness: Being gay not a choice - Psychologist testifies in case challenging California’s gay marriage ban – AP - January 22, 2010 – msnbc.com

And

Related links:

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/prop-8-trial-witness-being-gay-not.html

Prop 8 trial witness: Being gay not a choice - Psychologist testifies in case challenging California’s gay marriage ban – AP - January 22, 2010 – msnbc.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Sexual orientation can be fluid, but the vast majority of people have identities that are consistently heterosexual, gay or bisexual throughout most of their lives, a social psychologist testified Friday in a trial challenging California's gay marriage ban.

Lawyers for two same-sex couples suing to overturn the voter-enacted ban called University of California, Davis researcher Gregory Herek as their final expert witness to bolster their argument that sexual orientation cannot be easily changed.

The point is central to the plaintiffs' effort to show that gays deserve the same judicial protection as racial and ethnic minorities.

The trial, which ended its ninth day, is the first in a federal court to consider whether state bans on gay marriages are unconstitutional. Read more:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35014696

Facts About Sexual Orientation

 Dr. Gregory Herek,

University of California at Davis &

Yale University & City University of New York

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts.html

Sexual Orientation: Science, Education, and Policy

 Dr. Gregory Herek,

University of California at Davis &

Yale University & City University of New York

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/useful_links.html

Sexual Orientation: Science, Education, and Policy

Dr. Gregory Herek

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/index.html

On Prop 8, it's the evidence, stupid

 By Lisa Bloom – CNN.com

and

related links:

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/on-prop-8-its-evidence-stupid-by-lisa_18.html

Gay Marriage -> Restores “Hope of Love”

To Children In Early Childhood

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/gay-marriage-restores-hope-of-love-to.html

Gay marriage - Sexual orientation

is less about sex and more about love, being one with another human being

Attachment Theory - LOVE & RELIGION

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/gay-marriage-sexual-orientation-is-less_3483.html

“Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well considered and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.” Erik Erikson

Rhode Island Is Ready for Marriage Equality - by Michael A. Jones – Gay Rights – Change.org

Five states. That's how many places in the country currently recognize same-sex marriage -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire -- as well as the District of Columbia. California, as we all know, is a bit up in the air, pending the appeal process for the Proposition 8 court case.

But beyond these states, where are the next battlegrounds for marriage equality?

One of them is most definitely going to be Rhode Island, once a new Governor takes over after the November 2010 election. That means that in Rhode Island, marriage equality may be just a few mere months away.

And you know what? That couldn't be cooler with Rhode Island's citizenry. At least that's according to a new poll issued by the Rhode Island Marriage Coalition, along with the legal group Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), and the polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. They note that in the past two years, support for same-sex marriage in Rhode Island has skyrocketed, to the point where a full 59 percent of the state's population favor legalizing marriage equality for LGBT people.

Read more:
http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/rhode_island_is_ready_for_marriage_equality

Gay rights groups set out positions on marriage equality - PinkNews.co.uk

After a PinkNews.co.uk poll showed high support for opening up civil marriage to gay couples, we asked UK gay rights groups to set out their views on the issue.

Civil partnerships give gay couples all the rights of marriage, although they may not currently be held in religious settings. The coalition government is exploring how faiths can be given the option of holding them.

However, the majority of gay rights groups support changing the law to allow both gay and straight couples the option of choosing marriages or civil partnerships.

Read more:
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/08/18/gay-rights-groups-set-out-positions-on-marriage-equality/

Sexual Orientation: Science, Education, and Policy - Dr. Gregory Herek, University of California at Davis & Yale University & City University of New York

This site features work by Dr. Gregory Herek, an internationally recognized authority on sexual prejudice (also called homophobia), hate crimes, and AIDS stigma. It provides factual information to promote the use of scientific knowledge for education and enlightened public policy related to sexual orientation and HIV/AIDS.

Internet Resources and Useful Links

Science & Professional Links

Polls, Surveys, & Other Research Studies

Hate Crimes and Antigay Violence Links

Families, Marriage and Relationships

HIV/AIDS Links

Law, Public Policy & Human Rights Links

Education Links

Lesbian & Gay Resources and Organizations

Read more:

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/useful_links.html

Sexual Orientation: Science, Education, and Policy - Dr. Gregory Herek

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/index.html

Prop 8, Judge Walker and the Biblical View of Marriage Equality - Rita Nakashima Brock, Ph. D. – The Huffington Post

Director, Faith Voices for the Common Good

Judge Vaughn Walker's decision to allow resumption of legal same-sex weddings in California has right-wing Christians claiming his ruling against Proposition 8 threatens "Bible believing Christians." I've read the Bible pretty carefully myself (I read it cover to cover when I was in high school) and even taught it as a college professor. It is not a source I'd turn to in order to defend traditional marriage, but I think it does offer ways to think about ethical marriage.

