Malawian Tiwonge Chimbalanga Facing 14 Year Prison Sentence Remains Defiant, Iowa Married Lesbian Couple Suing State For Refusing To Include Both Parents Name On Baby Birth Certificate, Ryan Murphy Welcomes Ramin Setoodeh To Glee Set, Megan Mullally, Alan Cumming , And SAG Meanwhile Continue The Condemnation Of Setoodeh Is Still Says He Is Being Attacked

Tiwonge Chimbalanga and partner Steven Monjeza are to return to a Malawi court Tuesday, facing the possibility of being sentenced to 14 years in prison with hard labour after the couple, 20 and 26 years old, committed to marriage at a symbolic ceremony in late December, and were arrested two days later, charged with three counts of unnatural acts between men and gross indecency. They have been remained in custody since their arrest, repeatedly denied bail. According to reports, Tiwonge Chimbalanga remains defiant, saying “I love Steven so much. If people or the world cannot give me the chance and freedom to continue living with him as my lover, then I am better off to die here in prison. Freedom with him is useless and meaningless,” adding that “we have come a long way and even if our family relatives are not happy, I will never stop loving Tiwonge.” There are reports that even if the men are to found not guilty and set free, they will not be allowed to return to their homes.

Heather Lynn Martin Gartner and her wife Melissa McCoy Gartner have filed a lawsuit against two Iowa health officials, after the Department of Public Health refused to name both women of their daughter’s birth certificate. The couple, married in Des Moines in 2009, were told this March that their second child, daughter Mackenzie, born in September, 2009, would have only her biological mother – Heather – listed on the birth certificate. Additionally, the certificate labels Mackenzie as being born out of wedlock. The Department of Health contends that Melissa Gartner has not legally adopted Mackenzie and is not biologically related. Iowa Department of Public Health Director Tom Newton, named in the lawsuit, said his office will fight the suit, contending that current Iowa law only allows the name of a “husband” to appear on birth certificates when the mother is married, unless a judge permits parental rights to another individual. The lawsuit argues that “this disparate treatment denies Mackenzie the dignity, legitimacy, security, support and protections available to children of married different-sex parents.”

Ryan Murphy has written another open letter, announcing that the reprehensible Ramin Setoodeh, author of the article that appeared online at Newsweek suggesting that gay actors cannot play straight, while straight actors can play gay, has accepted Murphy’s offer “to sit with myself and the writers of Glee – Brad Falcuk and Ian Brennan – to discuss not only why we found the piece so offensive, but also to observe our creative process and see how we construct a TV show dedicated exclusively to the idea of inclusiveness and acceptance for all – ideas solely absent in his Straight Jacket article.” Megan Mullally, who starred with Sean Haynes – one of the actors Setoodeh’s initial article centered on as being unbelievable in a heterosexual role – in the landmark network sitcom Will & Grace, was asked about the story and said “It’s just beyond comprehension. That the article was written and the editor allowed it to go out online is beyond comprehension. They should be ashamed of themselves.” Alan Cumming has authored a much more, um, forceful condemnation of the self-hating Setoodeh, Alan writing on his blog that “it is my contention that Ramin Setoodeh is not happy with himself. He has particular shame about being gay. He sees gayness, particularly open and unabashed gayness, or effeminacy, as a reminder of what he does not like about himself. And so he attacks it. His own shame translates into his paralysis when thinking of others who might have his own curse and yet be able to function fully and happily within the rest of the world: a child chasing his friends around a playground in high heels: an actor who he knows is publicly gay but feels he needs to re-out to make himself feel better about his own self-loathing and lack of acceptance of his most basic needs and happiness. As someone who is only a decade or so immigrant to these shores, I have noticed that shame is one of America’s biggest exports, imbibed more domestically than overseas, and Mr. Setoodeh could easily manage its Gay division.” The Screen Actors Guild also weighed in, releasing a statement Thursday condemning Setoodeh for positing an argument that pressures “actors to stay in the closet.”