TOP6NEWS - Date 6.22.05

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1-NEWS: Bush reaffirms FMA support
2-NEWS: Nike supports OR CU bill, vote Thursday
3-NEWS: Canadian govt. still sending mixed signals on ssm vote
4-NEWS: Spanish psychiatrist before Senate: homosexuality 'pathological'
5-NEWS: Episcopal Church affirms ordaining gay clergy
6-FEATURE: Pastor riding unicycle to gather gay narratives
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1-NEWS: Bush reaffirms FMA support

by Paul Johnson 365Gay.com Washington Bureau Chief
Posted: June 21, 2005 
Nashville, Tennessee) President Bush called on Congress Tuesday to pick up the pace and pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
Addressing 11-thousand delegates at the annual Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Bush praised the denomination for its strong "family values" and support for the amendment.
"Building a more compassionate society starts with preserving the source of compassion - the family," Bush told the convention.
"Strong families teach children to live moral lives and help us pass down the values that define a caring society. And Southern Baptists are practicing compassion by defending the family and the sacred institution of marriage. Because marriage is a sacred institution and the foundation of society, it should not be re-defined by local officials and activist judges. For the good of families, children, and society, I support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage."

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2-NEWS: Nike supports OR CU bill, vote Thursday

MICHELLE COLE Oregonian
SALEM -- Nike Inc. on Tuesday announced its support for a civil unions bill just ahead of a historic vote this week in the Oregon Senate.
As senators polished their floor speeches for Thursday's scheduled vote, a bipartisan group worked to rewrite legislation prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment and public services.
"I'm quite certain the second civil unions passes the Senate, the very fine points will be put on the non-discrimination bill," said Sen. Ben Westlund, a Bend Republican and co-sponsor of both the civil unions and anti-discrimination measures.

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3-NEWS: Canadian govt. still sending mixed signals on ssm vote

Alexander Panetta And Bruce Cheadle, Canadian Press
OTTAWA (CP) - Passing same-sex marriage legislation immediately is a matter of national interest on par with the budget bill, according to the Liberal government.
Or is it? Bill C-38, the civil marriage act, is not such a high priority that backbench Liberals will be whipped into line to vote for an extended Parliamentary sitting to get the law passed, the party indicated Tuesday night.
The mixed signals are yet another confusing sign of the chest-thumping and brow-beating taking place on Parliament Hill as the spring session winds up.
Some Liberal backbenchers were accusing their own party of blackmail, saying that by linking the passage of budget legislation with the civil marriage law, the government was putting them in an impossible situation.

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4-NEWS: Spanish psychiatrist before Senate: homosexuality 'pathological'

SAPA, June 21, 2005
Shrink has gays up in arms
Madrid - A row was brewing in Spain on Tuesday after a psychiatric expert dubbed homosexuality a "pathological" state before the country's senate, prompting outrage among gay rights groups while the ruling Socialists slammed his "palaeolithic" views.
"Homosexuality is a pathology," said Aquilino Polaino, professor of psychiatry at Madrid's Catholic university.
He had been called in by opposition rightwing legislators to speak on the issue before the upper house of parliament, which in the coming weeks is to vote on a bill legalising gay marriages.

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5-NEWS: Episcopal Church affirms ordaining gay clergy

By Jill Lawless, Associated Press

June 22, 2005
NOTTINGHAM, England -- The US Episcopal Church yesterday affirmed its support for gay clergy and appealed for the issue not to split the 77 million-strong Anglican Communion.
''We believe that God has been opening our eyes to acts of God that we had not known how to see before," the church said in a document prepared for the Anglican Consultative Council. It affirmed ''the eligibility for ordination of those in covenanted same-sex unions."
Some Anglican conservatives said that stance made a schism inevitable.

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6-FEATURE: Pastor riding unicycle to gather gay narratives

By Ross Sneyd, Associated Press Writer
June 21, 2005
MONTPELIER, Vt. --A Washington state man is riding his unicycle across parts of the East Coast over the next few weeks to collect stories about the emotional debate over civil unions and gay marriage.
Lars Clausen, an ordained Lutheran minister, said he wanted to talk to gay and lesbian couples, their supporters and those who oppose same-sex unions and then write a book about what he learns. He's riding a unicycle as a ploy to get people to relax and talk to him about an issue that has inflamed such passions.
"I realized how much people are attracted to a unicycle," he said in a telephone interview as he rested under a tree en route to Holyoke, Mass. "You see one coming down the road and you think of a circus or your childhood. You think of something happy."

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