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Oregon Bakery Refuses to Make Same-Sex Wedding Cake

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GRESHAM, Ore. — The Oregon Department of Justice is looking into a complaint that a Gresham bakery refused to make a wedding cake for a same sex marriage.

It started on Jan. 17 when a mother and daughter showed up at Sweet Cakes by Melissa looking for the perfect wedding cake.

“My first question is what’s the wedding date,” said owner Aaron Klein. “My next question is bride and groom’s name … the girl giggled a little bit and said it’s two brides.”

Klein apologized to the women and told them he and his wife do not make cakes for same-sex marriages. Klein said the women were disgusted and walked out.

“I believe that marriage is a religious institution ordained by God,” said Klein. “A man should leave his mother and father and cling to his wife … that to me is the beginning of marriage.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Hundreds of Thousands Due in Paris to Protest Homosexual Marriage

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Several hundred thousand people are expected to march through Paris on Sunday against the planned legalization of same-sex marriage in the first mass protest against the unpopular President Francois Hollande.

Strongly backed by the Catholic hierarchy, lay activists have mobilized a hybrid coalition of church-going families, political conservatives, Muslims, evangelicals and even homosexuals opposed to gay marriage for the show of force.

So many are expected to converge on Paris from around France that police had organizers split it into three separate columns starting from different points around the city and meeting in the Champ de Mars park at the Eiffel Tower.

Frigide Barjot, an eccentric comedian leading the so-called “Demo for All,” insists the protest is pro-marriage rather than anti-gay and has banned all but its approved banners saying a child needs a father and a mother to develop properly.

“We’re all born of a man and a woman, but the law will say the opposite tomorrow,” she said last week. “It will say a child is born of a man and a man.”

Read more from this story HERE.

National Cathedral to Perform Same-Sex Weddings

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Washington National Cathedral had been ready to embrace same-sex marriage for some time, though it took a series of recent events and a new leader for the prominent, 106-year-old church to announce Wednesday that it would begin hosting such nuptials.

The key development came last July when the Episcopal Church approved a ceremony for same-sex unions at its General Convention in Indianapolis, followed by the legalization of gay marriage in Maryland, which joined the District of Columbia. The national church made a special allowance for marriage ceremonies in states where gay marriage is legal.

Longtime same-sex marriage advocate the Very Rev. Gary Hall took over as the cathedral’s dean in October. Conversations began even before he arrived to clear the way for the ceremonies at the church that so often serves as a symbolic house of prayer for national celebrations and tragedies.

The Episcopal bishop of Washington, the Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, authorized use of the new marriage rite in December for 89 congregations in D.C. and Maryland. Each priest then decides whether to marry same-sex couples.

The cathedral’s congregation and leadership include many gays and lesbians. The church was just waiting for the right moment and the right leader.

Read more from this story HERE.

Marriage and Self-Government

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On Friday afternoon, the Supreme Court announced that it will hear arguments in two cases that are at the center of the same-sex-marriage controversy. One concerns the power of people in the states to govern themselves on the question, the other the complementary power of Congress to define “marriage” for purposes of federal law.

At issue in both cases is whether courts should even be hearing them, because there are knotty questions of standing (and also of what should happen to lower-court rulings if the Court rules that parties did not have standing). If the Court does reach the merits in these cases, it should find its way toward a defense of the right of republican self-government.

In Hollingsworth v. Perry, the justices will consider the constitutionality of Proposition 8, an amendment to the California constitution affirming that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. The people of the state passed it by referendum in 2008, shortly after the state supreme court ruled that the state constitution, unbeknownst to anyone until then, required official recognition of same-sex marriage. In the federal lawsuit that followed, Judge Vaughn Walker of the U.S. district court in San Francisco conducted a sort of show trial, ignoring all relevant precedents in holding that the protection of conjugal marriage rests on irrational bigotry.

This decision went too far even for a Ninth Circuit panel led by the oft-reversed Judge Stephen Reinhardt. The appeals court affirmed Judge Walker’s decision but did not imitate his reasoning, holding instead that, having recognized same-sex marriage, California could have had no rational basis for changing its mind.

The Supreme Court should reverse these lower-court rulings, and straightforwardly affirm the right of the people in any state to act, constitutionally or legislatively, to adopt the traditional view of marriage as a relationship oriented toward procreation. The justices need not themselves hold that view — they may consider it outmoded or rationally inferior to a conception of marriage that treats it first and foremost as an emotional union of adults — to see that the Constitution erects no barrier to it, and that states therefore have the freedom to act on it.

Read more from this story HERE.

West Point Chapel Hosting First Homosexual Marriage

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The first same-sex marriage at the U.S. Military Academy’s Cadet Chapel at West Point will be celebrated Saturday as Brenda Sue Fulton and Penelope Dara Gnesin exchange vows.

The ceremony comes a little more than a year after President Obama ended the military policy banning openly gay people from serving.

Fulton, a veteran and the communications director of an organization called Outserve — which represents actively serving gay, lesbian and bisexual military personnel — confirmed in an e-mail to USA TODAY Friday night: “We will be the first same sex couple to wed at the Cadet Chapel at West Point.”

The wedding will be the second gay marriage West Point has hosted. The first was a small, private ceremony last weekend between two of Fulton’s friends in a smaller venue on the campus.

In September 2011, the Pentagon issued guidance stating that “determinations regarding the use of DOD real property and facilities for private functions, including religious and other ceremonies, should be made on a sexual-orientation neutral basis, provided such use is not prohibited by applicable state and local laws.”

Read more from this story HERE.