The Bible presents multiple views of marriage, and most actual marriages it depicts are terrible by modern standards. "Traditional marriages" in ancient biblical times were arranged as transfers of the ownership of daughters. The tenth commandment lists wives among properties like houses and slaves: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor" (Exodus 20:17, also found in Deuteronomy 5:21). Marriages occurred via deception, kidnapping, adulterous seductions, theft, rape, and murder, and were often in multiples so that the pater familias could amass land, flocks, and progeny and cement political alliances. Abraham, David, and Solomon had marriages that would be illegal today. The book of Hosea likens the mercy of God to a husband who has the right to beat or kill his adulterous wife, but spares her -- for this, she was supposed to be grateful. When women seek marriages, such as Naomi arranged for Ruth, it was to avoid an even worse fate such as destitution…

…A number of Christian groups in California, as well as Reformed Jews and Unitarian Universalists, would agree. Prop 8 denied us our religious freedom by prohibiting us from authorizing same-sex marriages, but, even worse, it denied the basic human right of marriage to a group of people based on unfounded biases about their sexual orientation. Same-sex couples, like heterosexual couples, offer each other love, companionship, and a stable family environment for raising children. If marriage is good for society, and equality is the ethical basis for marriage, then gender difference is irrelevant. Marriage equality is good for everyone, including Bible-believing Christians. Read complete article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rita-nakashima-brock-ph-d/judge-walker-and-the-bibl_b_682595.html

Director, Faith Voices for the Common Good

http://www.faithvoices.org/

Director
Rita Nakashima Brock, Ph.D.: Award-winning author and a respected international scholar in religion; from 1997-2001 directed a think tank for women at Harvard University; has worked for over two decades in the field of religion in higher education and served on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Religion and on national boards of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ. Read more:

http://www.faithvoices.org/membership.html

Facts About Sexual Orientation - Dr. Gregory Herek, University of California at Davis & Yale University & City University of New York

Policy makers and members of the public are routinely confronted with questions about lesbians and gay men. Are they mentally ill? Do so-called conversion therapies change sexual orientation? Are homosexuals more likely than heterosexuals to molest children?

Such questions arise from long-standing cultural stereotypes that depict lesbians and gay men as immoral, criminal, sick, and drastically different from what society considers "normal."

A considerable body of social science data now is available to answer such questions and to separate falsehood from fact. The following links provide an overview of social science theory and empirical research concerning sexual orientation.

Facts About Homosexuality and Mental Health

Facts About Changing Sexual Orientation

Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation

Paul Cameron's Research

Bibliography for Facts About Sexual Orientation

Abstracts for selected publications

Read more:

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts.html

Recent postings and updates:

Beyond Homophobia, Dr. Herek's Blog:

http://www.beyondhomophobia.com/blog/

NPR Ombudsman: Unfair Coverage Of Prop. 8 Judge – Joe Strupp – Media Matters for America

NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard wrote in a column this week that coverage of Federal Judge Vaughn Walker, who ruled against California's Proposition 8 anti-same-sex marriage ballot measure, has been incomplete.

Particularly, she noted, is reference to Vaughn being gay, which she says often contains no verification:

Saying matter-of-factly that Walker is gay, without his confirmation, violates NPR's policy against publishing or airing rumors, allegations or reports about private lives of anyone unless there is a compelling news reason to do so. Read more:

http://mediamatters.org/strupp/201008180023

Bloomberg defends Fenty on gay marriage – by Lou Chibbaro Jr. – Washington Blade

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he would tell D.C. residents who oppose Mayor Adrian Fenty’s re-election bid because Fenty signed a law legalizing same-sex marriage that government should not interfere with any citizen’s right to marry.

Bloomberg talked about the same-sex marriage issue during a Washington news conference Tuesday in which he endorsed Fenty’s re-election bid.

“They have a right to believe what they want to believe,” Bloomberg said of same-sex marriage opponents. “But just as with religious freedom, I do not believe it’s the government’s business to get involved in family lives, particularly when no one gets hurt. And I think you should have a right to marry anybody you want, love anybody you want. It seems to me it is just as basic a right as everything else. Period. End of story.” Read more:

http://www.washingtonblade.com/2010/08/17/bloomberg-defends-fenty-on-gay-marriage/

On Prop 8, it's the evidence, stupid - By Lisa Bloom – CNN.com

and

related links:

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/on-prop-8-its-evidence-stupid-by-lisa_18.html

Gay Marriage -> Restores “Hope of Love”

To Children In Early Childhood

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/gay-marriage-restores-hope-of-love-to.html

Gay marriage - Sexual orientation 

is less about sex and more about love, being one with another human being 

Attachment Theory - LOVE & RELIGION 

http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/08/gay-marriage-sexual-orientation-is-less_3483.html

“Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well considered and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.” Erik Erikson