New Hampshire House to Weigh Gay Marriage Repeal Vote

By Norma Love

Concord, New Hampshire - New Hampshire lawmakers are considering whether to take the first step toward making their state legislature the first one to repeal a gay marriage law, even as the governor threatens a veto.

But regardless of the final outcome of the push to repeal the 2-year-old gay marriage law, both sides are pledging to continue fighting into the fall elections.

The bill, scheduled for a House vote on Wednesday, calls for repealing gay marriage in March 2013 and replacing it with a civil unions law that had been in place in 2008 and 2009. Gay marriages occurring before the repeal took effect would still be valid, but future gay unions would be civil unions. The bill also would allow voters could weigh in through a nonbinding November ballot question.

If the House passes the repeal measure, it would go to the Senate; both houses are controlled by Republicans. Democratic Gov. John Lynch has promised to veto the bill if it reaches his desk.

A two-thirds vote of the Legislature is required to override a veto. Opponents of a repeal have lobbied hard in the House in the hopes of achieving a narrower margin if the bill passes on Wednesday. The House would be the first chamber to take up an override vote if Lynch vetoes the bill, and if it failed to muster two-thirds, the measure would die.

Repeal opponents hope to solidify what they argue is public support for gay marriage, while supporters hope to reverse the law in a region of the country that gay rights groups have strength.

The National Organization for Marriage has pledged to spend $250,000 to help lawmakers running for re-election who support repealing the law. On the other side, the New Hampshire Republicans of Freedom and Equality PAC is raising money to back Republicans who vote to retain it.

If the law is repealed, a lawsuit is expected to be filed arguing New Hampshire's law discriminates against gays who no longer can get married.

Democrats enacted both the civil unions and gay marriage laws when they controlled the Legislature, and Lynch signed both. After Republicans took control of the House and Senate in 2010, repeal legislative was introduced, but held over until this year.

The repeal legislation, sponsored by state Rep. David Bates, would ensure the 1,906 existing same-sex marriages would remain valid if the gay marriage law is repealed. Bates said it would replace the current "illegitimate definition" of marriage with one defining it as between one man and one woman.

Same-sex marriage is legal in New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, Washington and the District of Columbia. New Jersey lawmakers recently passed a gay marriage bill, but the governor vetoed it. An override vote could come as late as January 2014.

Since 1998, 31 states have had ballot measures related to same-sex marriage, and opponents have prevailed in every state. Those states include Maine, where voters in 2009 rejected the state's gay-marriage law.

Last month, a federal appeals court declared California's same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional. The ruling could mean the bitterly contested, voter-approved law will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Odd Stories: Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Pro-gay Marriage

Montpelier, Vermont/England - Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s is supporting gay marriage in Britain by repackaging an apple pie flavor as “Apple-y Ever After.”

The Vermont-based subsidiary of the global food and cosmetics conglomerate Unilever is issuing the newly labeled ice cream in the United Kingdom as the British Parliament begins debating legislation that would allow same-sex couples to marry.

When Vermont passed such a law two years ago, the company celebrated by briefly repackaging its “Chubby Hubby” ice cream as “Hubby Hubby.”

Ben & Jerry’s has been involved in progressive political causes since its founding in 1978.

The company’s Liz Stewart says the gender of married spouses matters less than their love and commitment.

Evangelist Sued in U.S. for Inciting Anti-Gay Hatred in Uganda

By Charundi Panagoda and Jim Lobe

Washington D.C./Uganda - A major U.S. civil rights group filed a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts Wednesday on behalf of a Ugandan gay rights organisation, the Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG), against a right-wing evangelist leader for inciting hatred against homosexuals that has led to increased violence against LGBT persons in the East African country.

The lawsuit was filed by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in the home state of Scott Lively, the defendant, who heads the Abiding Truth Ministries, a fundamentalist Christian group.

He is also the author of "The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party", a 1995 book that claimed Nazism was created and propagated by homosexuals, and a second book, "Seven Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child", a how-to guide for parents to "prevent" their children from becoming homosexual.

"Lively has been the man with the plan in this enterprise," said Pam Spees, a senior CCR staff attorney.

"He long ago set out a very specific and detailed methodology for stripping away the most basic human rights protections, to silence and ultimately disappear LGBT people. Unfortunately, he found willing accomplices and fertile ground in Uganda," she said.

Reached at the coffee house he owns in Springfield, Massachusetts, Lively, who has not been served yet, harshly denounced the lawsuit, which is being brought under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), a 1789 anti-piracy law that, since 1980, has been used by foreign nationals to sue corporations and foreign individuals for human rights abuses committed overseas.

"It's a frivolous lawsuit. Everything that they are alleging is speech, and speech is not actionable. You can't bring a lawsuit in the United States saying that someone is legally liable for their speech." he told IPS.

He called the claims against him "just outrageous" and "without basis".

Lively began working with Ugandan anti-gay forces in 2002. According to CCR, he headed a conference in 2009 with Stephen Langa, another U.S. evangelist, titled "Seminar on Exposing the Homosexual Agenda", in which he characterised the gay movement as an "evil institution".

In the same presentation, Lively told audiences that homosexuals were a threat to children, committed child rape and "recruited" children into homosexuality.

Among the attendees, who included prominent politicians and members of the media, was Ugandan parliamentarian David Bahati. One month later, Bahati introduced the "Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill", which criminalised gay-rights advocacy, depriving LGBT activists of freedom of assembly, association and the right to be free of discrimination. It also called for the death penalty for being a "serial offender for the offense of homosexuality".

At the same time, Ugandan tabloids and state-owned media called openly for persecuting homosexuals in what became a major campaign against them. After a number of attacks against homosexuals, many went into hiding.

In January 2011, an outspoken gay rights activist and chief litigation officer for SMUG, David Kato, was beaten to death in his neighbourhood after one tabloid published a photo of him and other advocates headlined "Hang Them".

The murder drew international attention and strong denunciations from Western governments, including the U.S. and Britain, some of which threatened to cut aid to Uganda unless the pending bill was withdrawn.

The bill was shelved under international pressure but was reintroduced in October last year.

Gay rights advocates pointed specifically to U.S. evangelicals, including Lively and Langa, a member of the Washington-based extreme- right Christian group the Fellowship, as responsible for stoking the anti-gay hysteria that resulted in the death of Kato.

"U.S evangelical leaders like Scott Lively have actively and intensively worked to eradicate any trace of LGBT advocacy and identity...His influence has been incredibly harmful and destructive for LGBT Ugandans fighting for their rights," said Frank Mugisha, executive director of SMUG, who received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in 2011 for his work promoting LGBT rights amidst the hostile climate in Uganda.

"We have to stop people like Scott Lively from helping to codify and give legal cover to hatred," he said.

Lively asserted that he is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which guarantees free speech.

"If you put everything I've said in context, nothing I said could motivate someone to hurt a homosexual. It's taken out of context. They're liars; they're being dishonest," he told IPS in a telephone interview.

But Heidi Beirich, director of the intelligence project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said Lively's anti-gay propaganda "is not harmless". The center characterised his Abiding Truth Ministries as a "hate group" in 2008.

"When you lie about people, saying they cause genocide or they are Nazis, it often makes these populations vulnerable to violence," Beirich told IPS.

"Lively is being ridiculous," she said, "He's (in Uganda) saying anti-gay things and riling up the population to pass this disgusting legislation. He may have a right to free speech, but he needs to be held responsible for what he says as well."

The Alien Tort Statute has attracted considerable controversy as a tool for foreigners to hold alleged human rights abusers accountable in U.S. courts for their activities overseas. The Supreme Court upheld its use for that purpose in 2005 but is expected to review it again in June.

CCR said the suit against Lively marks the first time the statute has been wielded by victims of persecution on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.