Tag Archives: Washington DC

DC GOP Adopts Inclusive Platform

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Becomes first state GOP delegation to adopt LGBT-inclusive language ahead of Republican National Convention

By John Riley, Metro Weekly

The D.C. Republican Committee, the District’s equivalent of a state party, has become the first Republican state party to endorse LGBT-inclusive language into its party platform ahead of the Republican National Convention, being held in Tampa, Fla., Aug. 27 to 30.

The part of the D.C. GOP platform dealing with ”Family and Marriage” now reads: ”We, the Republicans of the District of Columbia, support the belief that all individuals, without regard to sexual orientation, are entitled to full and equal protection under the laws and the Constitution and that everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Robert Turner II, president of the D.C. chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans and a newly elected member of the D.C. Republican Committee, announced the adoption of the platform language in a June 28 press release.

”We are excited to be a part of a state party who understands that inclusion wins!” Turner said in the release. ”Marriage equality is settled law here in the District. All citizens, including LGBT citizens, should be treated equally.”

Turner told Metro Weekly that he testified before the platform committee in June and offered LGBT-inclusive language. Although he didn’t get the exact wording he had hoped for, Turner said he was still happy with the outcome. The language Turner had proposed was more specific, referring to ”sexual orientation, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.”

State platforms will be considered at the August convention when the full GOP party platform is drafted.

via Metro Weekly.

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Gay Pride Weekend Draws Mormon Allies and Equality Supporters

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This weekend, organized contingents of Mormons marched in LGBT pride parades in 8 cities, from New York to Santiago de Chile, marking the high point in an historic season in LDS LGBT history that began with the Mormons Building Bridges Parade in Salt Lake City on June 3.

In Seattle, the Mormons for Marriage Equality contingent counted 55 marchers at the beginning of the Pride parade. As the group made its way down the parade path, an additional 20 Mormons left the sidelines to join, repeating scenes witnessed in Washington, DC, when the parade route became a site for reunions between active Mormons and gay Mormons long estranged from the faith community.

In New York City, 50 gay Mormons and allies marched behind the banner of Affirmation, the nation’s oldest Mormon LGBT group. Some held signs quoting a verse from the Book of Mormon: “All are alike unto God.” Nineteen LDS marchers held the Affirmation banner in Houston, as did an estimated 100 LDS LGBT and allied marchers in Santiago de Chile.

The largest contingent of the weekend gathered in San Francisco, where more than 100 LDS people gathered to march behind the Mormons for Marriage Equality banner, winning the parade’s award for “Absolutely Outrageous” contingent. Mitch Mayne, who is openly gay and holds a leadership position in his San Francisco LDS congregation, offered an opening prayer for the group. “I felt prompted to ask our Father to bless us with the capacity to be ambassadors of His unconditional love,” said Mayne.

-full report by Joanna Brooks at Religion Dispatches

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Catholics Protest Launch of the Bishops’ “Fortnight for Freedom” Campaign

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‘Washington Area Catholics Tell Cardinal Wuerl:

We Need Pastors, Not Politicians! Your Election Year Antics Are Hurting Our Church!’

Washington-(ENEWSPF)- Catholics for Equality, the country’s largest national political organization of pro-LGBT equality Catholics, joined hands today with several fair-minded and faithful Catholic social justice groups in organizing a peaceful protest outside the Archdiocese of Washington, DC’s rally promoting the U.S. bishops’ “Fortnight for Freedom” election year political campaign. The Catholic groups came together with prayers and hymns under one giant united banner which read, Bishops: We Need Pastors, Not Politicians, Your Antics are Hurting the Church.

The peaceful protest took place outside a rally held at George Washington University’s Charles E. Smith Center. The special event presided over by Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl was billed as a prayerful service, but was in fact a political campaign rally to motivate Catholics to vote against the re-election of President Obama because of the Health Care Reform Act and his support for LGBT equality. Wuerl and his fellow bishops claim that the exemptions provided in the Act are not sufficient for the Catholic Church and that they are being victimized by the federal government. Furthermore, the bishops claim that the Act is the greatest infringement upon religious liberty in American history and see themselves as martyrs like St. Thomas More, St. John Fischer, and others in church history

-full press release at Catholics for Equality

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