MONTPELIER, Vt. — Is it gay marriage or same-sex marriage? Genderless marriage or marriage equality?

In the ongoing push to let gays and lesbians marry, the choice of terms provides a good clue of where the speaker stands.

Assisted suicide vs. death with dignity. Estate tax vs. death tax. As with other hot-button social issues, the main course in the gay marriage debate comes with a side: a discussion of which words properly describe it.

“I think language is critical to any debate,” says Vermont lobbyist Tim Meehan, who’s not involved in the issue. “How you say it drives the train.”

Vermont, which led the nation in establishing civil unions nine years ago, is weighing whether to go a step further and permit gay and lesbian couples to marry. A bill allowing same-sex marriages has been approved by the state Senate, and the House is scheduled to take it up Thursday. Gov. Jim Douglas has said he will veto it if it reaches his desk.

Supporters use the terms “marriage equality” and “freedom to marry,” and speak of the bill as a civil rights measure. Opponents say that trivializes African-Americans’ historic struggle against slavery and racism, and that granting same-sex couples the right would diminish traditional marriage. Gay rights advocates say traditional marriage is exactly what they want.

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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden will allow homosexuals to legally marry from May this year after parliament on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of the move.

The change in the law, which currently allows gay couples to register unions but not formal marriage, comes into force on May 1 this year under the timetable set out in the bill.

Scandinavian countries, known for their liberal attitudes toward gays and lesbians, were among the first countries in Europe to grant same-sex partners the same rights as married couples.

Sweden gave same-sex couples the right to form a union via registered partnerships in the mid-nineties and made it legal for them to adopt in 2002.

The passage of the bill was widely expected and the final tally was 261 votes in favor of the bill and 22 opposed.

“The decision means that gender no longer has an impact on the ability to marry and that the law on registered partnership is repealed,” the government said on its website.

The Christian Democrats, part of the four-party coalition government, refused to back the bill.

The new legislation eliminates legal distinctions between heterosexual and homosexual spouses, but does not force dissenting clergy to wed gay couples.

The Swedish Lutheran church, which split from the state in 2000, has said it was open to celebrating and registering same-sex unions, although it wanted to reserve the term matrimony for heterosexual marriages.

We love our equally-minded Scandinavian friends!

General Service Weekend, intended to rally gay-rights supporters around community projects in the Salt Lake Valley and Ogden, has been delayed a week.
Initially timed to coincide with LDS general conference Saturday and Sunday, the service weekend was planned in place of political protests outside of Salt Lake City’s Temple Square, which was the site of a large demonstration in November after an LDS Church-backed gay-marriage ban won voter approval in California.
The service event, which will include gardening and park cleanups, has been pushed to April 11 and 12 because of snow. Activities are scheduled to begin both days at 10 a.m. Volunteers will gather in Salt Lake City at the Utah Pride Center, 361 N. 300 West, and in Ogden at the Unitarian Church, 705 23rd St.
For more information, visit www.allforoneinitiative.org.
- Rosemary Winters

We will keep you posted.

The right wing nuts are up to it again. In regards to the recent death of a gay radio host from a Craiglist hook up:

“I probably will get hate mail for saying this but this type of hookup culture is common in the homosexual world. Another guy in NY who did the same thing was murdered. And yes heterosexuals do it to, but no matter what type of sexual proclivity it is, SIN leads to death. The best course of action is to get out of the deadly sin business and live for Christ.“

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Far from the post-Proposition 8 protests that ignited outside of LDS temples in November, gay-rights advocates are taking a gentler tack during next week’s LDS General Conference.

Instead of pickets and chants, members and supporters of Utah’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community plan to take up garden tools and medical-supply kits for “General Service Weekend” on April 4 and 5.

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via Deseret News

Agreeing with freedom-of-speech proponents and video gamers, including one group formed by artists, moviemakers and writers, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. vetoed a video-game truth-in-advertising bill Wednesday.

He also vetoed a more obscure bill (HB156) that could cause sewage and water problems on poorly subdivided agricultural lands.

But the HB353 veto clearly puts Huntsman in the sights of some conservative Utah Republicans, who were already upset with him over his support of the Common Ground Initiative, several bills that were supported by gay-rights groups and quickly killed in the 2009 Legislature.

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At post-election rallies in California, protestors passed out IRS complaint forms.
The paperwork for reporting a tax violation by a nonprofit was already filled out — with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ name and address. People simply had to sign the bottom.
The Internal Revenue Service ultimately will decide whether the Mormon church crossed a line in U.S. tax law when it funneled at least $190,000 of its own resources and directed individual members to give and give often in the $83 million campaign to ban gay marriage in California.
I doubt it. South Temple and their attorneys are too careful for that.

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Note the bolded comment regarding accessing Church membership registries for political issues…

via Salt Lake Tribune

With all the controversy surrounding the LDS Church’s involvement in the Proposition 8 election in California last fall, a more subtle dust-up was brewing at the Hawaii State Legislature last month, pretty much over the same thing.
Hawaii resident Leonor Briscoe was fired up enough over an e-mail exchange with a neighbor that she forwarded copies to her friends, including some Utah residents she believed would be interested in the issue.
The exchange began with an e-mail she got from Frank Lueder, also of Hawaii, that informed her of HB444, a bill before the Hawaii Legislature that “is attempting to once again legalize same-sex marriage but under a new term, ‘civil union.’ If you wish relay your OPPOSITION to it, you could do so by [calling or e-mailing] your representative. You could access the list of … House of Representatives from the e-mail address I just gave.”
Briscoe, who is LDS, responded: “In the hierarchical, authoritarian structure of the Mormon church, there’s no way you would be sending out e-mails about HB444 without the implied or expressed sanction of the leaders of the Mormon Church.
“You do not know me and I do not know you, so the only way you could have gotten my e-mail address is through your stake clerk’s access to church stake records, which are not supposed to be used for political or commercial purposes.”
The bill, by the way, passed the House but died in the Senate.

As she paced back and forth across the stage, the Rev. Irene Monroe preached against the schisms caused by racism, classism, heterosexism and religious fundamentalism.

“All these ‘isms’ are merely tools of oppression that will continue to keep us fractured, instead of united in the common goal … of a participatory democracy (in which) no one is left behind and every voice is lifted up,” she said.

Gathered at the University of Utah to hear the columnist and theologian speak as part of the school’s Women’s Week, the congregation offered affirmations of “amen.”

Before people can help others, they must “begin to look at themselves,” said Rev. Monroe, a doctoral candidate at Harvard Divinity School who writes religion columns for multiple lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender publications.

She prefaced her speech by saying “political correctness truncates all possibility for learning” and asked two questions of white audience members: “How are you white? And how white are you?”

“I was born in apartheid South Africa, so I was the boss,” one woman said.

“I know I’m white because I don’t know how to answer that question,” said another

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The Passion of Sister Dottie S. Dixon premieres in Salt Lake City, May 1st-17th 2009 at the Rose Wagner Theatre. Tickets available by calling 1-801-355-ARTS. Hope to see you there kid!