DENMARK – The country’s parliament voted through the new law on same-sex marriage by a large majority, making it mandatory for all churches to conduct gay marriages.
Denmark’s church minister, Manu Sareen, called the vote “historic”.
“I think it’s very important to give all members of the church the possibility to get married. Today, it’s only heterosexual couples.”
Under the law, individual priests can refuse to carry out the ceremony, but the local bishop must arrange a replacement for their church.
The far-Right Danish People’s Party mounted a strong campaign against the new law, which nonetheless passed with the support of 85 of the country’s 111 MPs.
“Marriage is as old as man himself, and you can’t change something as fundamental,” the party’s church spokesperson Christian Langballe said during the debate. “Marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman.”
Karsten Nissen, the Bishop of Viborg, who is refusing to carry out the ceremonies, has warned that the new law risks “splitting the church”.
“The debate has been really tough,” said Mr Sareen, an agnostic who has pushed hard for the legislation since taking his post last autumn.
“The minority among Danish people, politicians and priests who are against, they’ve really shouted out loud throughout the process.”
The first gay marriages will take place as soon as June 15. This contrasts with neighbouring Norway, where bishops are still debating the correct ‘ritual’ for the ceremonies, four years after a 2008 parliamentary vote in favour of gay marriage.
Stig Elling, a travel industry millionaire and former Right-wing politician, said he planned to marry his partner of 28 years next week.
“We have felt a little like we were living in the Middle Ages,” he told Denmark’s TV2 station. “I think it is positive that there is now a majority for it, and that there are so many priests and bishops who are in favour of it, and that the Danish population supports up about it. We have moved forward. It’s 2012.”
Denmark has been a pioneer in gay rights since 1989, when it became the first country in the world to offer civil unions for gay couples.
from The Telegraph UK

Wade Davis

A corner back who spent four preseasons with three NFL teams and also played in NFL Europe has come out as gay, joining a small but growing number of former athletes who are publicly acknowledging they are gays or lesbians.
Wade Davis, who played in college at Weber State and spent the 2000 and 2002 preseasons with the Tennessee Titans, said he didn’t tell his teammates he was gay because he feared the impact it would have in the locker room. Jevon Kearse and Samari Rolle were among his closest friends on the Titans, and he would later be invited to Rolle’s wedding.
“You just want to be one of the guys, and you don’t want to lose that sense of family,” Davis said in an interview with Outsports.com. “Your biggest fear is that you’ll lose that camaraderie and family.”
But Kearse said he doesn’t think Davis being openly gay would have changed anything.
“I know there have been a lot more than just Wade,” Kearse told Outsports. “It’s just becoming more acceptable, which is a good thing so they can come out and not feel secluded.”
While there has yet to be an openly gay player in any of the four major American professional leagues, several players have come out after retiring, including former NBA forward John Amaechi, NFL lineman Esera Tuaolo and major leaguer Billy Bean. Rick Welts, president and chief operating officer of the Golden State Warriors, is openly gay.
Davis’ football career ended in 2003, after he got hurt in training camp. He is now a staff member at the Hetrick-Martin Institute in New York, which serves, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth.
from The Associated Press

