...[N]early six in 10 [Marylanders] support allowing gay and lesbian couples to form civil unions, according to a new Washington Post poll...

In the new poll, nearly six in 10, or 57 percent, support civil unions, up significantly from nearly four years ago, when 44 percent were in favor...39 percent oppose them...

A national poll last year found that 45 percent supported civil unions and 48 percent opposed them...

On the same-sex marriage issue, 51 percent said they oppose allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry, and 44 percent said they support changing the law to allow that...

The poll found striking differences on gay marriage and civil union based on age and how often people attend religious services.

Among those who rarely attend religious services, 61 percent support gay marriage and 73 percent support civil unions. Among those who attend services at least weekly, only 25 percent support gay marriage and 37 percent support civil unions.

Among those younger than 40, 55 percent support gay marriage and 64 percent support civil unions. Among those 65 and older, 30 percent support gay marriage and 44 percent support civil unions...

And although nearly two-thirds of Democrats and independents support civil unions, 61 percent of Republicans are opposed.

On gay marriage, about six in 10 Republicans and independents are opposed. Democrats are closely divided, with 49 percent supporting and 45 percent opposing.

Fifty-nine percent of white Marylanders favor civil unions. Blacks are split, with 46 percent supporting and 48 percent opposing them. Meanwhile, 59 percent of African Americans oppose same-sex marriage, and white are split, with 50 percent supporting and 45 percent opposing...

Sometimes the good guy wins. On Oct. 22, a Worcester, [MA] jury acquitted Larry Cirignano of criminal charges stemming from much disputed events at a marriage rally held in front of the Worcester city hall last year.

At the time the criminal complaint was filed, Larry was the executive director of the Boston-based lay group Catholic Citizenship, an ally on public policy issues for the state’s Catholic bishops. Larry was accused, wrongly, of pushing a counter-demonstrator to the ground, and causing her to bang her head on the sidewalk...

[The counter-demonstrator] filed criminal charges for assault and battery and later added a civil rights complaint, arguing that Larry denied her constitutional right of free speech.

Then the indignant drum began to beat as the Internet and presses hummed with condemnation. One e-headline screamed “Catholics Don’t Care Who They Bash on This Issue!” Another blogger argued that the upcoming trial would present “one of the many opportunities to inform the extreme right wing sorts that they can’t count on getting away with stifling others, much less physically attacking them.” Even Boston commentator John Keller took up knife and fork, roasting Larry in a chapter entitled “What Hate Does” in his new book “The Bluest State.”...

At the October trial...the civil rights complaint [was] thrown out [by the judge]...[and] to the shock of all those who had Larry convicted before proven guilty, the jury decided in Larry’s favor.

The worrisome part of this story is the degree to which supporters of same-sex marriage appeared willing to tar and feather an opponent of their view, regardless of the evidence. The encouraging part is that the system of justice, consistent with its promise, did actually prevail in this case. Thank God the attacks on Larry were tripped by the evidence...

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Gay men, but not lesbians, face discrimination at work, earning up to 23 percent less than married men in some jobs, according to a new study...

[Researchers] found that gay men working in management and blue-collar jobs make less money than straight men due to discrimination by their employers...

The study found that gay men who live together earn 23 percent less than married men, and 9 percent less than unmarried heterosexual men who live with a woman...

But [the researchers] found that lesbians are not discriminated against when compared with heterosexual women.

[They] said although negative attitudes toward lesbians could affect them, lesbians may actually benefit from the perception that they are more career-focused and less likely to leave the labor market to raise children than heterosexual women...

WASHINGTON - A plumber and a millionaire squared off in Mississippi over [the plumber’s wife. She] chose the rich guy. The plumber sued the millionaire and won more than $750,000...including $112,000 in punitive damages. The state Supreme Court upheld the verdict...

Now [the millionaire] wants the Supreme Court to step in and limit what a spurned spouse can collect through a lawsuit that claims "alienation of affection."...[He says] he shouldn't have to pay [the] $112,000 in punitive damages, citing an earlier high court decision overturning state criminal laws against gay sex to bolster his case. He is not contesting the rest of the judgment...

Shelby Duke Goza, [the millionaire’s lawyer], argues that the punitive damages in this case are a state-sanctioned penalty for intimate conduct, something the Supreme Court outlawed when it overturned state sodomy laws in 2003.

In that decision, the high court said that sexual relations the government may not want to encourage can still be pursued by individuals without fear of criminal punishment.

"There is simply no rational basis for state sanctioned punishment of intimate association between consenting adults," Goza said in a filing asking the court to block payment until it decides whether to grant [the] appeal...

Mississippi is one of only seven states that still allows lawsuits by people who claim someone stole their wife or husband. The others are Hawaii, Illinois, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota and Utah...

According to new Swedish research, divorce and other traumatic family events increase the risk that children will suffer from diabetes.

Some 17,000 children have been studied over a ten year period.

