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Gay couples who got married abroad could have their partnership recognised here as soon as the Government’s Civil Unions bill is introduced.

According to a report in today’s Irish Times, dozens of gay couples are already travelling to the UK and Canada to get married in advance of the eagerly anticipated bill.

Same sex civil partnerships and marriages that were obtained in other countries are expected to be recognised here as soon as the Civil Unions bill is introduced, under a number of conditions.

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The Government’s planned civil partnership scheme for gay and lesbian couples is likely to provide for the automatic legal recognition of civil unions or weddings in certain other countries, it has emerged.

Already, dozens of gay and lesbian couples are travelling to countries such as Canada and the UK to wed or obtain civil partnerships, in the hope their unions will be recognised in Irish law shortly.

Senior sources say that civil unions or weddings will have the same legal recognition as new civil partnerships in Ireland, as long as they meet a number of conditions.Such a provision is contained in civil partnership legislation in the UK, which recognises unions in almost 20 countries, including the US, Canada and France. Read the rest of this entry »

BERLIN — Six men whirled faster and faster in the center of the nightclub, arms slung over one another’s shoulders, performing a traditional circle dance popular in Turkey and the Middle East. Nothing unusual given the German capital’s large Muslim population

But most of the people filling the dance floor on Saturday at the club SO36 in the Kreuzberg neighborhood were gay, lesbian or bisexual, and of Turkish or Arab background. They were there for the monthly club night known as Gayhane, an all-too-rare opportunity to merge their immigrant cultures and their sexual identities.

European Muslims, so often portrayed one-dimensionally as rioters, honor killers or terrorists, live diverse lives, most of them trying to get by and to have a good time. That is more difficult if one is both Muslim and gay.

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A Spanish crowd estimated to exceed 10,000 people heard Pope Benedict XVI’s address, presented on a giant TV screen, in which the pontiff delivered an anti-gay family message.

Benedict, speaking from the Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Square, was greeted by cheers from a crowd of opponents to marriage equality in Madrid, reported the Irish newspaper The Belfast Telegraph (www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article3295981.ece) today.

The Belfast Telegraph article said that the crowd “roared” as the Pope delivered an address in which the pontiff said that families are “based on the unbreakable union of man and woman and represents the privileged environment where human life is welcomed and protected from the beginning to its natural end.”

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Britain’s senior Roman Catholic leader used his New Year message to praise marriage and deliver an implicit attack on the Government’s gay equality laws.

- Have you say: Do you agree with the Cardinal?

- Women who stop church ‘put health at risk’

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the head of the Church in England and Wales, said most parents did not want their children to be taught that marriage was just “one lifestyle choice among many”.

The cardinal said the traditional family remained central to the well-being of society but was being dangerously eroded.

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Few days went by without him being punched, kicked or tripped by classmates at Susquehanna Twp. High School.

The teenager, an openly gay boy described by friends as kind and compassionate, said he was constantly harassed, though he never reported it to anyone, not even his friends.

Finally, when some of his classmates told him to “go kill himself” to “make the world a better place,” the teen decided he’d had enough. He said he left school in the middle of his senior year because he could no longer bear the torment.

His departure inspired a petition by about 300 of his classmates calling for district administrators to prevent the same thing from happening to other students.

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Twenty-seven states have passed constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriages and next November, Florida could become the 28th.

But backers of the amendment shouldn’t expect Florida voters, most of whom do not approve of gay marriage, to be exercised about this issue during an election year in which there are so many other important matters to talk about.

Gay marriage is last season’s politics.

Besides, Florida already has a law outlawing marriage between people of the same sex, so formalizing a ban in the state constitution hardly merits front-burner status.

Florida law says a marriage made somewhere else between persons of the same sex is “not recognized for any purpose in this state.” The language is clear.

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BOSTON (AP) – Religious leaders who took opposing sides in Massachusetts’ turbulent gay marriage debate have found something to bring them together again: casino gambling.

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Do you remember the years you spent in high school? How about the pressure, social scrutiny, and the numerous other problems that you, as a teenager, dealt with daily? Now, imagine that you were to be faced with all of this, along with the confusion of your sexual orientation and the anxiety over the possibility of not being accepted by society, your friends and even your own family, over something that you cannot change.

We are responding to the commentary on Central’s Gay-Straight Alliance in the People’s Forum as well as at the Bay City Public School board meeting, both on Dec. 10.

We are members of the GSA and after reading the letter written by Kimberly Bublitz, we decided to attend the board meeting to hear her arguments. Toward the end of the meeting, audience members were allowed to speak and Mrs. Bublitz approached the microphone. Her argument was unjustifiable.

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(Fort Worth, Texas) Real estate agent Joel Burns has become the first openly gay member of Fort Worth City Council in a race that was marked by homophobia.

Burns defeated school trustee Juan Rangel Jr. a fellow Democrat, in a runoff election Tuesday.

During the campaign Republicans tried to use Burns’ sexuality as a wedge issue.

Fort Worth City Councilman Chuck Silcox told a GOP audience to vote for candidate Chris Turner for city council because he is both straight and a Republican, unlike his opponent.

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