Saskatchewan Justice Minister Says He Respects Ruling That Marriage Commissioners Cannot Opt Out Of Performing Same Sex Ceremonies But Continues To Look For Solutions, Saskatchewan Conservative MP Vellacott Condemns Ruling Saying It Forces Individuals Of Faith To Keep Closeted, Lesbian Former University Of Minnesota Women’s Golf Coach Serves School Suit Alleging Human Rights Violated, Despite Repeal Of DADT Transgender Service Members Remain Automatically Disqualified

Despite a ruling Monday by the province’s highest court that said two proposed options to allow marriage commissioners to opt out of performing same sex ceremonies, the Saskatchewan Justice Minister Don Morgan said Tuesday that he continues to seek options for those who claim that they do not want to marry gay or lesbian couples, and announced he is looking at Ontario’s “single-entry point” system, according to a report by CBC. That system allows those seeking a marriage commissioner to look at one list if they are heterosexual and one list if they are homosexual. Morgan said “I don’t think we want to circumvent the court’s decision or do anything that would interfere with anybody’s rights. I think what we have is we have an option that was raised by the court. We have a duty to consider what the ramifications of doing it or not doing it are.” In the ruling made Monday, Justice Robert Richards, who wrote the opinion, said that Ontario’s system would be beneficial in that “there would be no risk of the couple approaching a commissioner and being refused services because of their sexual orientation.”

Meanwhile, according to the Toronto Sun, Saskatchewan Member of Parliament Maurice Vellacott, demonstrating a profound misunderstanding of public service, condemned the ruling by Court of Appeals, Vellacott writing Justice Minister Morgan that “The Court has hereby belittled religious faith by writing if off as something ‘you do in your head or on weekends’ without impacting all of a person’s life.” The anti-gay, far-right conservative Christian told reporters that the ruling represents “a serious misunderstanding of Christian faith or any faith for that matter,” adding “We talk about people being in the closet, well now they are saying somebody of a faith perspective is supposed to keep it in the closet.”

A former University of Minnesota women’s golf coach served a suit against the school Tuesday, Kathryn Brenny alleging that athletic department officials demoted her of all coaching duties after the golf director discovered she is lesbian, the Star-Tribune reports. The 16 page complaint, which Brenny’s attorney says will be filed in court Wednesday, alleges that Gopher’s golf director John Harris violated her rights as a member of a protected class under the state Human Rights Act, the complaint arguing that Harris’ treatment of Brenny was tantamount to sexual harassment and the university made Brenny a victim of “reprisal” by changing her original job description, and transferred to a sales job. The complaint emphasising that Harris “did not want to hire a homosexual to coach the women’s golf team.” The University of Minnesota general counsel Mark Rotenberg has previously denied those allegations, but was not available for comment Tuesday.

The Associated Press profiles United States transgender veterans, including former Petty Officer First Class Autumn Sandeen, the transgender who served in the Navy for twenty years as a man, and who was the only transgender among six veterans arrested in April while protesting the military policy prohibiting openly gay service personal. That policy is currently being repealed, but the repeal will not apply to transgender recruits, who are automatically disqualified as unfit for service. Current military regulations state that men and women who identify with or present a gender different from their sex at birth are considered to have a mental condition that render them ineligible to serve, those who have undergone gender reassignment surgery are classified as having a physical abnormality, and service members caught cross-dressing on a military base face court martial for interfering with “good order and discipline.” Sandeen is among many who remain hopeful that the United States will reverse that stance, and will soon join Canada, Israel, and the United Kingdom in allowing transgender armed service members. According to former Army Capitan Allyson Robinson, a 1994 West Point graduate, where she attended as a male, says “There is really is no question, it’s just a matter of when. There are active-duty, as well as reserve and national guard transgender service members, serving today.”