Word: gays
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...that strategy is under renewed scrutiny among gay activists, some of whom are calling for a more pointed and even confrontational approach. "While time may be on our side, if we leave these issues up to the voters to eventually change or overturn, there is no telling how much time it will take," says Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign in Louisville, Ky. Hartman's group has successfully pushed for a local ordinance giving gays there protection against discrimination at work and in housing, but so far has been unsuccessful in convincing lawmakers to allow gay marriage. "LGBT...
...nature and human history have revealed it, cannot be separated from the pursuit of justice. You can't have justice, he argues, if the truth of marriage between one man and one woman as a cornerstone of human society is denied. (See a pictorial history of the gay-rights movement in America...
Kurtz's archdiocese is the state's largest and most influential in Kentucky, itself a bulwark in the opposition to gay marriage. In 2004, voters in the state overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment forbidding gay marriage, despite the fact that it was already illegal. In part because of that vote and subsequent ones like it, Kurtz and his fellow bishops will find considerable wind in their sails when they gather next week to discuss the new pastoral letter and hear Kurtz on the bishops' efforts to defend traditional marriage through education and through active engagement in the political process...
...church's renewed determination to speak out for traditional marriage comes at the end of a year in which advocates for gay marriage saw some big wins, including Iowa's landmark decision to allow gay marriage, bookended by their two biggest defeats. When voters rejected gay marriage in California a year ago, some activists in other parts of the country warned that supporters had pushed too hard for marriage in liberal states, inflaming the opposition to a broad array of gay rights. But those concerns were mostly ignored, as many other activists insisted that time was on the side...
Even as Catholic prelates are contemplating more extensive political engagement, grassroots gay activists are now debating how aggressive they should be in their pursuit of changing the laws regarding marriage. Hartman said more ordinary gay and lesbian people are going to spread their message themselves, rather than leaving it to national gay-rights-campaign officials and full-time activists. "People are getting angrier," Hartman says. "More and more people are beginning to feel empowered to take the fight for their rights into their own hands, and I believe we will see them confront their legislators face-to-face with greater...