TOP6NEWS - Date 7.7.05

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1-NEWS: Spain ssm law has snag: foreigners
2-NEWS: Don't ask, don't tell motion to dismiss in court Friday
3-NEWS: UCC favors ssm
4-NEWS: CA AG asks Supreme Court to hear ssm cases
5-NEWS: Study questions bisexuality
6-NEWS: S. Coontz: The heterosexual revolution
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1-NEWS: Spain ssm law has snag: foreigners

By Daniel Woolls, Associated Press Writer  |  July 6, 2005
MADRID, Spain --Spain's new gay marriage law hit its first snag Wednesday as a court said a Spanish man can't wed his Indian partner because India does not allow same-sex marriage.
The Supreme Court of Justice of Catalonia cited an article in the Spanish civil code which says foreign residents seeking to wed Spaniards are bound by the laws of the country where they have citizenship. The Indian man is resident of Spain but holds an Indian passport.
The dispute erupted Tuesday, six days after Spain's parliament made this country the third in the world to legalize gay marriage. The others are Netherlands and Belgium. A decision in Canada is pending until later this month.

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2-NEWS: Don't ask, don't tell motion to dismiss in court Friday

By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press Writer  
July 6, 2005
BOSTON --During her first five years in the Navy, Jen Kopfstein avoided conversations about her personal life, taking the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy seriously.
I felt like I was being forced to lie and having to be dishonest," Kopfstein said. "I could never share anything about my family or my home life or even say what I did on the weekend. It is hurtful to do that."
After she finally wrote a letter to her commanding officer telling him she was a lesbian, she was discharged.
Now she and 11 other former servicemembers are challenging the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, arguing in a federal lawsuit that it violates their constitutional rights. The Bush administration is asking a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit in a motion to be heard Friday.

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3-NEWS: UCC favors ssm

New York Times, July 5, 2005
Church of Christ Delegates Support Same-Sex Marriage By SHAILA DEWAN
ATLANTA, July 4 - The United Church of Christ became the first mainline Christian denomination to support same-sex marriage officially when its general synod passed a resolution on Monday affirming "equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender."
The resolution was adopted in the face of efforts to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. It was both a theological statement and a protest against discrimination, said the Rev. John H. Thomas, the president and general minister of the denomination, which has 6,000 congregations and 1.3 million members.

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4-NEWS: CA AG asks Supreme Court to hear ssm cases

Attorney General Bill Lockyer Asks State Supreme Court to Resolve Same-Sex Marriage Litigation July 1, 2005
05-051
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(916) 324-5500
(SAN FRANCISCO) – Attorney General Bill Lockyer today formally asked the California Supreme Court to agree to hear and resolve the lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of California’s laws that prohibit same-sex marriage. If granted, Lockyer’s request will ensure that Californians obtain a statewide, binding and final judgment on same-sex marriage much sooner than if the traditional appellate process is followed, which could delay a final ruling until 2007 or later.
The Attorney General’s request comes almost exactly one-month after filing notices of appeal of the same-sex marriage judgments issued by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard A. Kramer. The trial court ruled California’s statutes that limit marriage to one man and one woman violate the state Constitution’s equal protection guarantees.

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5-NEWS: Study questions bisexuality

Straight, Gay or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: July 5, 2005
Some people are attracted to women; some are attracted to men. And some, if Sigmund Freud, Dr. Alfred Kinsey and millions of self-described bisexuals are to be believed, are drawn to both sexes.
But a new study casts doubt on whether true bisexuality exists, at least in men.
The study, by a team of psychologists in Chicago and Toronto, lends support to those who have long been skeptical that bisexuality is a distinct and stable sexual orientation.

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6-NEWS: S. Coontz: The heterosexual revolution

S. Coontz: The heterosexual revolution New York Times, July 5, 2005 The Heterosexual Revolution By STEPHANIE COONTZ
Olympia, Wash. - THE last week has been tough for opponents of same-sex marriage. First Canadian and then Spanish legislators voted to legalize the practice, prompting American social conservatives to renew their call for a constitutional amendment banning such marriages here. James Dobson of the evangelical group Focus on the Family has warned that without that ban, marriage as we have known it for 5,000 years will be overturned.
My research on marriage and family life seldom leads me to agree with Dr. Dobson, much less to accuse him of understatement. But in this case, Dr. Dobson's warnings come 30 years too late. Traditional marriage, with its 5,000-year history, has already been upended. Gays and lesbians, however, didn't spearhead that revolution: heterosexuals did.

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