TOP6NEWS - Date 12.2.04

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1-NEWS:  Report on LA Supreme Court arguments
2-NEWS:  MI governor pulls domestic partnership benefits from state contract

3-NEWS: Teacher sues lesbian mom

4-NEWS:  UCC ad makes the news across the country

5-NEWS: Lesbian Methodist minister trial opened

6-OP-ED: 'Misunderestimated' evangelicals

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1-NEWS:  Report on LA Supreme Court arguments

By Susan Finch

In an hour of lively argument Wednesday, the Louisiana Supreme Court heard that dire consequences would follow regardless of how it rules on the "defense of marriage" amendment banning recognition of same-sex unions that voters added to the state Constitution in September.

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2-NEWS: MI governor pulls dp benefits from state contract

Gov. Jennifer Granholm will remove same-sex partner benefits from contracts negotiated with state workers, said an aide, citing a voter-approved amendment to the Michigan Constitution that bans gay marriage "and similar unions."

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3-NEWS: Teacher sues lesbian mom who said son was improperly disciplined

By KEVIN McGILL

A year after a lesbian mother said her son was disciplined in a Lafayette, La., school for merely talking about what the word "gay" means, the teacher at the center of the dispute is fighting back with a lawsuit.

Terry L. Bethea and her husband Kenneth claim in their suit that the mother, Sharon Huff, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and several ACLU employees, publicly made numerous false claims. The Bethea's say they suffered more than $50,000 in damages — including physical and emotional pain and damage to their reputations. They seek a jury trial in the lawsuit filed in state court here by former state Sen. Max Jordan.

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4-NEWS: UCC ad makes the news across the country

Two Networks Bar Religious Commercial

The CBS and NBC television networks have rejected an advertisement for the United Church of Christ that shows two beefy bouncers turning away a gay couple, a Latino woman and a disabled man outside a church.

Officials of the Cleveland-based denomination, which has nearly 6,000 congregations and 1.3 million members, said the 30-second ad is intended to emphasize its inclusiveness. "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we," the ad says.

In a written explanation to the church's ad agency, CBS linked the ad to the issue of same-sex marriage and said it does not accept advertising "on one side of a current controversial issue of public importance."
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5-NEWS:  Lesbian Methodist minister trial opened

Church trial of lesbian minister opens

By Jim Remsen

A high-profile United Methodist Church trial opened yesterday with the prosecution insisting that the church cannot allow non-celibate lesbians to serve as ordained ministers.

Addressing a jury of pastors, the Rev. Thomas Hall said that church rules required them to defrock the Rev. Beth Stroud, an associate pastor at First United Methodist Church of Germantown.

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6-OP-ED: 'Misunderestimated' evangelicals

by Chris Bull

Lord knows I'm not shy about expressing opinions. Yet as I waited at San Francisco's KGO studio on a recent Sunday afternoon, I fidgeted with the microphone and bounced nervously in my chair. I was about to be grilled about the election results and same-sex marriage by David Gold, a conservative talk show host based in Texas.

In the lead-in segment, angry callers denounced "baby killers," "traitors" and "feminized San Francisco men," the latter a pretty good description of yours truly. I imagined an oleaginous Rush Limbaugh-type belittling gay marriage and calling down the wrath of God on my kind and me.

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