Thursday, January 20, 2011
The Dallas Morning News Will NOT Publish Same Sex Marriage Announcements
A gay Dallas couple, Mark Reed-Walkup and Dante Walkup, have been trying like heck to get their paid same-sex wedding announcement into the Weddings section of the Dallas Morning News, the city's largest paper and one of the bigger dailies in the country. But the paper won't allow it. Why?Because according to the paper's official policy, since the state of Texas doesn't recognize gay marriage, there's no reason for the Dallas Morning News to recognize same-sex weddings as legitimate either. What a shame, and what a missed opportunity for such a respectable paper to set a precedent for other publications around the country.
The logic behind the Dallas Morning News' wedding policy is pretty squishy. Around the country, countless newspapers and publications print same-sex wedding announcements in their Weddings section, even if their respective states don't recognize marriage equality. There's the New York Times. There's the Philadelphia Inquirer. There's even the Omaha World-Herald in Nebraska, which has a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage.
The Dallas Morning News could join the ranks of these papers, and not segregate same-sex couples under a different label that flies in the face of their legal marriage (after all, we're talking about same-sex couples who get married in the five states, or the District of Columbia, where same-sex marriage is legal). But so far, they haven't.
Mark Reed-Walkup told Change.org that pushing same-sex couples into a different section, or calling their legal marriages just "commitments," is another example of how same-sex couples are made to feel 'less than' in our culture.
"Placing a paid same-sex wedding announcement in any other section but Weddings is 'less than,' as well as false advertisement," Mark said. And he's right.
That's one of the reasons why Mark and his husband have filed a discrimination complaint with the city of Dallas, arguing that the Dallas Morning News' current policy of keeping same-sex couples out of the Weddings section violates the city's nondiscrimination ordinance regarding public accommodations. It's a unique take on anti-discrimination law, and should play out in the coming weeks with interesting results.
"Our ultimate goal is to raise awareness about how this is blatant discrimination and send a clear message to the Dallas Morning News," Mark added. Spoken like a dedicated LGBT activist (it's no wonder that Mark is a board member of GetEqual, the direct action organization that has managed to shake things up on a federal, state and local level for LGBT equality).
Lend your voice to this campaign, and help push the Dallas Morning News in the direction of recognizing all of their readers -- whether they're in heterosexual relationships or same-sex relationships -- equally. After all, the Dallas Morning News does seem willing to recognize same-sex anniversaries. Shouldn't they be willing to recognize same-sex weddings with as much dignity, too?
The South Shall Rise Again!...WOW
According to a study of data released by the U.S. Census, there are more gay couples raising children in the southern states than in urban states more traditionally considered to be gay hot spots. Child rearing among same-sex couples is more common in the South than in any other region of the country, according to Gary Gates, a demographer at the University of California, Los Angeles. Gay couples in Southern states like Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas are more likely to be raising children than their counterparts on the West Coast, in New York and in New England. The pattern, identified by Mr. Gates, is also notable because the families in this region defy the stereotype of a mainstream gay America that is white, affluent, urban and living in the Northeast or on the West Coast.
One theory for the result is that southern blacks and Latinos may be more likely to have been in a heterosexual marriage with children prior to coming out.
provided by joemygod.blogspot.com
12 Step program provided by The Colorado Cath. Diocese...REALLY?
The Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs has begun offering a 12-step program for homosexuals. The program is called the Twelve Steps Of Courage.
“It’s not about therapy and not about activism,” said the Rev. Larry Brennan, diocese director of priest formation. “It’s about support.” The Catholic Church views homosexual relations as a sin, but not homosexual thoughts. It expects those with same-sex attraction to be celibate. “The exercise of sexuality is reserved for marriage, and that can only happen between a man and a woman,” Brennan said. Jim Fitzgerald, executive director of Call to Action, a national progressive Catholic group headquartered in Chicago, is skeptical of Twelve Steps of Courage because he contends homosexuality isn’t sinful. “It restricts people’s freedom to be the kind of person they were created to be,” Fitzgerald said of Courage. But Brennan says the program is not for people comfortable with their gay lifestyle.
And here are the Twelve Steps Of Courage, which ask participants to agree that they are insane and defective.
1. We admitted that we were powerless over homosexuality and our lives had become unmanageable.*
2. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of our character.
7. We humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make direct amends to them all.
9. We made the direct amends to such people whenever possible except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for the knowledge of God's Will for us and the power to carry it out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
ALL I CAN SAY ABOUT THIS IS, REALLY?
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