Sister Margaret Farley, author of the book “Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics,” continues to support the cause for gay marriage even after she was silenced by the Vatican last year for her book. The Vatican ruled that Sister Farley’s book didn’t uphold Catholic moral teaching. Irish American Sister Farley graduated, taught and Read more
Yesterday new legislation redefining marriage as the “union of two people regardless of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity” took effect in New Zealand, and 31 officially recognised weddings of same-sex couples took place. Some of them, predictably, were media events sponsored by radio stations and public institutions. A lesbian couple had their ceremony on Read more
Paul McCarthy and Trent Kandler from Speers Point, near Newcastle, were married in front of 20 family members and friends in Wellington on Monday after winning a competition run by Tourism New Zealand to be the first Australian gay couple to be wed under New Zealand’s same-sex marriage laws. The competition aimed to capitalise on the Read more
The head of New Zealand’s third-largest church has asked its ministers to consider a temporary ban on gay weddings to preserve the church’s “peace and unity”. The call from Presbyterian Church Moderator Ray Coster comes as all the country’s biggest Protestant churches remain divided over how to respond to the legalisation of gay weddings, which Read more
As a sociologist my life is all about creating, taking and interpreting surveys of attitudes and opinions. So I sometimes feel a bit depressed at how knuckle-headed the media can be when reporting about research on same-sex marriage. Let’s look at a slogan which is being repeated over and over: Same-sex parents are just as Read more
A vicar has stepped in to marry a gay couple as part of a radio station competition after an Anglican parish was unable to host the ceremony. Reverend Dr Matt Tittle of the Auckland Unitarian Church in Ponsonby will officiate at the wedding of the couple that wins ZM’s Fabulous Gay Wedding competition. The broadcaster Read more
The battles over gay marriage are intense. And bitter. One must only look at the comboxes of Catholic blogs and websites to understand that. I have taken part in bitter debates as well. I probably shouldn’t even call them debates so much as exchanged accusations. Sometimes I’ll admit I sometimes opt for the witty verbal Read more
On what Catholic bishops called a “tragic day for marriage and our nation”, the United States Supreme Court has issued two major rulings in support of same-sex marriage. The court struck down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), defining marriage as between one man and one woman, and refused to rule Read more
A strong media bias towards same-sex marriage in the United States has been revealed in a study conducted by the independent Pew Research Center. An analysis of reporting during a period when the issue was before the US Supreme Court found that stories predominantly supporting same-sex marriage outweighed those predominantly opposing it by 5-1. This Read more
Before he ceases to be Prime Minster, Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi intends to get lesbians to marry gay men. That way there’ll be no more complaints from the law and clergy, Tuilaepa said. The solution he offered was part of a lighthearted keynote speech he delivered at the Samoa Fa’afafine Association’s (SFA) recent annual pageant. Males Read more