TOP6NEWS - Date 7.18.05

---

1-NEWS: Woman sues ex-husband's boyfriend for alienation
2-NEWS: Settlement includes mandatory sensitivity training for CA schools
3-NEWS: MA signature gathering changes could hurt m amendment
4-NEWS: Canadian poll: ssm bill should stand
5-NEWS: Top Santorum aide is gay
6-NEWS: R. Santorum: Moral Capital and the Courts
________________________________________________________
1-NEWS: Woman sues ex-husband's boyfriend for alienation

Posted: July 15,  2005
Durham, North Carolina) A spurned wife has sued her husband's gay lover, accusing him of wooing away the woman's husband.
Pamela Lavone Putjenter alleged in a lawsuit filed in Durham Superior Court that Stephen Glenn Barefoot of Durham began to "willfully and intentionally seduce, entice and alienate the affections" of her husband in January 2002.

Full Article
BACK TO TOP
________________________________________________________
2-NEWS: Settlement includes mandatory sensitivity training for CA schools

Complaint

Settlement Reached in Los Angeles Unified Student Harassment Case

LOS ANGELES - The ACLU of Southern California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the law firm Millbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy reached a settlement yesterday in their lawsuit filed against the Los Angeles Unified School District on behalf of Washington Preparatory High School students and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network who sued to stop harassment on the basis of sexual orientation.
The settlement includes a comprehensive series of mandatory training sessions for Washington Prep teachers, staff, and students, and for middle school students who will attend the South Los Angeles high school. The settlement aims to prevent harassment and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students through training and other efforts by LAUSD's Education Equity Compliance Office that will focus on ending sexual orientation and gender identity prejudice.

Full Article
BACK TO TOP
________________________________________________________
3-NEWS: MA signature gathering changes could hurt m amendment

By Raphael Lewis, Globe Staff
As conservative groups launch a drive for a referendum to ban same-sex marriage, Beacon Hill Democrats are moving swiftly to pass a bill that would make it more difficult for such a question or any other to reach the state election ballot.
The bill, which could be voted on in the Senate as early as next week, is provoking an outcry from government watchdogs, the administration of Governor Mitt Romney, and Secretary of State William F. Galvin, among others.
The measure would prohibit groups backing ballot questions from paying outside firms for each signature gathered, a common practice that critics see as encouraging fraud but that backers view as essential given the short time in which groups must gather signatures required under state law.
The legislation would impose new penalties for fraud or misrepresentation during signature-gathering and make it possible for groups opposing ballot questions to gain almost immediate access to the names and addresses of the people who signed the petitions, providing them an opportunity to persuade signatories to retract their support. In addition, it would disqualify signature sheets not signed by the individual who gathered them, which Galvin contends would punish voters for the inattentiveness of those collecting signatures.

Full Article
BACK TO TOP
________________________________________________________
4-NEWS: Canadian poll: ssm bill should stand

By BRIAN LAGHI 
Ottawa — Canadians do not want their political leaders to undo historic legislation allowing gays to legally marry in the wake of a pledge from the Conservatives that they would do just that if elected.
In a new poll conducted for The Globe and Mail/CTV, 55 per cent of Canadians surveyed say the next government should let same-sex legislation stand, while 39 per cent would like to see an attempt made to repeal it. A further 6 per cent said they did not know.
The results appear to bolster Prime Minister Paul Martin's remarks two weeks ago that Canadians do not want to revisit the issue, despite a promise by Conservative Leader Stephen Harper that he would rescind the law if he becomes prime minister in an election expected next winter.
"The Liberals have been successful in defining same-sex as an issue of rights, not as a moral issue" said Tim Woolstencroft, managing partner of polling firm the Strategic Counsel.

Full Article
BACK TO TOP
________________________________________________________
5-NEWS: Top Santorum aide is gay

A top Santorum aide is gay
The senator, who's been critical of gay rights, said his senior spokesman had his full support.
By Steve Goldstein
Inquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The senior spokesman for Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) yesterday confirmed to a Web log that he is gay.
According to PageOneQ, an online gay and lesbian publication, director of communications Robert L. Traynham, who grew up in the Philadelphia area, said that he was an "out gay man who completely supports the senator."
Santorum, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate leadership, has been an outspoken opponent of homosexual rights and a leading proponent of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Full Article
BACK TO TOP
________________________________________________________
6-NEWS: R. Santorum: Moral Capital and the Courts

National Review Online, July 18, 2005
Moral Capital and the Courts
The Left is destroying traditional morality.
By Rick Santorum

EDITOR'S NOTE:: This is the first in a series of five excerpts from It Takes a Family, by Sen. Rick Santorum. Together they comprise chapter 23, “The Rule of Judges.”

** The village elders (a.k.a. left-wing members of Congress) introduce very few bills — almost none that attract more than one or two cosponsors. There are no hearings where Congress and the public can hear arguments about the merits to society of changing its moral fabric. Did Congress pass a law that said it was illegal to display a Christmas crèche on public property, tell us we could not recite the pledge that we are “one nation under God” in schools, or legislate away displays of the Ten Commandments from public buildings? Did we pass a constitutional amendment that gave anyone a right to marry as many people of whatever gender they want? Did we pass an amendment that gave women the right to abort their children at any time, for any reason, during pregnancy? Did we pass a law that minors could undergo the surgical procedure of abortion without parental consent or notification? The answer to all of these questions is: No! Not in one state legislature, much less in the U.S. Congress, did the democratic branches of government, the people’s branches, pass such amendments or enact such laws. How could the moral fabric of America be so torn apart without so much as a single act of Congress duly signed by the president?

Full Article
BACK TO TOP