NEW YORK – An HIV-positive man who admitted to biting a police officer attempting to arrest him had his aggravated assault conviction overturned on Thursday by New York’s top court, which ruled the man’s saliva did not qualify as a deadly weapon.
The Court of Appeals, in throwing out the conviction of David Plunkett, ruled that body parts, saliva or anything that “comes with” a person cannot be considered deadly weapons under state law. In New York, aggravated assault requires the use of a “deadly weapon or dangerous instrument.”
In 2006 the staff at a medical clinic in Ilion, about 70 miles east of Syracuse, called police to complain that Plunkett, a patient at the clinic, was causing a disturbance. Police said Plunkett, who had a history of mental illness, punched and bit one of the responding officers, according to court documents.
Herkimer County Court Judge Patrick Kirk in 2007 denied Plunkett’s motion to dismiss the aggravated-assault charge, ruling that while Plunkett’s teeth could not be considered a deadly weapon, his saliva could.
Plunkett pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In 2010, the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, found that by pleading guilty, Plunkett had forfeited his right to appeal.
The Court of Appeals on Thursday disagreed, finding that Plunkett could not have been guilty of aggravated assault because he did not possess a deadly weapon.
“A defendant can admit facts, but cannot by his or her admission mint an offense for which the law does not already provide,” Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman wrote in a unanimous decision.
Plunkett argued on appeal that under state law, only substances that are “readily capable of causing death or other serious physical injury” can be considered deadly weapons.
The court on Thursday declined to weigh in on whether HIV can be spread through biting.
A number of studies have found saliva does not contain sufficient concentrations of HIV to transmit the virus to other people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “contact with saliva alone has never been shown to result in transmission of HIV.”
Scott Schoettes, the HIV Project director for national gay-rights group Lambda Legal, said Thursday’s ruling is the first in the country to state explicitly that no body part or fluid can be considered a deadly weapon.
“It’s an important step forward” for HIV-positive people, said Schoettes, who wrote a brief on behalf of Plunkett. A contrary ruling, he added, would “criminalize HIV.”
Herkimer County Acting District Attorney Jeffrey Carpenter said that Plunkett had also attempted to defecate, urinate and bleed on the officers and “taunted them with the fact that he had HIV.”
“No one was seeking to punish (Plunkett) because he has HIV,” Carpenter said, “but because he intentionally tried to infect another human being with that disease.”
He said he was concerned that Thursday’s decision could endanger police, emergency medical workers and medical professionals, and that he would push for legislation that would make it a crime to intentionally spread a communicable disease.
Plunkett’s attorney, Audrey Baron Dunning, denied that her client had tried to infect the officers and said the ruling “is in line with the medical and scientific communities.”
from Reuters
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Kirk Cameron

NEPTUNE TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY – To some, the name Kirk Cameron brings back memories of Seaver Fever, Boner Stabone and Alan Thicke’s coiffure.
But in recent months, some have also linked the former star of the 1980s sitcom “Growing Pains” to a more serious subject: homophobia.
In March, Cameron, an evangelical Christian, told Piers Morgan on his CNN TV show that he believes homosexuality is “unnatural” and “destructive to many of the foundations of civilization.”
An Ocean Grove-based human rights organization now wants the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association to disinvite Cameron from two speaking engagements at the Great Auditorium this July.
Allowing Cameron to speak would reflect poorly on Ocean Grove and on the association, which owns all the land in the community, said Harriet Bernstein, co-chair of Ocean Grove United.
“If someone had made a racist or anti-Semitic remark, would you want to be sponsoring that individual?” Bernstein said.
The association’s board of trustees plans to meet sometime later this month to vote on whether they still want Cameron to speak at the beginning of Camp Meeting Week, an annual celebration of the Methodist organization’s history, said Dale Whilden, its president.
In recent weeks, association officials met with members of the community who oppose Cameron’s visit, Whilden said. Officials also plan to meet behind closed doors with those who support his visit, Whilden said.
“We want to do our best to make a decision that will be respectful to all the people in the community,” Whilden said.
Cameron appeared in the Great Auditorium last year, speaking on the importance of marriage, Whilden said. Cameron is scheduled to touch on the same subject on July 27, for which tickets are selling for $25 to $35. Two days later, the actor is scheduled to speak during a service.
Randy Bishop, the mayor of Neptune Township, which Ocean Grove is a part of, said he would be disappointed if Cameron were to bring his “hate speech” to the community.
“I’m sorry that he’s going to be here,” said Bishop, who himself is gay. “Bringing a lot of emphasis to this just helps (Cameron) sell his books. Whether he is disinvited or not, it seems no one wins except Kirk Cameron.”
Cameron and his manager, Mark Craig, could not be reached for comment.
In the meantime, both those opposed and supportive of Cameron’s visit are urging community members to contact the association and express their views via letters or emails.
Homosexuals who preach tolerance are being hypocritical by demanding that someone they disagree with not be allowed to speak, said Pastor Robert Turton of the Gospel Mission Corps, a Hightstown-based organization.
“Kirk Cameron has something to say,” Turton said. “If people don’t want to hear it, they should stay away.”
from The Asbury Park Press
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