Category Archives: Same-sex Marriage

Diversity, Food, LGBT, Same-sex Marriage

SAN FRANCISCO’S A&PI WELLNESS CENTER RECEIVES CARE PACKAGE FROM HOMOPHOBIC OREGON CAKE SHOP

August 24, 2015 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

Screen grab, A&PI Wellness Center Website

SAN FRANCISCO, California (The Adobo Chronicles® ) – San Francisco’s Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center, a non-profit health organization serving the needs of San Franciscans, including A&PI LGBTs, recently received a surprise gift in the mail: a cake with an inscription, “We really do love you.”

The gift came from Sweet Cakes by Melissa, owned by Melissa and Aaron Klein, who were recently ordered by the Oregon Labor Commission to pay $135,000 in damages to a lesbian couple for whom they refused to make a wedding cake.

The Kleins cited their Christian beliefs against same-sex marriage in denying the services. The Commission ruled they discriminated against the women on the basis of their sexual orientation.

Apparently, A&PI Wellness Center was among the ten West Coast LGBTQ organizations that would be receiving a cake from the Kleins.

It would have been a sweet gesture from Sweet Cakes by Melissa, except that the package came with a DVD of Audacity, an anti-LGBTQ film created by New Zealand televangelist Ray Comfort. The DVD is about the work of Christians to “save” doomed LGBT people.

As of press time, the Wellness Center was still deciding what to do with the cake.

This could very well be a classic case of “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”

We suggest a bake sale.

Government, Law Enforcement, LGBT, Same-sex Marriage

HISTORICAL: TWO SAME-SEX COUPLES ARE THE FIRST TO BE LEGALLY MARRIED IN THE PHILIPPINES

August 4, 2015 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

35968-250x250-Gayrings2 MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles® ) – History was made yesterday when two same-sex couples were officially married at Manila’s City Hall in the Philippines, a country whose population is 80% Catholic.

Maria Arlyn Ibanez and her partner Joanne Reena Gregorio joined Pastor Crescencio Agbayani and his partner Marlon Pelipe in trooping to a civil registry office in Manila, to obtain a marriage license. “We expected it would be denied but we tried it anyway…. We thought maybe there would be a miracle and it would be approved,” Ibanez, a 33-year-old call centre worker, told Agence France-Presse.

Well a miracle did happen.

To the couples’ surprise, they were promptly issued a marriage license by the city hall clerk.

Apparently, the clerk got a little confused and thought that Ibanez was marrying Agbayani and Gregorio was marrying Pelipe. She did not notice that the license applications were for a male couple and a female couple, respectively.

Despite the error, the two same-sex couples remain legally married because divorce is not allowed in the Philippines.

The Philippines is the only remaining country (outside of The Vatican) in the world where divorce is still illegal.

LGBT, Politics, Religion, Same-sex Marriage

REPUBLICANS PUSH NEW LAW TO PROTECT EMPLOYERS WHO FIRE SINGLE WOMEN FOR GETTING PREGNANT

July 16, 2015 Pol Pinoy Leave a comment

WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Adobo Chronicles® ) – In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in all of the U.S., Republicans are pushing legislation that aims to protect Americans who oppose these unions on religious grounds.

Believing that marriage is between one man and one woman whose unions are for the sole purpose of procreation, Republican members of Congress are about to propose what they are calling the ‘First Amendment Defense Act‘ that creates a license for employers to discriminate against, and fire women for getting pregnant outside of wedlock.

The bill specifically protects those who believe that marriage is between “one man and one woman” or that “sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.” Ian Thompson, a legislative representative at the American Civil Liberties Union, said that in addition to targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, the bill “clearly encompasses discrimination against single mothers” and would hobble the ability of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal body that protects women from sex-based discrimination, to act.

The bill would, unfortunately, also discriminate against single women impregnated by married members of Congress. After all, the law applies to everyone. No exceptions.