Supreme Court: Vatican can be sued in child sex abuse case

It's been a rough couple days for the Vatican. Last week, in Belgium, police raided Catholic Church offices as part of an investigation of child rape cases. The Pope had a hissy fit over that.

And, today, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the Vatican's appeal of a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision, which determined that the Vatican can be sued the sexual abuse perpetrated by of one of its employees, a Catholic priest:

The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to consider whether the Vatican has legal immunity over the sexual abuse of minors by priests in the United States, allowing a lawsuit filed in 2002 to go forward.

The nation's highest court, asked to rule on a U.S. appeals court decision that cleared the way for the lawsuit to proceed, rejected the Vatican's immunity appeal without comment.

The lawsuit, filed by a plaintiff identified only as John Doe, claimed he was sexually abused on several occasions in the mid-1960s when he was 15 or 16 by a Roman Catholic priest named Father Andrew Ronan.

According to court documents, Ronan molested boys in the mid-1950s as a priest in Ireland and then in Chicago before his transfer to a church in Portland, Oregon, where he allegedly abused the victim who filed the lawsuit. Ronan died in 1992.

Let's just say, the Vatican is done deep pocket. And, the Pope has been acting like the Vatican and its resources are off-limits to lawsuits. Not anymore.

How do you think Benedict will hold up in a deposition? Read More...

Costs multiply simply for being a gay couple

Not only are we denied the civil right of marriage equality in our nation, but gay couples also pay much more for less than straight couples. Longevity of our relationships means nothing. Straight couples who engage in serial marriages get immediate federal and state financial breaks versus gay couples who have been together for decades.

Take taxes. In states that recognize same-sex unions, couples may file joint state returns and claim the benefits offered married couples. But the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act prevents the Internal Revenue Service from accepting joint returns from gay couples.

Research by The Williams Institute, a UCLA think tank focused on sexual orientation law and policy shows the additional costs extend well beyond the price of preparing another tax return. For instance, health insurance benefits for domestic partners are taxed as income, but not for married couples. The researchers found this one item adds, on average, more than $1,000 per year to a couple's tax bill.

Same-sex couples are also disadvantaged when it comes to inheritance and estate taxes. Federal law generally allows married people to transfer an unlimited amount to their spouse at death without paying estate taxes — but not same-sex couples. That rule cost them about $3.3 million last year, according to The Williams Institute.

Of course, don't think for a moment the extra costs we are fined by institutions and our government for being gay doesn't enter into the decision to keep us oppressed and second class citizens. Read More...

Threatened by Archbishop, Catholic marchers carry blank banner in gay pride parade

Over the weekend, Pope Benedict was having a meltdown because Belgian police raided church offices in connection with an investigation into the child rape scandal.

In New York, Archbishop Dolan was having a meltdown because one of the city's parishes, St. Francis Xavier, wanted to march in the gay pride parade. Dolan issued an edict that the church's parishioners couldn't march in the parade with a banner naming the parish. So, via Andy Towle, we learned they didn't. They marched with a blank banner.

Benedict and Dolan's actions over the weekend speak volumes about the state of the Catholic Church's leadership today. The church has a horrible history of protecting and enabling the child rapists in its midst. But, the church's leaders would rather focus on hating the gays. Sick bunch. Read More...

BREAKING: Supreme Court rules college doesn't have to recognize group that discriminates against gays

Important anti-discrimination decision announced by the Supreme Court this morning, as the Justice near the end of the session:

The Supreme Court says a law school can legally deny recognition to a Christian student group that won't let gays join.

The court on Monday turned away an appeal from the Christian Legal Society, which sued to get funding and recognition from the University of California's Hastings College of the Law.

The CLS requires that voting members sign a statement of faith and regards "unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle" as being inconsistent with that faith.

But Hastings said no recognized campus groups may exclude people due to religious belief or sexual orientation.

We'll have more once we've seen the decision. It was written by Justice Ginsburg.

UPDATE @ 11:50 a.m.: I posted the decision here. Justice Ginsburg was joined by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor, Stevens and Kennedy. Both Stevens and Kennedy wrote concurring opinions.

The dissent was written by Alito. He was joined by the usual suspects: Scalia, Thomas and Roberts. Read More...

LGBT History 101: Meet Storme DeLarverie who 'paved the way for all of us'

Mike Signorile pointed us to the story of Storme DeLarverie:

If you don't know who Storme DeLarverie is, you should read this article in The New York Times about the Stonewall veteran, now 89 and suffering from dementia. Her life and story are something we must not forget as we celebrate Gay Pride and LGBT history this month across the country, over 40 years since Stonewall:

Ms. DeLarverie fought the police in 1969 at the historic riot at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village that kicked off the gay rights movement. The first gay pride parade in 1970 was not a parade at all but a protest marking the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.

Some writers believe Ms. DeLarverie may have been the cross-dressing lesbian whose clubbing by the police was the catalyst for the riots (the woman has never been identified). While others are adamant that Ms. DeLarverie was not that woman, no one disputes that she was there, and no one doubts that the woman who had been fighting back all her life fought back in the summer of 1969.

The NY Times article is titled, "A Stonewall Veteran, 89, misses the Parade." And, it includes this paragraph:

“The young gays and lesbians today have never heard of her,” Ms. Cannistraci said, “and most of our activists are young. They’re in their 20s and early 30s. The community that’s familiar with her is dwindling.”

Storme is LGBT history. We tend to know the names of the people who blocked our rights, but not the names of the pioneers who fought for our rights.

Mike writes:

Surely there is more we can do to honor Storme DeLarverie, starting with knowing that she refused to be treated as a second class citizen, stood up to authority and paved the way for all of us.

Read More...

Socarides on MSNBC talks Obama's LGBT record; says Obama must be for marriage before 2012

Last week, Richard Socarides wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled, Obama is Missing in Action on Gay Right." John posted it here. Yesterday, Richard was on MSNBC talking about his op-ed -- and Obama's record. Richard thinks Obama will have to come out for marriage equality before the 2012 reelection. I think he's right:
Read More...