altaisky

In the District of Columbia, where African-Americans are the majority and black congregations dominate, the recent vote to recognize same-sex marriages may signal the gay rights movement is making inroads among groups traditionally opposed to it.

With this month’s vote, Washington became the first place in the U.S. with a majority of black residents to take up the issue. Congress still has the final say over the district’s laws, but gay rights activists now have reason to believe that strong opposition is gradually giving way to more acceptance, despite a forceful outcry by some black churches.
The issue is particularly complex in D.C., where nearly 60 percent of the residents are African-American. Of the five states that allow gay marriage - Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont - none has such a large makeup of blacks.

Activist Donna Payne knows just how complex the issue is for the black community.

A black preacher once told her she would be accepted into his church under one condition - that she didn’t tell anyone she was a lesbian. Payne said keeping quiet wasn’t possible.

“That’s the conundrum in the African-American community,” Payne said. “They don’t want to talk about it, but they know you’re there.”

The influence of black churches was evident as the D.C. Council debated whether to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. As more than 100 mostly black protesters gathered outside city hall, council member Marion Barry, a longtime supporter of gay rights, rejected the measure and sided with ministers who he said “stand on the moral compass of God.”

But Yvette Alexander, who also represents a majority-black ward, gave her support and accused some ministers of doubting her faith.

“They have questioned my Christianity. They have questioned my morality,” she said. Then, addressing the pastors, Alexander said: “Everyone is equal under God, and there are a lot in the gay community that are at your very churches, in your congregations.”

Although black churches tend to be socially progressive and have a history of fighting for equal rights, most are theologically conservative, believing that scripture condemns homosexuality, said Anthony B. Pinn, a professor of religious studies at Rice University.

They also view gay marriage as a threat to the traditional black family, which is struggling with high divorce and low marriage rates, he said.

“From their perspective, anything that runs contradictory to that understanding of the nuclear family poses a threat,” Pinn said.

It was amid this backdrop that Barry, who served four terms as mayor, declared “we may have a civil war” after the vote.

An Annapolis alderman who was charged with a sexual crime and assault on a 21-year-old Naval Academy midshipman is denying the allegations and says he will fight them in court.

Police charging documents said Alderman Samuel Shropshire touched a male midshipman’s crotch last week in a car. Shropshire, a 61-year-old Democratic candidate for Annapolis mayor, was charged Tuesday with second-degree assault and a fourth-degree sex offense, police said.
The accusation “is untrue, it’s unfounded and it’s unfair,” Shropshire said while reading a statement at a news conference in Annapolis. “I did not take part in the actions I am accused of, and I know I will be found innocent of the accusation.”

Shropshire, elected city council alderman in 2005, had sponsored the midshipman under a Naval Academy program designed to give students a break from their rigorous military studies, his lawyer said.

Although the program has been around for decades, it has led to complaints before.

The (Baltimore) Sun reported in 2007 that investigative documents, which it had obtained, indicated at least 15 midshipmen said they were victims of some kind of sexual misconduct in their sponsors’ homes or at the hands of sponsors.

Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, an academy spokesman, said there are 1,600 sponsors in the program and all applicants are checked through sex offender and criminal record databases. Carpenter described the program as positive, giving midshipmen a chance to interact with the community.

“Allegations of sponsor misbehavior are extremely rare,” Carpenter said.

Shropshire’s attorney, Gill Cochran, said in an interview that the charges against his client are “untrue, unfair and unjust” and will be opposed in court.

According to police, Shropshire and the midshipman were in the car at about 11 p.m. when the alderman placed his hand on the man’s “crotch and grabbed his genitals” for about 30 seconds. The midshipman pushed Shropshire’s hand away, police said.

After Shropshire again touched his crotch, the midshipman asked him what he was doing and the alderman apologized, the 21-year-old told police. The midshipman then got out of the car.

He told police he has known Shropshire since 2007. Cochran said Shropshire had acted as an academy sponsor to the midshipman “until recently.” The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual assault.

No court dates have been set, Cochran said.

He added that he doesn’t know how the allegations will affect Shropshire’s bid for mayor in the 2009 primary.

“We’ll have to sort through that,” Cochran said.

In a separate case, a Navy doctor who hosted students at his house as part of the program was sentenced last year to two years in prison and kicked out of the military for setting up a secret camera to record midshipmen having sex.

Cmdr. Kevin Ronan maintained midshipmen made the tapes to extort money from him.

Matthew Taylor is one of the lucky ones. After eight years selling his body on the streets of Vancouver, he was able to find the support he needed to get out of the sex trade and now he runs an outreach program for male prostitutes.

“I decided it was time to be found again. I’d gotten pretty lost. I got out because there were folks there willing to open doors for me when I had decided that I had enough,” says Taylor, who grew up in Ontario but moved to Vancouver in 1996.
Taylor, who is now 40, had been both a male escort and a cross-dressing transsexual worker, both on and off the street. Since then he has helped found HUSTLE: Men on the Move, which provides support for men involved in sex work in Vancouver.

