Religious Left

1/23/2009 - 1 hr GayTalk at 9 AM (PST). Call in during the live show (347) 237-5246 otherwise call voicemail at (360) 283-5052 or send me email tom@2015Place.com . Today I'll talk about the Academy Awards, Obama axing Dybul, polygamy in Canada, Catholic taxes in San Francisco, gays in Iran and more. Click here to listen. I have started a new project to create a dedicated LGBT Channel/Station. To hear more about this, click here . Donations and or sponsors are welcome. Please click here to donate. All the best to you and yours.

Another year and another fair. Sunday, September 28th will mark 25 years for the Folsom Street Fair. Last year the Folsom Streen Fair made headlines with the "Last Supper" photo. Find out more about this years Fair at their website . Anti-Folsom religious groups are already on their way to protest.

by Matthai Kuruvila, Religion Writer San Francisco Chronicle Members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have for decades been struggling to come to a consensus about the role of gays and lesbians in the church. And they just can't make up their mind. The church allows the blessing of same-sex unions, but defines homosexual acts as sinful and won't ordain partnered lesbian or gay candidates for priesthood. They're steadfast in opposition to same-sex marriage - but vindicate priests who preside over them, saying church-approved marriages can't exist no matter what priests do or say. "Sadly enough, I think within my own denomination, the state has been a much more powerful witness than the church has," said Rev. W. Rob Martin III, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto, which has welcomed and blessed same-sex couples for nearly 20 years. "It's my fervent hope that with movement in civil society my denomination will catch up with that." fu...

By Howard Mintz, Mary Anne Ostrom and Mike Swift The Mercury News Did it begin in a furtive San Francisco apartment in the 1950s, or with a young girl's struggle to understand the concept of love in the '90s, or at President Bush's 2004 State of the Union speech? The national struggle over gay marriage is taking a momentous turn this week with the first legal same-sex weddings in California. Those weddings could advance full marriage equality for gays and lesbians. Or those ceremonies could, as opponents say, mark a first step toward California voters preserving traditional marriage in November. Whichever fork history chooses, this will be an emotional week for California: Dozens of weddings that begin at 5:01 p.m. Monday will multiply into thousands of marriages across the state Tuesday. Here are six stories of the people who had profound influence in bringing California to this crossroad. full article

by Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer When same-sex marriages start at 5 p.m. June 16, San Francisco will stage a repeat of the ceremony that started the 2004 Winter of Love, when thousands of gay and lesbian couples married at City Hall. This time, though, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon's wedding will be legal. Mayor Gavin Newsom said Monday that the ceremony, which he will officiate, will be the only one held in City Hall that day. Martin and Lyon have been together more than five decades, and they were the first couple to marry four years ago. Lyon and Martin first met in Seattle in 1950 and moved in together in a Castro Street apartment on Valentine's Day 1953. Two years later, Lyon and Martin, and three other lesbian couples founded the Daughters of Bilitis, which historians call the first lesbian organization in the United States. Lyon and Martin have been leaders of the lesbian community ever since. full article

By LISA LEFF Associated Press Writer The Mercury News - Silicon Valley SAN FRANCISCO—Drew Snyder and William Ballentine had a commitment ceremony with all the trimmings four years ago, the closest they could get to a wedding at the time. Now that California's highest court has held that two men can get legally married starting later this month, friends want to know when the Los Angeles couple plans to take their relationship to the next level. The answer: Not any time soon. No thanks, concluded Ballentine and Snyder. Better to wait until after the fall election, when they will know whether their fellow citizens will take away what the court has given. full article

By AMANDA FEHD, Associated Press Writer San Francisco Chronicle San Francisco, CA (AP) - As same-sex couples prepare to wed later this month, at least one county clerk in California's conservative Central Valley is preparing to sidestep the state high court's legalization of gay marriage by shutting down marriage ceremonies. In fact, two Central Valley county clerks — Kern County's Ann Barnett and Merced County's Stephen Jones — issued statements this week stating they will issue the new gender-neutral marriage licenses as required by law on June 17, but refused to preside over any of the ceremonies, citing space and staff constraints. full article

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff (San Francisco, California) The California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on May 28 in the case of woman who was denied fertility treatments because she is a lesbian and was not married. The case began in 2001 when Guadalupe Benitez filed suit against Drs. Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton after they refused to artificially inseminate her claiming to do so would violate their religious beliefs. full article

Actor and Buddhist Richard Gere joins Tibetan monks during a rally in United Nations Plaza Tuesday, April 8 to protest China's human rights record ahead of Wednesday's Olympic torch relay in San Francisco. The 2008 Olympics are set to be held in Beijing in August, but thousands of people angry at China's policies in Tibet, Sudan, and in its own country have disrupted the torch relay as it passed through London and Paris earlier this week. full article

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is scheduled to give a historic 30-minute address to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex community at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on Tuesday, April 8. He is expected to address a crowd of approximately 400 people at “A Celebration of Courage,” the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission’s annual gala awards ceremony. It will mark the first time that Tutu has directly addressed such a large LGBTI gathering in the United States, according to the IGLHRC. Tutu will also be honored for his leadership on human rights. Paula Ettelbrick, IGLHRC’s executive director, said, “Archbishop Tutu is a true human rights activist, someone who acknowledges that all human beings are inherently valuable and deserve to be treated with respect.” "If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn’t worship that God,” he said in a 2007 interview with BBC radio. He has challenged the church for “being almost obsessed with questions of human sexuality” ...

In response to such articles as: click here The "Sisters" have come out with their own press release Sadly, while the Sisters participated in the celebration, others not there to worship secretly filmed and photographed the Mass hoping to spark a controversy and cast the parishioners of Most Holy Redeemer and the Archbishop in a negative light. These professional muckrakers then gave the photos to an anti-gay Fundamentalist Catholic Website which in turn sent them to right-wing media outlets who willfully distorted the facts for political gain. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are appalled that some media outlets have unwittingly spread these distortions while others have intentionally taken advantage to fuel a mean-spirited and divisive political agenda. These forces have been critical of Most Holy Redeemer for their welcoming approach to the diverse community they serve and have frequently seen fit to attack the parishioners as part of a larger campaign against "San...

Speaking at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church said Sunday that there would be no backing down on support for gay and lesbian unions . Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church said that while they did not turn back their decision to consecrate Robinson, they did agree to “exercise restraint” on allowing more gay bishops or authorizing public rites of blessing to same-sex marriages. The promise is not an outright ban and has been rejected as inadequate by some conservatives. "We live in the hope that there will be full inclusion. It's not universally true in the house of bishops, but it certainly expresses the view of many," said Schori. She added that she’s not worried that some bishops will strike out on their own. "Individuals have come and gone from the Episcopal Church forever," she said. Ever since Robinson's election, theological conservatives in the U.S. have been t...