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California court says gay marriages can proceed
By Adam Tanner 1 hour, 1 minute ago
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California's Supreme Court gave the final green light on Wednesday for gay marriages to begin later this month, turning down requests for a delay.
The most populous U.S. state's highest court ruled last month that refusing homosexuals the right to wed violated the state constitution.
Opponents then asked the court to halt the start of gay weddings until November, when the state's voters will decide a ballot measure that, if approved by a simple majority, will define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
"It would have been unprecedented to postpone constitutional rights based on speculation of how a political scenario may or may not play out," San Francisco city attorney Dennis Herrera said.
"Folks can get married on June 17," he said.
The court voted 4-3 to deny the petition to stay the decision. The same judges voted the same way on May 15 in the landmark decision, hailed by gay activists and condemned by social conservatives.
The court's original ruling becomes final at 5 p.m. on June 16, opening the way for gay marriages to start the next day.
"This is another four-to-three vote for legal chaos," Glen Lavy, senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund, which is fighting against gay marriage, said in a statement.
"This decision is the most egregious case of judicial activism in modern American history. The refusal to wait for the people to decide by the constitutional process confirms that."
GAY MARRIAGE OPEN TO ALL
Massachusetts is the only U.S. state that allows same-sex marriage, but offers licenses only to its own residents. California has no residency requirement, which means gays from across the United States will be able to go there to marry.
San Francisco, internationally known for its gay community, briefly allowed homosexuals to marry four years ago before a court ended the ceremonies. The legal battle that followed culminated in last month's decision.
Gay marriage remains a topic of hot debate in U.S. politics. More than 25 states have constitutional amendments barring gay marriage.
The group behind the November California ballot measure against gay marriage expects to spend at least $10 million in the campaign.
Polls have showed contrasting trends. A Field poll published last week showed 51 percent in favor of gay marriage and 42 percent opposed. But a Los Angeles Times poll a week before found 54 percent backed the amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman while 35 percent opposed it.
Should that measure pass, gay marriages could again come to an end. But thousands of same-sex couples are expected to tie the knot over the summer.
(Editing by David Storey and Alan Elsner)
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At a base ball game. I found it because I did a search for the story I read in the Buffalo News. My take on the story is People where making out at the Mariners baseball game. Nothing was said to the man and women making out. But the two ladies where kicked out. There is a claim that the ladies where groping, hey why no video, HA. I guess there was a family with kids who complained because they had to explain to kids why two girls where kissing. I guess at some point you have to explain that to kids but all you would have to say is you know how boys kiss girls well sometimes girls kiss girls. That would be it assuming the kids allready know that. If there are no PDA at the game then they should have that throughout the entire place regardless of gender or sex. The girls think they where kicked out because they where gay and the stadium says that isn't true. I think the real problem here is that often things are done because of a complaint. The same thing could happen with swearing, it is a baseball game you are supposed to yell at the ump for a shitty call, but if you have Mr. Sensitive you could get in trouble. It would be nice to know what is really happening. That being said at a lot of sports events they do have Kiss Cams and sometimes they are sponsored by a company, the ones I have seen have all ways been man on woman or Rax (bandits games) with to ladies. I have seen as a joke two people of the opposing team so there is kinda that atmosphere as a factor. SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- Most of the time, a kiss is just a kiss in the stands at Seattle Mariners games. The crowd hardly even pays attention when fans smooch.
art.kiss.ap.jpg
Sirbrina Guerrero complained after an usher told her to stop kissing her date at a Seattle Mariners game in May.
But last week, a lesbian complained that an usher at Safeco Field asked her to stop kissing her date because it was making another fan uncomfortable.
The incident has exploded on local TV, on talk radio and in the blogosphere and has touched off a debate over public displays of affection in generally gay-friendly Seattle.
"Certain individuals have not yet caught up. Those people see a gay or lesbian couple and they stare or say something," said Josh Friedes of Equal Rights Washington. "This is one of the challenges of being gay. Everyday things can become sources of trauma."
As the Mariners played the Boston Red Sox on May 26, Sirbrina Guerrero and her date were approached in the third inning by an usher who told them their kissing was inappropriate, Guerrero said.
The usher, Guerrero said, told them he had received a complaint from a woman nearby who said that there were kids in the crowd of nearly 36,000 and that parents would have to explain why two women were kissing.
"I was really just shocked," Guerrero said. "Seattle is so gay-friendly. There was a couple like seven rows ahead making out. We were just showing affection."
On Monday, Mariners spokeswoman Rebecca Hale said that the club is investigating but that the usher was responding to a complaint of two women "making out" and "groping" in the stands.
"We have a strict non-discrimination policy at the Seattle Mariners and at Safeco Field, and when we do enforce the code of conduct it is based on behavior, not on the identity of those involved," Hale said.
The code of conduct -- announced before each game -- specifically mentions public displays of affection that are "not appropriate in a public, family setting." Hale said those standards are based on what a "reasonable person" would find inappropriate.
Guerrero denied she and her date were groping each other, saying that along with eating garlic fries, they were giving each other brief kisses.
On Tuesday, Guerrero said a Mariners director of guest services had apologized to her. The team spokeswoman could not immediately confirm that.
After the story broke, the Mariners were blasted by the sex-advice columnist Dan Savage, who wrote about the incident on the blog of the Stranger, an alternative weekly paper.
"I constantly see people making out," Savage said. "My son has noticed and asked, 'Do they show the ballgame on women's foreheads?'"
Savage called for a "kiss-in" to protest against the Mariners.
Web sites have been swamped with blog postings for and against Guerrero and her date. And the story has people talking in Seattle.
