The country's two gay-friendly public high schools are safe havens, say gay and lesbian students who have transferred to such campuses after harassment at traditional high schools. While some are concerned the New York and Milwaukee schools segregate LGBT students without addressing the bullying itself, some educators say the schools act as a stopgap to prevent harassed students from dropping out or developing mental-health problems. What do you think? Comment away!
Although some in the Mormon Church believe it has been unfairly singled out for criticism for its role in helping to pass California's marriage ban, the church is unlikely to shy from future political fights, especially involving marriage rights, according to this article. "I think we attempted to work in the process to do what we think is right in society and in the eyes of the Lord," said Clayton Christensen, a Mormon and professor at Harvard Business School. "I don't feel any kind of sense that we made a mistake." ...
An advocacy group formed in response to the passage of California's Proposition 8 is among those calling for a national march in Washington, D.C., to advance the marriage-rights issue. But other veteran activists question whether it's necessary to have yet another national group in the mix and whether Yes on Gay Marriage has the experience to organize a major rally.
On the brink of a split in the global Anglican Communion that no one is eager to enlarge on, the Province of the Southern Cone of South America has become a temporary refuge for conservative bishops from the United States who refuse to countenance the liberal positions taken by the Church in their country.
The crisis began when gay bishops and same-sex unions, including clergy, were accepted in Anglican (or Episcopal) provinces in Canada and the United States. Conservatives who disapproved of these developments fell out with their church communities and sought pastoral oversight from South American provinces, further away geographically but theologically more compatible.
"Nobody (in the Anglican Communion) wants to say let's get a divorce, but when a relationship isn't working, someone has to decide whether or not they stay together, and no one here wants to make the decision," Gregory Venables, the primate (presiding bishop) of the Province of the Southern Cone, which includes the dioceses of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, told IPS.
In 2007, Venables took on pastoral responsibility for the conservative bishops of four dioceses that left the Episcopal Church of the United States of America (ECUSA). "We had certain links, and after talking with (the Archbishop of) Canterbury, we decided to offer them emergency oversight until there is a more solid structure to contain them," he said.
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Young gay people whose parents or guardians responded negatively when they revealed their sexual orientation were more likely to attempt suicide, experience severe depression and use drugs than those whose families accepted the news, according to a new study. MORE
NEW JERSEY has never appeared so close to - and yet so far from - enacting gay marriage. Gov. Jon S. Corzine; Richard J. Codey, the State Senate president; and Joseph J. Roberts Jr., leader of the Democratic-controlled Assembly, have all recently stated publicly that gay marriage is an idea whose time has come. Echoing the sentiments of a state commission report released last month, some state officials said that civil unions - the closest thing to marriage available to gay couples in the state - were woefully inadequate and that the legalization of gay marriage in New Jersey was not a matter of "if" but "when." But with the governor and all 80 members of the Assembly up for re-election in November, most of the officials say the "when" may not be for some time.
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