Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Obama treading carefully on gay issues in 2012 bid

New York: President Barack Obama has delivered important political victories for gays but is unlikely to push his support for gay rights much further before the 2012 election in case he alienates independent voters.

Gay leaders will likely give Obama high marks at a fundraiser in New York on Thursday for pushing through issues like winning gays the right to serve openly in the military.

Yet calls for the White House to back gay marriage and strengthen federal anti-discrimination protection will probably go unheeded as Obama treads carefully in the run-up to next November's election.
Obama treading carefully on gay issues in 2012 bid

"The conundrum Obama faces is keeping this essential core constituency while not going overboard and alienating the high-intensity opponents of that constituency," said pollster John Zogby of IBOPE Zogby International. "His challenge is to continue to play it cool and not to go overboard."

Independent voters, seen as less likely to back gay causes, will be crucial in winning closely contested states such as Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Indiana and Wisconsin.

With the economy in trouble, the election is shaping up as a tighter race for Obama than his 2008 victory and he must keep key voting groups on board.

Evangelicals mostly vote Republican, but Obama took 30 per cent of their votes in 2008 and he cannot afford to lose them, Zogby said. African Americans voted 95 per cent for Obama in 2008 and heavily oppose gay marriage, he said.

Among Latinos, which Obama won in 2008, 40 per cent call themselves social conservatives.

By contrast, the gay vote is small although influential. A CNN exit poll from 2008 showed 4 per cent of voters were gay, lesbian or bisexual and 70 per cent of them voted for Obama. Another reckoning puts gays at 7 per cent of voters.

Boston University political science department chair Professor Graham Wilson said Obama will want to keep his gay constituencies sweet because they have high incomes, making them a potentially strong fundraising group.

"So long as Obama maintains his reasonably OK record on gay issues and Republicans continue to be identified with fairly aggressive anti-gay sentiments, there is not much doubt as to where the gay vote goes," Wilson said.

Many in the gay community praise Obama for ending the "don't ask don't tell" policy banning gays from openly serving in the military and for instructing the Justice Department to stop defending a law banning federal recognition of same-sex unions.

But many are annoyed that he has not backed gay marriage, seeing his "evolving" position on the issue as a cop-out. They also want sexual orientation added to federal discrimination statutes.

"So far it's a mixed bag," said Richard Socarides, head of the national gay-rights group Equality Matters.

"People believe his heart is in the right place. He's especially attractive when you consider the alternative," he said.

Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod said the president has made "historic progress" on gay issues and that his record stands in stark contrast to what would happen if Republicans were to win in the 2012 presidential election.

"I don't in any way doubt there are those who don't feel like progress has been made fast enough," Axelrod told MSNBC this week. "There is going to be a fundamental choice to be made in the next election and I think that choice will be clear to everyone and will be a galvanizing choice."

Politics Professor Ken Sherrill at Hunter College in New York City said Obama has made many small advances in gay rights such as requiring that hospitals taking federal money allow gays the right to visit their partners in hospital.

"The objections to Obama are more questions of the pace of change and the visibility of change," Sherrill said.

But Dan Weiller, of Empire State Pride Agenda which is lobbying this week in Albany for gay marriage in New York state, said gays should understand Obama's pragmatic approach.

"We recognize that for the president there are certain political realities," he said.

Marjorie Hill, chief executive of Gay Men's Health Crisis, America's oldest Gay AIDS service group, said she supported Obama financially in 2008 and will again in 2012.

"Anyone can talk the talk, but walking the walk does take longer," she said. "Being in office for two and a half years, there have been amazing strides."

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

2EROS underwear







Look What I Found!!!

Federal court upholds gay judge’s ruling on California gay marriage ban


A US federal court has upheld a ruling by a gay judge that California’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional.

This is the latest round in a long legal battle over the issue.

US District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled in August 2010 that the ban should be lifted. In the following months, it emerged that he was gay and in a long-term relationship.

Opponents of gay marriage complained that as a gay man, he had a conflict of interest. They claimed he planned to marry his partner but could show no evidence for this.

Chief US District Judge James Ware ruled yesterday that the fact Judge Walker is in a relationship would not make him “so interested in marrying the person that he would be unable to exhibit the impartiality which, it is presumed, all federal judges maintain”.

The ruling means gay marriage campaigners in the state are one step closer to reaching their goal.

After Judge Walker’s ruling last year, opponents applied – and won – a stay while they appealed the decision.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeal is currently considering that decision but says it will not make a ruling until the state Supreme Court rules on whether gay marriage opponents have the legal standing to appeal the original judgement.

New York ‘close to legalising gay marriage’


New York is reportedly on the brink of marriage equality after another Republican senator said yesterday he would support the move.

Governor Andrew Cuomo introduced the legislation in both houses yesterday.

With the new support of Sen Roy McDonald, 31 out of 62 Senate members are expected to back it, leaving the bill in need of just one more vote.

Another Republican and three Democrats have also said they will back the bill after opposing gay marriage in the past.

In the Democrat-controlled Assembly, which has backed gay marriage a number of times, the bill is expected to pass.

Mr Cuomo has said before that he will not introduce a bill until he is sure it will succeed. A gay marriage bill suffered a surprise defeat in 2009 after support levels were overestimated.

This bill does not offer protection to individuals who refuse to officiate or provide services to gay weddings. However, religious groups are not obliged to perform the ceremonies.

If the bill passes, it will come into law 30 days after Mr Cuomo signs the legislation, making New York the sixth US state to allow gay couples to marry.

Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington DC currently have marriage equality.

California’s ban is under review

Protest held at Northern Ireland ‘gay cure’ conference


Around 50 gay activists held a protest today outside a small ‘gay cure’ conference held in Northern Ireland.

The event, held by the Core Issues Group, featured David Pickup, an American speaker who says gay people can be turned straight.

The protesters gathered outside Belvoir Church of Ireland earlier today with placards bearing messages such as ‘your cure kills’.

Mr Pickup told the BBC: “I don’t cure anybody – The client always determines if there are root causes for homosexuality.

“I don’t force anybody or cure anybody – a client naturally spontaneously grows into his authentic heterosexual self.”

John O’Doherty, director of the Rainbow Project, responded: “It is the same ridiculous comments we have been hearing for 30 years that gay people are gay because they have had an overbearing mother and an absent father and quite often that they are sexual abuse cases.

“We are here to tell the people who are attending and the wider public that there is real therapy and real support here in Northern Ireland from a gay affirmative approach which will help people be the best person they can and also reinforce with them that being gay is not something to be ashamed of.”

Belvoir Church said it had nothing to do with the conference and occasionally allows other groups to use the space.

French parliament rejects gay marriage bill


The French parliament has rejected a bill designed to give gay couples the right to marry.

Today, lawmakers voted by 293 votes to 222 to block the bill, which was not expected to pass.

In January, the country’s constitutional court upheld the ban on gay marriage after a challenge from a lesbian couple.

Corinne Cestino and Sophie Hasslauer, who have lived together for 15 years and have four children, asked for the right to marry but were turned down by the Constitutional Council.

The court ruled that the ban did not breach the French constitution and said it was up to parliament whether to change the law.

France has had PACS since 1999. The civil unions are available to straight and gay couples but do not give all the rights of marriage.

A survey published on the day of the court verdict by TNS Sofres showed that 58 per cent of 950 respondents were in favour of gay marriage and 35 per cent were against.

In 2006, the same agency found that only 45 per cent of respondents agreed with giving gay couples the right to marry.

Seven European states – Norway, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden and Iceland – allow gay couples to marry.

Others, such as the UK and Germany, allow civil partnerships or unions.