by Peter DelVecchio

Gore supports same-sex marriage

In a video posted on his Current TV website, 2000 Democratic presidential candidate — and Nobel Prize and Academy Award winner — Al Gore announced his unqualified support for marriage equality.

In the video, posted Jan. 28, Gore says, “I think it’s wrong for the government to discriminate against people because of that person’s sexual orientation. I think that gay men and women ought to have the same rights as heterosexual men and women to make contracts, to have hospital visiting rights, to join together in marriage. I don’t understand why it is considered by some people to be a threat to heterosexual marriage to allow it by gays and lesbians. Shouldn’t we be promoting the kind of faithfulness and loyalty to one’s partner, regardless of sexual orientation? Because if you don’t do that, then to that extent, you’re promoting promiscuity [and] all the problems that can result from promiscuity. And the loyalty and love that two people feel for one another when they fall in love ought to be celebrated and encouraged and shouldn’t be prevented by any form of discrimination in the law.” (See the video at www.tinyurl.com/25fwk9.)

Gore’s statement constitutes a change from his stance during the 2000 race, when he opposed “changing the institution of marriage as it is currently understood—between a man and a woman.” Speaking in 2006 about same-sex marriage ceremonies in San Francisco in 2004, Gore said, “What I saw that was just overwhelming was the love, the joy, the purity of the excitement that that love was being honored.” At a Human Rights Campaign dinner, Gore said, “That is what must be honored and respected: your right to fall in love with who you fall in love with. And your right to expect that that will be recognized with the same dignity and honor that love is recognized for other couples.”

Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, a gay rights group, said in a Jan. 23 statement, “We applaud Al Gore’s vocal support for marriage equality and hope more national leaders will follow suit ...”

2008 Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) support LGBT rights, but stop short of endorsing gay marriage.

New Mexico House approves domestic partnership bill

A domestic partnership bill that died in the New Mexico state Legislature last year passed narrowly in the state House of Representatives, 365gay.com reported Jan. 25. The bill, which would guarantee partners hospital access and certain other rights of marriage under state law, has the support of Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson who, in 2003, issued an executive order affording state employees domestic partnership health insurance and last year, called for domestic partnership legislation. Democratic state Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez said he is “cautiously optimistic” regarding the bill’s prospects in the senate.

New Williams Institute study on Texas same-sex couples

UCLA’s Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation and Public Policy released a study Jan. 24 on Texas same-sex couples. The institute, according to its website, is “a national think tank” that “supports legal scholarship, legal research, policy analysis, and education regarding sexual orientation discrimination and other legal issues that affect lesbian and gay people.” The study reports that 20 percent of same-sex Texas couples are raising more 17,000 children and that such couples make less money and are less likely to own homes than married parents. To read the study, visit www.tinyurl.com/2nd5p7.

Journalist accuses GLAAD of ‘wimping out’

Writing on the Los Angeles Times’ “The Envelope” website, entertainment journalist Tom O’Neil charged the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination (GLAAD) with “wimp[ing] out” for not nominating The Kite Runner in connection with its 2007 media awards, according to a Jan. 26 blog by Timothy Kincaid at boxturtlebulletin.com. (Spoiler alert) The book, and presumably the film, include a scene where, according to Kincaid, “a youth rapes another boy out of aggression.” Wrote Kincaid, “Suggesting that a rape scene is gay subtext that somehow would be awarded by GLAAD is beyond stupid and offensive.”

Kansas governor’s son selling Don’t Drop the Soap game

The son of Democratic Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary Sebalius is selling a board game, Don’t Drop the Soap, on his website, The Associated Press reported Jan. 27. John Sebelius, 23, created the game at the Rhode Island School of Design. The prison-themed game features tokens representing a bag of cocaine, a pistol and inmate characters, and takes players through situations including “being cornered by the Aryans in the shower room.” Family spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran said both of Sebelius’ parents “are very proud of their son[‘s] creativity and talent.” Gov. Sebelius and her two sons have endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president. Obama’s mother was from Kansas.

Arkansas anti-gay adoption ballot measure drive launched

A conservative group launched an effort Jan. 24 to qualify a measure for the November 2008 Arkansas ballot that would bar same-sex or unmarried couples from adopting or becoming foster parents, reports 365gay.com. The Family Council Action Committee, largely responsible for a 2004 amendment to Arkansas’ constitution barring gay marriage, initiated the signature drive after an anti-gay adoption bill died in the state Legislature. The bill responded to a 2007 Arkansas Supreme Court decision nullifying regulations promulgated in 1999 prohibiting gays from being foster parents. In a unanimous ruling, the court stated that “the driving force behind adoption of the regulations was not to promote the health, safety and welfare of foster children, but rather based upon the board’s views of morality and its bias against homosexuals.”

An October 2007 University of Arkansas poll found 53 percent support the ban, 42 percent oppose it and 5 percent are undecided. “We think the decision about who should serve as a foster or adoptive parent should be made by professionals who have the training to identify good parents and who are guided only by what’s good for the child as opposed to ideology,” said Rita Sklar, of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Bush urges Congress to double foreign AIDS funding

In his final State of the Union address on Jan. 28, President George Bush urged Congress to authorize a $30 billion, five-year extension of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the New York Times reports. Bush first made the request in May 2007. The plan would double funding for PEPFAR, which initially directed $15 billion to 15 target countries over five years for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. In his address, Bush said that PEPFAR “can bring healing and hope” to more than the 1.4 million now receiving treatment through the program, and asked Congress to “maintain the principles that have changed behavior and made [PEPFAR] a success.” David Bryden of the Global AIDS Alliance criticized Bush’s call as ambiguous. In a Jan. 29 statement, Physicians for Human Rights called for higher funding for HIV/AIDS and other global diseases and for more programs targeting women. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) said in a Jan. 28 statement that she is “disappointed” Bush failed to “announce a more significant commitment” to PEPFAR,” and that Bush had “flat-lined funding” for domestic HIV/AIDS programs, “even as data shows communities of color are increasingly bearing the brunt of the disease.”