![TV icon and former Boy Scout George Takei joined Jennifer Tyrrell – the Ohio mom ousted as leader of her son’s Boy Scouts troop because she’s gay – as well as GLAAD and local scouts at the 43rd Annual NYC Pride March [on Sunday] in Manhattan.
Crowds...](https://64.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m66fotTwMy1r5jus8o1_250.jpg)
Catholic Hospital Denies Gay Man HIV Medicine
A Catholic hospital is being sued for denial of HIV medication to a gay man “for going against God’s will.”
Trinitas Regional Medical Center, says Joao Simoes, admitted him last August but then denied him the medicine he needed and also would not let his sister see him.
Denial of access to medicine for people living with HIV/AIDS, even for short periods, can have serious consequences for long term survival because of drug resistance. This can result from missing as few as five doses — which Simoes says he missed.
Miss Pennsylvania Quits Amid Transgender Constestant Flap
Sheena Monnin has quit her post as Miss Pennsylvania USA, blasting Donald Trump’s Miss Universe Organization as “lacking in morals” and “trashy.”
E! Online reports on the controversy, in which she claims the Miss USA contest was rigged and denies her earlier stance against the inclusion of transgender contestants.
“The Miss Universe Organization can confirm the resignation of the Pennsylvania title holder after she did not place in the Top 16 at the Miss USA pageant,” the pageant purveyor said in a statement to E! News.
Proposition 8 case looks headed to Supreme Court
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way on Tuesday for the Supreme Court to consider California’s marriage equality ban, declining an appeal to revisit the case.
Supporters of the 2008 ban, Proposition 8, have lost two rounds in federal court but have made clear they will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and hope for a favorable response from the conservative-leaning court.
The top U.S. court could agree to hear the matter in the session beginning in October, putting it on track to decide the case within a year. It could also decline to review Prop 8.
Conservative Jewish rabbinic group issues guidelines for wedding rituals for same-sex couples
A landmark vote last week by the Conservative movement’s rabbinic committee has established rituals for wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples, affirming that same-sex marriages have “the same sense of holiness and joy as that expressed in heterosexual marriages.”
Last week’s position paper, which was adopted by a vote of 13-0, with one abstention, outlines two possible marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples. The paper’s authors, Rabbis Elliot Dorff, Daniel Nevins and Avram Reisner, were also the authors of a 2006 responsum titled “Homosexuality, Human Dignity and Halakhah,” which declared gays eligible for rabbinic ordination.
Gay bishop backs marriage equality in Maine
Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, married his longtime partner on New Year’s Day 2010 – the day marriage equality became legal in his home state of New Hampshire. Robinson hopes Maine voters follow in its neighbor’s footsteps and legalize marriage equaliyt in a ballot proposal in November. Robinson is coming to Maine on behalf of the campaign seeking to legalize marriage equality, appearing at three screenings of a film about his life and his struggles to be accepted within the Anglican church.
Marriage Equality Advocates Gain Corporate Support
Marriage advocates have a new and powerful ally in corporate America.
One by one, national corporations like Microsoft, Starbucks, Boeing and Google are wading into the once-risky business of taking a position supporting marriage equality in states across the country.