After Growing Up in Household Where Married Gays Can’t Go to Heaven, Brad Pitt Says He’s Glad Obama Won

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Brad Pitt says that even though his mother came out against President Obama and same-sex marriage, he is very happy about the election and feels that the country is headed in the right direction by allowing equal rights to all couples.

In an interview with People magazine, Pitt said that he respectfully disagrees with his mother’s position and has been an outspoken advocate for legalizing gay marriage throughout the U.S. ‘Sure, I believe in it. I believe in the idea of fairness and equality in our country. I truly believe it’s a matter of time. The next generation isn’t frightened by anything,’ Pitt said.

He explained that while he and partner Angelina Jolie, who he called ‘Mama’ throughout the interview, are planning to get married in the near future, they believe that it is a right that should be extended to everyone. ‘I come from a Christian family, and (gay marriage) goes against Christian beliefs, as far as what’s going to get you into heaven or not. My argument is, that you may be as you believe, and it may be true in the end I don’t think so- but let your God make that call, and in the meantime we live in a country where everyone should be treated equally, so let’s treat everyone equally,’ he said.

Pitt’s political beliefs were called into question when his mother Jane wrote a letter to her local paper claiming that Mr Obama should not serve a second term because he lacks moral conviction and backs gay marriage and ‘the killing of unborn babies’. Mrs Pitt wrote in her letter to the Springfield News-Leader, in Missouri: ‘I hope all Christians give their vote prayerful consideration because voting is a sacred privilege and a serious responsibility’.

Read more from this story HERE.

Protestors Rally Against Homosexual ‘Marriage’ in France

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Thousands of Catholics and other opponents of French government plans to legalise gay marriage and same-sex adoption marched in Paris on Sunday, a day after more than 100,000 turned out across France for the cause.

Among the banners being held by demonstrators was a large one reading: “France needs children, not homosexuals.”

The protesters included several young people wearing cassocks, a Christian clerical garment. Others waved the French flag and banners depicting the Christian cross and other emblems.

“Our objective is to wage a real battle to protect the family and child,” Civitas official Alain Escada said.

He claimed gay marriage was “a Pandora’s box” that would let others demand extended marriage rights, including polygamists and incestuous people.

Read full story HERE.

Gay Marriage Approved by Voters, First Time in US History

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Americans for the first time approved gay marriage at the ballot box on Tuesday, pointing to changing attitudes on the divisive issue.

In Maine and Maryland, voters approved ballot initiatives to begin allowing same-sex unions. Those wins mark a first for a cause that had previously been rejected by voters in more than 30 states, including as recently as 2009 in Maine.

And in Minnesota, where gay marriage is already not allowed, voters declined to back an initiative that would enshrine in the state’s constitution a definition of marriage permitting only a union between a man and woman.

In Washington state, where voters also weighed an initiative to legalize gay marriage, the vote count was expected to stretch on for days. With half of the vote counted as of 3 a.m. Eastern time, nearly 52% supported the idea.

In Maine, campaigners for same-sex marriage said the win marked a turning point for their cause. “We made history here tonight and showed that voters can change their minds,” said Matt McTighe, the campaign director of Mainers United for Marriage. “That will serve as something of a signal to other states who have lost marriage fights before at ballot boxes. You can change those minds.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Federal Court Strikes Down Defense of Marriage Act, Says Homosexuals are a Protected Class

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A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that gay Americans are a class of people who deserve the same kinds of constitutional protections as many other victims of discrimination.

The 2-to-1 ruling, by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, came as the panel struck down the federal law prohibiting federal recognition of same-sex marriage. It is the first time that a federal appeals court has applied this level of constitutional protection — known as heightened scrutiny — to those unions. The case is now considered by some legal scholars to be the leading candidate for a Supreme Court review of the same-sex marriage issue.

Thursday’s decision was the second by a federal appeals court striking down the Defense of Marriage Act. Now the case, Windsor v. United States, could be considered by the Supreme Court, or the court could choose other cases in its pipeline concerning same-sex marriage. Those include an earlier decision on the act by the First Circuit in Boston and one from the Ninth Circuit overturning California’s ban on same-sex marriage. It could also decide to hear all of them.

“It’s an incredible moment in the struggle for gay rights in this country,” said James D. Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s project dealing with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.

The new case was brought on behalf of Edith Windsor of New York City, who married her longtime partner, Thea Clara Spyer, in 2007 in Canada. When Ms. Spyer died in 2009, Ms. Windsor inherited her property. Because the Internal Revenue Service was not allowed, under the Defense of Marriage Act, to consider her a surviving spouse, she faced a tax bill of $363,053 that she would not have had to pay if the marriage had been recognized.

Read more from this story HERE.

Manager Who Posted Comments Critical of Gay Marriage on Private Facebook Account Demoted (+video)

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By Bob Unruh. A court trial is under way in the United Kingdom to determine if a Christian manager of a housing organization should be compensated for damages because his employer demoted and penalized him for stating his biblical beliefs on his private Facebook page.

Smith lost his managerial position and had his salary cut by 40 percent after his employer, Trafford Housing Trust, told him his private Facebook page posting, to which only he and his friends had access, violated its standards of conduct.

The case developed in February 2011 when Smith saw a news article titled “Gay church marriages get go ahead.”

He linked to the story and wrote, “An equality too far.”

One of his coworkers asked him to explain, and he responded: “I don’t understand why people who have no faith and don’t believe in Christ would want to get hitched in church. The Bible is quite specific that marriage is for men and women. If the state wants to offer civil marriage to the same sex then that is up to the state; but the state shouldn’t impose its rules on places of faith and conscience.” Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s a BBC update on the case: