The Next Gay Marriage Battle? ACLU Files First-Known Lawsuit Over State Bans on Same-Sex unions

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Photo Credit: APThe battle over gay marriage forges on. Civil rights lawyers said they filed the first known legal challenge Tuesday on behalf of 23 men, women and children seeking to overturn a state law effectively banning same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania, the only northeastern state that doesn’t allow it or civil unions.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Harrisburg, also will ask a federal judge to prevent state officials from stopping gay couples from getting married. It names Gov. Tom Corbett, Attorney General Kathleen Kane and three other officials. The plaintiffs are one widow, 10 couples and one of the couples’ two teenage daughters, and they include four couples who were legally married in other states but whose marriages go unrecognized by the state of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania would become the 14th state to legalize gay marriage if the lawsuit is successful. It also would force the state to recognize the legal marriages of all same-sex couples in other jurisdictions.

The plaintiffs, some of whom spoke during a news conference in the state Capitol after the lawsuit was filed, said their willingness to join was driven partly by a desire to have the same legal and financial protections afforded to opposite-sex couples, but mostly by the emotional satisfaction of seeking social justice.

“Everyone in our world recognizes us as a true family,” said Deb Whitewood, 45, who lives in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bridgeville with her partner of 22 years, Susan Whitewood, and their three children. “We feel that it’s time that the commonwealth of Pennsylvania did, too.”

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Preacher Arrested for Calling Homosexuality a Sin (+video)

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An American evangelist said he was arrested and interrogated about his Christian faith after he was caught on a London sidewalk preaching that homosexuality is a sin.

Tony Miano, a retired deputy sheriff and former chaplain with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept., was charged with “using homophobic speech that could cause people anxiety, distress, alarm or insult.”

Miano had been preaching on a London street corner during the Wimbledon Tennis Championships with a ministry group called Sports Fan Outreach International.

He was preaching about immoral living – and cited homosexuality as an example of lifestyle choices that are contrary to biblical teaching.

“I never used any gay slurs,” he said. “You would never hear me using slang or discriminatory language against homosexuals or any other group. That would be contrary to my faith.”

See video here:

[police arrive at the 25:40 mark]

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New State Laws Forcing Almost All Abortion Clinics in Some States to Shut Down

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Photo Credit: APWhile much of the national abortion debate has focused on late-term abortions, pro-life forces are scoring major victories with new laws and regulations that in effect would force many — if not all — abortion clinics in a state to shut down.

This battle over clinic regulations shifted into high gear in Texas on Monday as state lawmakers moved closer to passing a bill that advocates on both sides say would force all but a handful of the state’s 67 abortion providers to close.

In a report released Monday, the Guttmacher Institute said that states’ efforts to restrict abortion — including clinic regulations — were on pace to exceed those enacted in 2012. The institute also reported that there were nearly 3,000 U.S. abortion providers in the early 1990s and fewer than 1,800 providers since 2008.

Abortion rights supporters say regulations, many passed in states where Republicans dominate the legislatures, are not-too-subtle efforts to drive clinics out of business and deny women their rights to abortion, even while allowing abortion to remain nominally legal on the books. Techniques include raising treatment standards clinics must meet, blocking relationships with public hospitals and banning online technology that enables abortion doctors to treat patients in remote locations.

“Extremist politicians” made “a blatant attempt to shutter the Red River Women’s Clinic, the sole abortion provider in North Dakota, with a law that would require the clinic’s doctors to unnecessarily have admitting privileges at a local hospital,” said the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is planning to block the law in state court this summer. Pro-choice activists call these measures targeted restriction of abortion providers (TRAP) laws.

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CBO: 20+ Week Fetuses Aborted at Rate of 30 Per Day; Saves Money for Government-Run Health Care

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Photo Credit: APUnborn babies who have reached at least 20 weeks of age in utero are aborted at a rate of about 30 per day in the United States, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The CBO has also concluded that aborting babies at 20 weeks or later in pregnancy saves money for the government-run federal-state Medicaid system.

The CBO made these determinations when doing its official “Cost Estimate” of a federal bill that would prohibit abortions at 20 weeks or later into pregnancy (except in cases of reported rape, incest against a minor or to save the life of the mother).

“Based on data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CBO estimates that, each year, about 11,000 abortions take place 20 weeks or more after fertilization,” said the CBO’s analysis of H.R. 1797, the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

In a 365-day year, 11,000 late-term abortions works out to a little more than 30 per day—counting weekends and holidays.

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Cardinals General Manager Orders End to Cross Display on Pitcher’s Mound

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerChristian crosses are not welcome symbols for mound decoration at Busch Stadium.

Late last week, St. Louis Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak ordered the Busch Stadium grounds crew to stop carving a cross on backside of the pitching mound, according to news reports.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that recently the grounds crew had carved a cross and the number 6 on the mound during home games in honor of Cardinals great Stan Musial.

Musial died this past January at the age of 92…

At least one fan wrote to the Post-Dispatch and the St. Louis Riverfront Times to complain about the “inappropriate” religious display.