"I would be uncomfortable" seeing public displays of affection between lesbians or gay men, said Jim Ridneour, a 54-year-old taxi driver. "I don't think it's right seeing women kissing in public. If I had my family there, I'd have to explain what's going on."
"It all depends on the degree," Mark Ackerman said as he waited for a hot dog outside Safeco Field before Wednesday's game. "Even for heterosexual couples."
Since the incident, Guerrero's job and her past have come under scrutiny. She works at a bar known for scantily clad women and was a contestant on the MTV reality show "A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila," in which women and men compete for the affection of a bisexual Internet celebrity.
"People are saying it's 15 more minutes for my career," Guerrero said of the ballpark furor, "but this is not making me look very good."
In 2007, an Oregon transit agency chief apologized after a lesbian teenager was kicked off a bus when a passenger complained about her kissing another girl.
Also in 2007, a gay rights group protested a Kansas City, Missouri, restaurant they said ejected four women because two of them kissed, and a Texas state trooper was placed on probation in 2004 for telling two gay men who were kissing at the state Capitol that homosexual conduct was illegal in Texas.
"There's a double standard. That's the bottom line," said Pat Griffin, director of the It Takes a Team! Education Campaign, an initiative from the Women's Sports Foundation to eliminate homophobia in sports

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That is the link to the original article. Here is my take on what is happening here. I think internet companies are giving our freedom away and Cuomo is taking our freedom away also. Some might say "But Pete child porn is evil and anyone who would rape a child is sick and should go to jail or be killed or raped why are you defending them". I'm not defending them at all. I think that most people would think that Child Porn is very wrong and that it hurts a lot of people. Not sure how I feel about people who like the pictures but don't hurt anyone and just look at them and I'm sure there is some debate on that. I'm sure people disagree on what the punishment should be for child porn. It is a big problem and real solutions need to be found. One of those solutions isn't making internet providers the cops. Internet providers to cut off child porn
Three companies settle after probe by Cuomo
By Susan Schulman
Updated: 06/11/08 6:50 AM
Associated Press
Andrew M. Cuomo announces agreement with three service providers.
Under pressure from the state attorney general, Internet providers Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Sprint are taking steps to block computer access to news groups that disseminate child pornography and to knock down Web sites hosting the illegal material.
The moves, long sought by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, are considered a significant effort to deal with the child pornography explosion on the Internet around the world.
"This is a major step forward. We hope this will become a model for the rest of the industry," said Ernie Allen, head of the center based in Alexandria, Va.
State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced the settlement Tuesday after an eight-month investigation by his office into the proliferation of online child pornography.
Under the settlement, the three major Internet providers, which did not admit any wrongdoing, not only will take steps to rid their own networks of child pornography but also will contribute $1.12 million to fund additional efforts by the attorney general's office and the national center to remove child pornography from the Internet.
In "The Child Porn Pipeline," a series published last June, The Buffalo News revealed that most of the commercial child pornography disseminated worldwide - one study put the figure at 62 percent - is posted through Internet service providers in the United States.
The series described the national center's efforts to persuade service providers to shut down and block access to child pornography sites.
But many providers resisted, saying that policing the Internet was not their job.
A decade ago, service providers in Great Britain began closing sites and cutting off access to Internet child pornography.
British computer servers and Web sites, which once provided 18 percent of commercial child pornography produced in the world, now account for 1 percent.
While U. S. law enforcement focused much of its attention on arresting the people viewing, and to a lesser extent making and distributing, child pornography, Cuomo's investigation went after the Internet companies whose servers and networks host and disseminate the material.
Allen has supported that approach, saying so many people view child pornography that "unless you turn off the spigot, you are not really going to address the enormity of the problem."
The undercover probe by the attorney general's office found 88 different news groups - online bulletin boards where users can upload and download files - with a total of 11,390 lewd photos of young children, including some being raped.
Posing as subscribers, investigators then complained to the Internet providers about the availability of child pornography.
But the material remained available, and the service providers contended they were not responsible for the material that others share on news groups or post on Web sites, Cuomo said.
But he rejected that argument and threatened to bring charges against the companies, which led to the settlement announced Tuesday.
Two of the three service providers agreed to block access to news groups linked to child pornography, while Time Warner said it will eliminate news groups from its services.
"It's a small percentage of our users," said Alex Dudley, Time Warner spokesman.
"We are not comfortable with them," he continued. "Our best recourse is to take them down. Time Warner is discontinuing news groups."
The three Internet companies also agreed to work with the national center to remove Web sites hosting child pornography.
The center maintains a list of 39,000 Web addresses that contained child pornography, Allen said.
A few of the larger Internet companies use the list to identify and remove child pornography, but thousands of smaller Internet companies do not, the center has said.
Time Warner said that, upon learning that no action had been taken on a child pornography report, the company, under its established policy, immediately submitted the report to the national center.
Once it received confirmation of child pornography, the company took down the news groups, Dudley said.
At Verizon, any child pornography news group reported to the company was taken down promptly, said Eric Rabe, vice president for communications.
Verizon and Time Warner also are working with the national center to take down any confirmed child pornography sites, their spokesmen said.
Sprint spokesman Matthew Sullivan said getting child pornography off the Internet is one of the company's priorities.
"Battling this scourge requires close collaboration of many parties," he said at Tuesday's news conference in Cuomo's New York City office.
Verizon, with 8.2 million subscribers, and Time Warner's Road Runner, with 7.9 million, are two of the five largest Internet service providers in the world, while Sprint is one of the three largest wireless companies in the United States.
While the five largest companies control a major share of the Internet market, thousands of smaller servers are also involved in Internet operations.
Cuomo said his investigation is continuing.
sschulman AT buffnews.com
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