Gay Marriage in New York

Tonight, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a gay marriage bill that will bring Gay Marriage to the state of New York in 30 days. A crush of gay weddings are expected, reports MSNBC.

New York will be the sixth state where Gay Marriage will be legal. The other states are Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Washington, D.C. also allows Gay Marriages.

USA Today reports that a key vote, to pass the bill in the New York Senate, came from Catholic State Senator Mark Grisanti. The story quotes Grisanti as saying that although "he was raised to believe marriage is between a man and woman, he could not 'legally come up with an argument against same-sex marriage . . . .'"

To read the USA Today story, click here.

To read the MSNBC story, click here.

For additional coverage, click on the links below.

To read CNN's coverage, click here.
To read the Washington Post's coverage, click here.

Gay Dad's on Father's Day

On a day honoring fathers, CBS News had as a major item a story entitled "Two Dads' Top 10 Things learned from their child." The story lists 10 items a gay couple mentions they have learned by having an adopted daughter.

To read the full CBS News story, click here.

Bullying of Against Gay-Rights Opponents

Are individuals opposed to gay-rights being subjected to discrimination or bullying? This is the question addressed by a recent Fox News article. The article quotes Jim Campbell, attorney for the Alliance Defense fund as saying that gay-rights groups advocate "for a lot of changes in the name of tolerance . . . yet ironically the tolerance is not returned, for people of faith who don't agree with their agenda."

Conversely, Evan Wolfson, president of pro-same-sex marriage group Freedom to Marry says that arguments such as Campbell's are "diversions, scare tactics and . . . playing the victim."

Fox news reports several instances where individuals or firms have been targeted because of their disagreement with same-sex marriage: Peter Vidmar stepped down as chief of mission of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, state Sen. Ruben Dias (D) has received death threats, and law firm King & Spalding terminated its service to U.S. House of Representatives Republicans seeking to defend the federal ban on same-sex marriage.

Read the complete Fox News story here.

1970s Therapy for 'Sissy' Boy Destroyed His Life

In the 1970s, Kirk Murphy was treated at UCLA because his parents were concerned his behavior was too feminine. The four-year-old underwent experimental treatment conducted largely by George A. Rekers who was a doctoral student at the time. Although Rekers concluded that after the treatment Kirk's feminine behavior was gone and he was like any normal boy, Kirk's siblings say that he was never a happy person again. Kirk's mother believes the treatment ruined his life. In 2003, Kirk committed suicide.

Read the full CNN story here.

Ad Campaign “Raise a Child” puts a Positive Spin on Gay Parenting

In January, the Pop Luck Club launched an ad campaign with the intent of reducing the stigma around gay parenting.

The ads ran in the San Fernando valley, San Gabriel Valley, East Los Angeles, Central Los Angeles, Long Beach, West Los Angeles, and Orange County.

Read the story here.

Visit the Pop Luck Club website here.

Elementary School Students are taught that Gender is a Spectrum

Children and teachers in all grades at Redwood Heights Elementary School in Oakland, California received instruction in anti-bullying from a group called Gender Spectrum. Fox News, reports that Joel Baum, director of education and training for Gender Spectrum, taught that "Gender identity is a spectrum where people can be girls, feel like girls, they feel like boys, they feel like both, or they can feel like neither."

To read the Fox News report, click here.
To read the Advocate.com report of the story, click here.

For the First Time, Most Americans Support Same-Sex Marriages

A new Gallup survey reports that 53% of respondents felt that same-sex marriages should be legally valid. This is a major shift from previous surveys.

...............Should be valid ...............Should not be valid

2011 ..................53%....................................45%
2010 .................44%....................................53%
2009..................40%....................................57%

The shift in opinion appears to be driven by a shift in opinion among those who identify themselves politically as Democrats or Independents.

Read the Gallup report by clicking here.

Intolerance Toward Christian Attitudes

ABC News ran a story today regarding Jennifer Keeton. Ms. Keeton is a graduate student in counseling at Augusta State University in Georgia.

As a Christian, she believes and has shared her belief that a homosexual lifestyle is not in keeping with Biblical teaching.

She has been told by school officials that she was not conforming to professional standards and that she needed to attend a “remediation” program to help her change her views, or she would be dropped from the graduate program.

As tolerance for Lesbians/Gays/Bi-sexuals/Tran-sexuals increases, tolerance for the traditional Christian viewpoint decreases.

To read the ABC News story, click here.

White House Support of Gays and Lesbians

Today, for the first time ever, the White House held a reception to commemorate the Stonewall riots, an event that is frequently cited as the beginning of the Gay rights movement in the United States.

Today's reception, in combination with other events, shows clear Presidential support for Gays and Lesbians. This support is coming not only in the form of rhetoric or pageantry, but through a very significant appointment in the area of education.

Kevin Jennings, the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network has been appointed Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education.

Read more about these events and their implication in our latest TwoMinuteBriefing, available by clicking here, or by visiting www.TwoMinuteBriefing.com.

LDS Church Urged to Reconcile with Gays and Lesbians

Describing themselves as "an organization of LDS Members, former members and others who believe in the equal value of every soul regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or worldly condition," the Committee for Reconciliation has launched a website to petition the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to reconcile with gay and lesbians.

Although the site does indicate that individuals who have been hurt by "mistreatment, misunderstanding, or demonization as a consequence of the LDS church's official policies, actions, and teachings" must reject seeking redress through hostility against the Church, most of message is directed at what they feel Church leaders must do.

Essentially they call upon the Church to disavow its teachings of homosexuality as sin, acknowledge that scriptures have been used out of context to condemn homosexuality, and repudiating reparative practices.

The site, called LDSApology.org clearly seeks an effectual "apology" from the Church.

The website states that they are not anti-Mormon nor are they affiliated or sympathetic to anti-mormon groups or agends, but rather that they simply wish to affirm their "love and devotion to the Christian principles upon which [the] Church was founded."

This sentance implies, of course, that the Church in taking a position against homosexuality, is not abiding by or has strayed from Christin principles.

Whether intentional or not, the Committee for Reconciliation is using the technique known as "jamming" as described in the TwoMinuteBriefing Selling Homosexuality. In this case, the technique is being used to try to substitute feelings of religious conviction and commitment towards the LDS Church with feelings the the Church is bigoted, unreasonable, and hurtful. They do this by emphasizing their love of everyone, while pointing out how hurtful the Church's policies have been.

To access the Committee for Reconciliation website, click here.

To read the Salt Lake Tribune story on the Committee, click here.

To read the Deseret News story on the Committee, click here.