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Pastor Calls on Parishioners to Boycott Porn, Claims 80% of Church Views Smut

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Photo Credit: Todd Keith/GettyThese are among the boldest of claims from a Florida pastor who has launched a campaign to find 1 million men willing to do what many may find unnecessary, if not unthinkable: quit porn. Cold turkey. Forever.

Baptist Pastor Jay Dennis of the Church of the Mall in Lakeland, Florida, never thought he’d find himself taking sexual addiction classes, he told The Daily Beast. But staff members were approaching him with concerns about pornography in the church: wives who’d caught their husbands, moms worried about their sons. He knew it would be an awkward conversation, taking on pornography as a mission, and he knew he’d face critics who would tell him the church is no place to deal with sexual issues, he said. “But my heart believed this is the very place to deal with it.”

So Dennis launched a glossy website, Join 1 Million Men, where he asks men around the world to add their first names to a wall, pledging to say goodbye to smut. There’s an iPhone app with related scripture, tips, and tools. Videos about how to “destroy your porn stashes.” Testimonials from men who’ve found themselves in the clutches of Satan’s ubiquitous tools. And some pretty jarring claims, like this one:

“I believe as many as 80 percent of men in the church are struggling with viewing pornography,” Dennis says in one video, adding that drastic action may be necessary to truly rid yourself of it. “You may even need to destroy your present computer. I realize that can be an expensive move, but it may be necessary if you are serious about living porn-free.”

A brief on Dennis’s quest in the Orlando Sentinel elicited some predictable mocking: “They can pry it from my cold dead hands” and “Supposedly he was going to ask them to take an oath, and raise their right hand, but that became a sticky issue.”

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USA Today, LA Times, Tribune Reject Pro-Life Ad as “Too Controversial”

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A national pro-life organization is outraged after three major American newspapers rejected a pro-life ad as “too controversial.”

The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and the LA Times refused to run an advertisement created by Heroic Media.

The ad features a hand holding a 20- to 24-week-old baby with the quote, “This child has no voice, which is why it depends on yours. Speak Up.”

Photo Credit: Heroic Media
Heroic Media Executive Director Joe Young said he was shocked and angered that the media outlets were willing to talk about the issue but were unwilling to show the reality of life at 20 weeks.

“I am disturbed that these papers would run article after article promoting the notion that abortion is a victimless act without consequences,” Young said. “The fact remains, children who are unique individuals – never again to be duplicated – are being killed in the most violent way imaginable and they feel the excruciating pain of that death.”

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Wisconsin Planned Parenthood Will Sue to Stop Women From Seeing Ultrasound

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Photo Credit: Life NewsThe Planned Parenthood abortion business in Wisconsin is so concerned about a new law that will allow women to see an ultrasound of their unborn child before an abortion that it says it will file a lawsuit to stop it.

The state legislature approved the measure, Senate Bill 206 (Sonya’s Law), which is legislation that provides a baby with the opportunity for his mother to see him through ultrasound before his mother makes a choice about how to proceed with her pregnancy. The woman can choose the type of ultrasound after all options are explained to her. The ultrasound helps to determine the age of the baby.

The bill was named after Sonya, a mother of two children who learned she was pregnant with her third child this past November. Sonya was stunned because she had taken precautions to not get pregnant.

Sonya worried about how she could handle another child, emotionally and financially. She seriously thought about abortion.

Sonya saw a Milwaukee transit bus ad about a free ultrasound and decided to have one. She learned she was seven weeks pregnant. Once she saw her child and realized his heart was beating, Sonya made an emotional connection with her baby and made the decision to carry him to term. Sonya will deliver a baby boy this month.

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How Aspirin Might Stem Cancer

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Photo Credit: DirkVorderstraßeThe use of aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs significantly reduces the risk for cancer, but no one has been able to explain why. Now researchers have found that these drugs slow the accumulation of a type of DNA change called somatic genome abnormalities, or S.G.A.’s, that lead to uncontrolled cell growth.

The scientists studied 13 people with Barrett’s esophagus, a condition in which cells in the esophagus become damaged, usually by acid reflux. Sometimes the cells become precancerous, and rarely the problem leads to esophageal cancer.

The researchers tracked S.G.A.’s with periodic biopsies over an average of almost 12 years. Over all, the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs was associated with a 90 percent reduction in the rate of mutations.

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Bill Awaiting Gov. Brown’s Signature Will Allow Boys to Use Girls’ Public School Bathrooms, Locker Rooms (and Vice-Versa)

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Photo Credit: mgrayflickrTransgender students in California would be able to choose which school bathrooms and locker rooms to use and which sport teams to join based on their gender identity under a measure approved this week by the California Legislature.

The proposal now awaits the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown, whose office has declined to comment on whether he will sign it.

The proposal would be the first state law in the nation that specifically requires equal access to public school facilities and activities based on gender identity, though some states have general policies to the same effect, said Shannon Price Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, one of several groups backing the legislation.

But enactment of the measure would “simply mean that California will be catching up with other states that already have enacted regulations based on a general prohibition of gender identity discrimination in schools,” Minter told CNN.

“Our view is that California’s existing law should already require schools to provide transgender students with equal access to facilities and activities, but in practice, many schools are not complying with that requirement and will not do so unless the Legislature provides specific guidance on this issue,” Minter said.

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