This would be contrary to votes that Natalie Johnson Lee has made as a city councilperson affirming a lobbying plan that includes opposing the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same sex (civil) marriage. It would also be in conflict with her affirmation of support of the green party platform.
I hope Don's concern is unfounded and that the Rev. is mistaken. Certainly someone can personally support traditional sacramental marriage based on their interpretation of bibilical scriptures and simultaneously support equity in civil marriage for all(gay or straight couples) in a free society understanding that civil marriage is about a contract and can be done with or without a sacramental marriage just as a sacramental marriage can be done with or without a civil marriage at the same time, they are different animals so to speak and not necessarily related. The unfortunate thing about the article in question is that the black community is disproportionately negatively impacted by the denial of marriage rights to same sex couples. Whereas many rights of marriage are directly associated with the welfare and protection of children and a far greater percentage of black lesbian and gay couples are raising children than lesbian and gay couples of other ethnicities, these families are disproportionatley impacted by the denial of these rights. Nationwide, black lesbian couples are as likely to be raising children as black heterosexual married couples. Black gay male couples are far more likely to be raising children than gay male couples of any other ethnicity and intracial gay and lesbian couples involving one partner who is black are also more likely to be raising children than couples who are neither black nor interracial. Further, a higher percentage of glbt families created through adoption involve interracial adoption than heterosexual married families created through adoption. There are many black children are growing up in households with gay and lesbian adoptive parents of many races. For more information read the report on black same sex households at http://www.thetaskforce.org/ourprojects/pi/blackcensus.cfm David Strand Loring Park --- Don Jorovsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have always been proud that Minneapolis was one of > the first > cities in the nation to adopt a gay rights ordinance > -- I think it > was in 1973. Since then, the city has been > supportive of gay, > lesbian and transgender rights in many ways, and I > hope that > trend continues and grows. > > So you can imagine my surprise to read the following > op-ed > piece in yesterday's Pioneer Press: > > http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/opinion/10207397.htm > > You can read it for yourself, but the thrust of it > is to oppose equal > rights for gays and lesbians on the basis of > biblical teachings. That > in itself is not surprising -- a wide variety of > viewpoints are found > on editorial pages. What did surprise me was this > statement by > the author (Rev. Bob Battle): > > ".....leaders such as Minneapolis 5th Ward Council > Member > Natalie Johnson Lee.....have added their voices of > support > for biblical marriage." > > Could this be true? I sure hope not. I hope that > someone who is > familiar with Council Member Johnson Lee can tell us > that Rev. Battle > is mistaken (and then we can get the paper to run a > correction). > > Can anyone help out here? > > Thanks. > > Don Jorovsky > New Brighton > (Minneapolis 1969-1994)Get more from the Web. FREE > MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com > REMINDERS: > 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the > list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing > it on the list. > 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. > > For state and national discussions see: > http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html > For external forums, see: > http://e-democracy.org/mninteract > ________________________________ > > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic > Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: > http://e-democracy.org/mpls > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Meet the all-new My Yahoo! - Try it today! http://my.yahoo.com REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