Professor and Senior Physician Johnny Ludvigsson of the University Hospital in Linköping tells the newspaper “Östgöta-Correspondenten” that this is the first time it has been possible to establish that psychological stress within a family is linked to the development of antibodies against insulin-producing cells.

He also says stress can lead to children being overweight, which also increases the risk of diabetes...

Sweden has the second highest occurrence of children’s diabetes in the world, after Finland.

In Clackamas County, Ore....more than 170 churches have banded together in defense of love and marriage.

The churches are doing things like organizing date nights for married couples, instituting very strict rules for couples getting married and encouraging older couples to act as marriage mentors...

Six years ago...nearly every church in Clackamas County [signed] onto something called a "community marriage policy," which requires every couple contemplating marriage to undergo four premarital mentoring sessions.

Priests and pastors now say they will no longer perform "quickie weddings."...

Churches also agree to promote programs to strengthen existing marriages, like date nights where couples drop off their kids, sit for a brief video and then head out for dinner. And if a couple gets in trouble down the line, support groups led by seasoned mentor couples...are available.

[The] plan seems to be working. The divorce rate in Clackamas County dropped by 15 percent in the first five years under the policy...

There are now more than 200 community marriage policies in place across the country.

(Washington) In its first statement on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act which would protect gays and lesbians in the workforce the White House said Tuesday the bill is likely unconstitutional and that if it passes in Congress the president's senior aides would recommend vetoing it.

"[The bill] is inconsistent with the right to the free exercise of religion as codified by Congress in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)," the White House said in a statement...

The White House raised what it called two examples of how ENDA would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

"For instance, schools that are owned by or directed toward a particular religion are exempted by the bill; but those that emphasize religious principles broadly will find their religious liberties burdened by H.R. 3685...

In addition the White House said that provisions of ENDA "give Federal statutory significance to same-sex marriage rights under State law. These provisions conflict with the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as the legal union between one man and one woman. The Administration strongly opposes any attempt to weaken this law, which is vital to defending the sanctity of marriage."...

The White House concerns suggest that ENDA could be used against faith-based agencies...

TRENTON — There was no agreement Monday in settlement talks over a federal lawsuit brought by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association against the state Division on Civil Rights.

The two sides, joined by an attorney for two lesbian couples who have charged the association with violating the state's Law Against Discrimination, met for about 35 minutes in the chambers of U.S. District Court Judge Joel Pisano.

Lee Moore, a DCR spokesman, said Pisano told the attorneys that he would rule on the state's motion to dismiss the association's lawsuit but did not say when.

Moore said the state's investigation into the complaints — filed by Ocean Grove residents Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster, and Janice Moore and Emily Sonnessa — is ongoing.

It was that investigation that spurred the association, represented by the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund, to file the suit in federal court. The association contends that the investigation by the DCR violates its free speech and religious freedom rights...

The [two lesbian] couples wanted to use [a] boardwalk pavilion for their civil union ceremonies, but were denied permission [by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association]. The association contends that it follows the guidelines laid by the Methodist Book of Discipline, which forbids the use of religious structures for such ceremonies...

But the couples' supporters claim that the pavilion is a "public accommodation" that is used for many purposes other than those of a religious nature. They also argue that various state and federal grants the association has received to refurbish the boardwalk and the surrounding area compel the association to abide by the anti-discrimination law.

The state Department of Environmental Protection in September disallowed a tax exemption for the pavilion and the land on which it sits that had been granted to the association for many years under the state Green Acres Program...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, October 23, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The government of Sweden has announced it will be banning any religious activities in schools except for those directly related to religion classes. It is also directing that in religious education, religious ideas must not be taught as though they are objectively true...

Swedish Education Minister Jan Bjoerklund told reporters that religious activity “can take place ... but only outside of coursework”. He said that teaching should “not be influenced” by religious beliefs.

The move by the government is being defended as a reaction to the rise of violent Islamic extremism that police have identified with many Muslim schools in Britain and Europe. As such the move is supported by the Swedish Christian Democratic party...

The rules will make it illegal even for faith-based schools to teach that religious doctrines are objectively true on the grounds that this would be “prosetylising”. Prayer, including religious services or assemblies, will remain legal, as long as no teacher in a classroom teaches that there is any reality behind it...

A Christian couple who have taken in 28 children have been forced to give up being foster parents after they refused to promote homosexuality.

Vincent Matherick, 65, and his 61-year-old wife Pauline were told by social services that they had to comply with legislation requiring them to treat homosexuality as equal to heterosexuality.

They said that officials had advised them that if children in their care expressed an interest in homosexuality, they would be expected to take them to gay support group meetings.

The couple said that while they would neither condemn nor condone homosexuality, they could not actively promote it because of their religious beliefs...

Mrs Matherick said: "We feel we are being discriminated against as Christians, and many others are finding themselves in our position."...

On Raghad Alwattar's wedding day, her groom gave her a gold bracelet, a ring and a promise of a $25,000 payment.