His story is echoed in a new report entitled Under the Radar: The Sexual Exploitation of Young Men, which found that men in the sex trade often end up alone and without support.

The report’s author, Sue McIntyre, had previously conducted extensive research into the plight of female sex workers, but realized men had been largely forgotten.

“I’ve had a fair bit of guilt about it _ that it was ignored for so long,” she says. “People don’t even see them, they don’t notice them. Even when there are outreach programs in a lot of different cities that do work with this population, they’re usually geared more for working with young women in the trade.”

Taylor agrees that organizations and services see men as an afterthought. “I don’t think (people) can wrap their head around sex work and that men are vulnerable and can be exploited.”

McIntyre sought input from 157 male sex-trade workers in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and concluded they have no exit strategy. Her report, which paints a bleak picture for men who work as sex-trade workers, suggests comprehensive changes.

For most of the sex-trade workers it is “survival sex” — having enough money for food, shelter, clothing and often to support addictions. Although many are gay, others are “gay for pay.” More than 99 per cent of their customers are men, and they work for an average of nine years — double the time of their female counterparts.

“Young women can birth a baby, have a desire to have a child and that brings back state and family support. Young men do not have that option… it’s not something people are celebrating,” says McIntyre.

Seventy-five per cent of respondents reported sexual abuse and 85 per cent were physically assaulted before they ran away from home. They reported feeling shame and self-loathing. Even social workers who work with sex-trade workers report being uncomfortable dealing with them.

“That was really alarming for me. There’s an underlying sort of homophobia that goes with it,” says McIntyre.

Taylor says another reason why men are alone is that society has conditioned them to be strong and silent.

“Men are supposed to … feel no pain, not show their weaknesses and have greater perceived physical strength,” says Taylor, who got into the sex trade at 31 because he wanted to belong. Addictions followed before he finally left three years ago.

The California Supreme Court will issue its long-awaited decision on the validity of the state’s same-sex marriage ban on Tuesday.

The high court announced the pending opinion on its website Friday.
Prop 8 was passed by voters in November by a slim 52 percent. The initiative by conservative groups bans same-sex marriage in state.

The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights immediately filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the vote. They were joined by additional suits by the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles and a legal opinion by California Attorney General Jerry Brown.

The Supreme Court heard the case on March 5.

For the court there are three issues to be determined: Is Proposition 8 invalid because it constitutes a revision of, rather than an amendment to, the California Constitution?; Does Proposition 8 violate the separation of powers doctrine under the California Constitution?; and If Proposition 8 is not unconstitutional, what is its effect, if any, on the marriages of same-sex couples performed before the adoption of Proposition 8?

Arguing for the litigants was Shannon Minter, the NCLR attorney who earlier successfully argued the gay marriage case before the high court.

Minter told the court that Prop 8 should be ruled invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution’s core commitment to equality for everyone.

He also argued that Proposition 8 improperly attempted to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities.

Minter said that under the California Constitution, such radical changes to the organizing principles of state government cannot be made by a simple majority vote through the initiative process, but instead must, at a minimum, go through the state legislature first.

The Church of Scotland has voted in favor of appointing an openly gay minister - the latest case involving sexuality to create a division in the Anglican Communion.

The church’s ruling body voted 326 to 267 to support the appointment of the Rev. Scott Rennie, 37, who was previously married to a woman and is now in a relationship with a man.
Rennie was first appointed as a minister 10 years ago, but has faced opposition from some critics since he moved to a church in Aberdeen, Scotland, last year.

Protesters had lobbied the Kirk - the Church of Scotland’s ruling executive - over Rennie’s case, saying his appointment was not consistent with the teachings of the Bible.

“We are absolutely opposed to that on the basis of what God has to say about homosexuality in the Bible,” one opponent, Pastor Jack Bell of the Zion Baptist Church in Glasgow, Scotland, said.

The case has divided Scottish religious leaders and follows tensions within the worldwide 77 million-member Anglican Communion. About 900 elders and ministers took part in a debate on Rennie’s case, but many chose to abstain from casting a vote.

Anglicans have conducted lengthy debate over sexuality issues since the Episcopal Church - the Anglican body in the U.S. - consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in 2003.

Rennie said he believed religious conservatives were behind attempts to oust him from his post.

“The same talk was about when women were ordained and I think that argument suits those that don’t want any change,” he told Britain’s Sky News television on Saturday.

Following the vote to back Rennie, Scotland’s Equality and Human Rights Commission said the Church of Scotland had proven itself to be “a modern church for a modern Scotland.”

“We are certain that this decision will be welcomed by the majority of Scots and certainly the majority of Queen’s Cross parish in Aberdeen who overwhelmingly demonstrated their support for Mr. Rennie,” said Alyson Thomson, a commission spokeswoman.