Affirmation, a support group for gay and lesbian Mormons, is criticizing the LDS Church for its efforts to thwart the legalization of same-sex marriage in Argentina.

Last week, Argentina became the first Latin American nation to allow gay marriage. Mexico City also sanctions such unions.

Despite the LDS Church’s claim that it had not taken a stand on Argentina’s move to allow gay marriage, a high-ranking church official did join other religious leaders there to plan opposition to the bill.

With its July/August issue, Whosoever, the only online magazine for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Christians, begins its 15th year of publication.“When we started in 1996, there was nothing on the Internet to assure LGBT Christians that God loved them and created them to live into their sexuality with integrity and joy,” said Candace Chellew-Hodge, founder and editor of Whosoever. “Whosoever began a movement of online support for LGBT Christians and now there are many resources available.”Candace also authored the book Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians.

The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement has expressed ‘dismay’ at the decision of the Crown Nominations Commission to block the appointment of Dr Jeffrey John, as Bishop of Southwark.

Rev Sharon Ferguson, Chief Executive of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) voiced her frustration and disappointment that for the second time Dr Jeffrey John has ‘had his sexuality made the stumbling block’ to his appointment as a Bishop in the Church of England.

Members of the Crown Nominations Commission, which includes Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, rejected calls for Dr Jeffrey John to be made the next Bishop of Southwark.

Conservative Anglican leaders had warned that evangelical parishes would not recognise him as a bishop and instead would seek “alternative episcopal oversight”.

But the snub will infuriate liberal clergy who believed he was the outstanding candidate and that his appointment would signal a move towards greater inclusion for homosexuals in the Church.

The Church of England may be on the verge of promoting a gay priest to bishop, a step that would widen the split over sexuality in the global Anglican Communion.

If that happens, it would appear to be a significant turnaround for Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the Church of England and the world’s Anglicans, who recently imposed sanctions on the U.S. Episcopal Church for electing a lesbian bishop.

According to newspaper reports, Williams is prepared to back the elevation of the Very Rev. Jeffrey John, who withdrew seven years ago from an appointment as a suffragan (assistant) bishop in the face of a heated controversy about his homosexuality. Williams’ office will not comment.Very Rev.?

Spain, which has become a world leader in gay rights in recent years, is to get its first gay Christian church to celebrate marriages between same-sex couples, a news report said Sunday.

The US-based Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) is to open a congregation in Madrid in October, the daily El Mundo said.

On its website, MCC said it was founded California in 1968 as “the world’s first church group with a primary, positive ministry to gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender persons.”

It now claims 43,000 members in 300 congregations in 22 countries.

Britain’s government is considering letting same-sex couples include religious elements in civil partnership ceremonies.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Christians are planning an organised and visible presence at the upcoming Pride march through the streets of London this weekend.

“Many LGBT people have a deep faith and a clear desire to express their spirituality in spite of the anti-homosexuality rhetoric of some hardline Christians,” a spokesperson for the organisers said.

An ideologically split Supreme Court ruled Monday that a law school can legally deny recognition to a Christian student group that won’t let gays join, with one justice saying that the First Amendment does not require a public university to validate or support the group’s “discriminatory practices.”

The court turned away an appeal from the Christian Legal Society, which sued to get funding and recognition from the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law. The CLS requires that voting members sign a statement of faith and regards “unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle” as being inconsistent with that faith.

But Hastings, which is in San Francisco, said no recognized campus groups may exclude people due to religious belief or sexual orientation.

The court on a 5-4 judgment upheld the lower court rulings saying the Christian group’s First Amendment rights of association, free speech and free exercise were not violated by the college’s nondiscrimination policy.

The Twin Cities Pride Festival cannot prevent an evangelical Christian from passing out Bibles and discussing his views against homosexuality at this weekend’s event, a federal judge ruled Friday.

Twin Cities Pride argued that its rights should take precedence because it’s paying $36,000 to lease Loring Park on the edge of downtown Minneapolis for the two-day event. The group also said Johnson contradicts the festival’s “message of celebration and pride in being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.”

But the judge ruled that the 42-acre park is a public forum, so Johnson’s free-speech rights must be honored. Tunheim said Johnson is entitled to go ahead with his plans as long as he remains undisruptive.

Organizers of a gay pride festival in Minnesota have asked for a court order barring evangelist Brian Johnson from distributing Christian literature construed as anti-gay.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board refused to bar Johnson from handing out materials at the festival, saying it was his right under the First Amendment. Pride organizers say they barred Johnson from last year’s festival because in previous years he misled attendees and tried to entice them to repent for the “sin of homosexuality.”

While the LDS church did all it could to make sure Prop 8 passed, one group of Mormons worked for LGBT rights.

In many religious circles, the repeal of the military’s ban on openly gay members is considered practically a done deal. But Southern Baptists, who have many more active-duty military chaplains than any other denomination, are not giving up without a fight.

Last March, three American evangelical Christians, whose teachings about “curing” homosexuals have been widely discredited in the United States, arrived in Uganda to give a series of talks.

Now the three Americans are finding themselves on the defensive, saying they had no intention of helping stoke the kind of anger that could lead to what came next: a bill to impose a death sentence for homosexual behavior.

In most Islamic countries, gay men and women are ostracized, persecuted and in some cases even murdered. Repressive regimes are often fanning the flames of hatred in a bid to outdo Islamists when it comes to spreading “moral panic.”

More than 30 Islamic countries have laws on the books that prohibit homosexuality and make it a criminal offense.

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