Less than two years later, the marriage is over, the pair aren't speaking, and a Franklin County judge has refused to enforce the dowry because she considers it a religious agreement.

The dowry, called a mahr by Muslims, is unenforceable in Common Pleas Court, Domestic Relations Judge Dana S. Preisse ruled Oct. 10...

Courts in other states have enforced dowries and considered them part of Islamic marriage contracts, but no such cases have occurred in Ohio, Preisse wrote...

A New Jersey Court ruled in 2002 that a man owed his wife her $10,000 mahr upon their divorce because the secular parts of the marriage contract could be enforced. A New York court made a similar decision in 1985...

...For seven years, there have been attempts in Congress to change federal immigration law to add a new category – permanent partner – to the list of family members a citizen or legal permanent resident can sponsor for immigration. The struggle is on again, with the Uniting American Families Act pending in Congress....

"A video game designed by McGill University researchers to help train people to change their perception of social threats and boost their self-confidence has now been shown to reduce the production of the stress-related hormone cortisol. . .

“We already knew that it was possible to design games to allow people to practise new forms of social perception, but we were surprised by the impact this had when we took the games out of the lab and into the context of people’s stressful lives,” said McGill psychology professor Mark Baldwin.

In a 2004 study of 56 students, a standard reaction-time test showed that the game, called the Matrix, helped people shift the way they processed social information. The researchers next conducted several studies to see whether the effects of the game would translate into lower stress levels in a high-pressure context.

In one of their recent studies, they recruited 23 employees of a Montreal-based call centre to play one of their games, which involves clicking on the one smiling face among many frowning faces on a screen as quickly as possible. Through repetitive playing, the game trains the mind to orient more toward positive aspects of social life, said Prof. Baldwin.

. . .These tests showed an average 17-percent reduction in cortisol production compared to a control group that played a similar game but without the smiling faces. . ."

Consider this question: What percent of our ancestors were women?...

Recent research using DNA analysis answered this question about two years ago. Today’s human population is descended from twice as many women as men.

I think this difference is the single most underappreciated fact about gender. To get that kind of difference, you had to have something like, throughout the entire history of the human race, maybe 80% of women but only 40% of men reproduced...

It would be shocking if these vastly different reproductive odds for men and women failed to produce some personality differences...

Most men who ever lived did not have descendants who are alive today. Their lines were dead ends. Hence it was necessary to take chances, try new things, be creative, explore other possibilities. Sailing off into the unknown may be risky, and you might drown or be killed or whatever, but then again if you stay home you won’t reproduce anyway. We’re most descended from the type of men who made the risky voyage and managed to come back rich. In that case he would finally get a good chance to pass on his genes. We’re descended from men who took chances (and were lucky)...

WORCESTER — Larry Cirignano, the former executive director of Catholic Citizenship charged with misdemeanor assault and battery, has been found not guilty by a Worcester County jury...

Cirignano’s attorney Michael Gilleran described the verdict as an act of “justice” and said that it was “not a victory” for the anti-marriage equality side.

In an official statement, he added, “We believe the overwhelming evidence was that the complainant in this case, Sarah Loy, tripped over someone’s foot and was not pushed by Lawrence Cirignano. In addition, the law is clear that since the Let the People Vote rally had a permit to hold its rally and therefore Ms. Loy did not have a right to disrupt that rally by bearing her contrary message into the permitted rally. The judge agreed with our position on this point and dismissed the violation of civil rights charge again Mr. Cirignano. Now the jury has agreed with the defense’s position on the assault and battery charge and exonerated Mr. Cirignano. This is a fortunate result for Mr. Cirignano and the law.”

The charges against Cirignano stem from an incident last December during a rally against civil marriage rights for same-sex couples held by VoteOnMarriage.org at Worcester City Hall. Cirignano was a speaker at the rally, and when Loy, who was at the rally as a counter-protester, entered the VoteOnMarriage crowd with a sign announcing her support for same-sex marriage, Cirignano put his hands on her to move her out of the crowd. She fell to the pavement, where she hit her head. A reporter for the Worcester Telegram and Gazette and a minister both testified that they saw Cirignano push Loy to the ground.

Cirignano was charged with civil rights violations and misdemeanor assault and battery. After Assistant District Attorney Joe Quinlan rested his case against Cirignano Oct. 18, Despotopulos said that he wasn’t convinced that Loy had a First Amendment right to walk into the VoteOnMarriage crowd and hold her sign up and subsequently dropped the civil rights charge against Cirignano...

WASHINGTON — Eight presidential hopefuls clashed sharply over conservative purity Sunday night in the most contentious Republican debate of the 2008 race for the White House...

Giuliani, whose support for abortion and gay rights has troubled many Republicans, said he would only back a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage if judges in "three, four, five, six states" sanction gay nuptials. "I did 210 weddings when I was mayor of New York City, so I have experience doing this," he joked. "They were all men and women. I hope.

"Laughter erupted as he looked upward. "You've got to give me a little slack here," he said. "It was New York City."...