Md. Rep. Hoyer’s daughter says she is gay
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NNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – The daughter of Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer has disclosed she is a lesbian. Iowa-Neb. NAACP Leader Stefany Hoyer Hemmer told the WashResigns Over Gay Marriage ington Blade, a gay newspaper, that she is gay. She says she made ES MOINES, the announcement in Iowa (AP) – part to show her supThe presiport for Maryland’s gay dent of the Iowa and marriage law, which will Nebraska conference likely be decided by of NAACP branches voters in a November has resigned over the referendum. group’s national board Hemmer told The resolution to support Baltimore Sun that it was gay marriage. important for her to go KCCI-TV in Des public with her sexual Moines says Wednesorientation because of day that Rev. Keith Rev. Keith Ratliff Sr. her father’s visibility on a Ratliff Sr. resigned from local and national level. the National Association for the AdvanceHemmer, who is 43, lives in Talbot County ment of Colored People and as president of on the Eastern Shore. She says she has lived the state conference. with a partner for the past 18 months. She Ratliff, of Maple Street Missionary Baptist also says that friends and family, including Church in Des Moines, has long opposed her father, have known she is gay. gay-marriage. He said he was struggling with the group’s endorsement made during a leadership retreat in Miami last month Majority Say Ravi and was uncertain about his future with Sentence Not Enough the NAACP. The Iowa/Nebraska Conference RENTON, N.J. (AP) – A new poll includes Ames, Burlington, Cedar Rapids, finds a majority of New Jersey Davenport, Des Moines and Sioux City in residents believe a former Rutgers Iowa and Nebraska branches in Lincoln University student convicted of using a and Omaha. webcam to spy on his gay roommate got a
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individual units to accept gays as adult leaders, but a spokesman says there’s no expectation that the ban on gay leaders will in fact be lifted any time soon. The resolution was submitted by a Scout leader from the Northeast in April and presented last week at the Scouts’ national meeting in Orlando, Fla., according to BSA spokesman Deron Smith. Smith said Wednesday it would be referred to a subcommittee, which will then make a recommendation to the national executive board. The process would likely be completed by May 2013, according to Smith, who said there were no plans at this time to change the policy. During last week’s meeting, the Scouts were presented with The Marble Church in Copenhagen a petition, bearing more than 275,000 names, protesting Denmark Approves Gay the ouster of a lesbian mother, Jennifer Weddings in Church Tyrrell, who’d been serving as a Scout den OPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – mother near Bridgeport, Ohio. Denmark’s Parliament has apAmong those who presented the Change. proved a law allowing same-sex org petition, and met with Scout officials, couples to get married in formal church was Eagle Scout Zach Wahls, an Iowa college weddings instead of the short blessing cerstudent who was raised by lesbian mothers. emonies that the state’s Lutheran Church Wahls, in a telephone interview, said he currently offers. and his allies planned a campaign to mobilize Lawmakers voted 85-24 on Thursday to opposition to the gay-exclusion policy from change Denmark’s marriage laws. within Scout ranks, with the goal of building The law takes effect June 15 and will put pressure for the resolution to be approved. Denmark on par with countries such as “Up to the day they end this policy, they’ll Iceland and Sweden that allow full wedding be saying they have no plans to do so,’’ ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples. Wahls said. “But there’s no question it’s In 1989, Denmark became the first councosting the Boy Scouts in terms of memtry to allow the registration of gay partnerbership and public support.’’ ships. Since 1997 gay couples in Denmark The Scouts, who celebrated their 100th can be wed in special blessing ceremonies anniversary in 2010, have had a long-standat the end of regular church service. ing policy of excluding gays and atheists. Controversy over the policy intensified in 2000 when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Scouts to Review Ban on the Scouts to maintain the policy in the face Gays; No Change Imminent of a legal challenge. Leaders of several regional scouting EW YORK (AP) – The Boy councils have asked for the policy to be Scouts of America will review scrapped or modified, to no avail. a resolution that would allow
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lenient sentence. Dharun Ravi (dah-ROON’ RAH’-vee) was sentenced May 21 to 30 days in jail, three years probation, counseling and 300 hours of community service. He could have received up to 10 years in prison. The Rutgers-Eagleton poll released Thursday found 51 percent of respondents said Ravi’s sentence for bias intimidation and invasion of privacy convictions in the Tyler Clementi case was “not tough enough.’’ Thirty-nine percent think Ravi got “the sentence he deserves,’’ while seven percent believe it was “too tough.’’ The poll surveyed 1,191 adults from May 31-June 4 and has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
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June 13, 2012 • SouthFloridaGayNews.com