The Alliance for Marriage, a coalition of religious groups backing the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment to ban same-sex marriage, has a slight problem. As this Washington Post story indicates, the anti-gay Christian groups want both anti-gay Islamic groups and anti-gay Jewish groups in the alliance (apparently, they're committed multiculturalists). But the anti-gay Jewish groups and the anti-gay Islamic groups seem actually to hate each other more than they hate gays. So the Islamic groups have now left.
Alas, as the Post reports:
Both supporters and opponents of the alliance said the departures are unlikely to have much political impact, because the Muslim groups still support the alliance's goal".
So gay-bashing may prove to be the ultimate uniter, after all.
Another look at Islamic homophobia is provided by this sad story, also from the Post, about a gay Palestinian living illegally in Tel Aviv with his Israeli lover. He can't stay in Israel, thanks to the Intifada, and he can't go back to the West Bank either, because of Arab homophobia.
The Sanctity of Marriage, Again.
State Sen. Bill Stephens, sponsor of a proposed amendment to Georgia's constitution that would ban gay marriage, is getting some unwelcome publicity. As reported in the Southern Voice, Stephens was married for 15 years and had two sons before he and his wife divorced in 1991, "in part because she heard persistent allegations that he was having an extramarital affair," the paper says.
Moreover, "The Catholic Church granted a religious annulment in
1996, clearing the way for him to remarry." Thus, the church
rendered the little Stephenses bastards in its eyes, all in the
name of upholding the sanctity of marriage by refusing to recognize
divorce so that a homophobe could stay a faithful Catholic while
leaving his wife and then campaigning to prevent gays from
marrying.
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