According to an internal memo sent last week by the United States Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, all American diplomats will be offered equal protections and benefits for same-sex partners. A copy of the memo, addressed by Clinton to an association of gay and lesbian Foreign Service employees, read in part that “like all families, our Foreign Service families come in different configurations; all are part of the common fabric of our post communities abroad.”
The California Day of Decision is this Tuesday, the State Supreme Court releasing its ruling on legal challenges to Proposition 8 and to the validity of eighteen-thousand same-sex marriage performed between June, 2008, and November 4th, 2008, when the ballot measure amendment – Prop 8 – took effect. There are a number of predicted responses to the ruling, including a calling by several religious groups asking their members to engage in acts of civil disobedience if the Court strikes down Proposition 8, like blocking access to the Supreme Court’s headquarters in San Francisco. Regardless of the outcome, the battle over gay marriage is far from over in the state, whose once thought progressive ballot amendment measures act almost guarantees an endless back and
forth.
Saturday, the Church of Scotland voted to uphold a decision to install an openly gay minister, the first gay minister to serve in the Church’s history. The Reverend Scott Rennie, a thirty-seven year old divorced father of one, told the BBC that he was “personally hurt” by the uproar that greeted the initial decision and by the conflict that accompanied the debate, that was, typically, decidedly un-Christian in tone and topic.
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