Category Archives: Global: Marriage and Family

Vancouver Sun: “A polygamous mother from Utah on Wednesday agreed to lift an anonymity order and testify using her name at the polygamy trial in B.C. Supreme Court. Alina Darger, who has seven children, spoke glowingly of her experiences growing up in a polygamous family and as one of three sister wives to her current husband.”

Parent Central: “The Halton Catholic District School Board has struck down a controversial ban on gay-straight clubs that some newly elected trustees say did not reflect their views . . . at a meeting Tuesday attended by dozens of opponents to the ban, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Union, the new trustees voted 6-2 to scrap the clause that had sparked outrage from human rights advocates, sparked a protest petition and drawn a thumb’s-down from celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.”

LifeSiteNews: “France’s Constitutional Council, its highest court for constitutional issues, has agreed to examine homosexual ‘marriage,’ and is expected to render a verdict within a week.”

Peter Berger writing in The American Interest: “Conservative cassandras (please note: I am not one of them) are turning out to be empirically correct, even if one disagrees with their philosophy: once you legitimate same-sex marriage, you open the door to any number of other alternatives to marriage as a union of one man and one woman: polygamous (an interesting question for Muslims in Germany and dissident Mormons in Arizona), polyandrous, polygenerational – perhaps polyspecies?”

BBC: “Roger Helmer used his Twitter page to compare people who undergo sex-change operations with gay people who seek therapy to become heterosexual. The comment has been condemned by gay rights group Stonewall and some users of the social networking site . . . Mr Helmer tweeted: ‘Why is it OK for a surgeon to perform a sex-change operation, but not OK for a psychiatrist to try to ‘turn’ a consenting homosexual?’”

BBC: “A bill has been put forward in the Philippine Congress aimed at making it easier for poor people to get their marriages annulled.”

ChristianNewsWire: “In the January issue of its newsletter, World Congress of Families News, the international family-values group published its list of ‘The 10 Best and Worst Developments for The Family in 2010.’ Click here for the list and news from the January issue.”

Irish Times: “Glenn Cunningham and Adriano Vilar have become the first gay couple in the State to have their civil partnership formally recognised by the State. The couple, who work at Argos, formed a civil partnership at a ceremony in Northern Ireland last year.”

Kotaku: “The birthrate in Japan is declining, leaving a big question mark on the country’s future. This didn’t begin when young males started reading comics or playing video games, but with the breakdown of the traditional family structure in the years after World War II, which meant that grandparents not longer lived with their children, putting an increasing burden on new mothers.”

NewsDay: “Polygamy is an institution that has survived many centuries and despite the campaigns to do away with this practice, it is still deeply rooted in Zimbabwe.”

Catholic News Service: “Same-sex unions ‘penalize’ traditional couples and distort the true nature of the family, Pope Benedict XVI said. The many crises that families face are ’caused by the rapid social and cultural changes’ in society, the pope said Jan. 14 in a speech to officials from the city and province of Rome and the Lazio region of Italy.”

Irish Times: “More than 80 same-sex couples have indicated to the General Registrar Office that they wish to enter into a civil partnership.”

ISPreview: “A new Europe-wide study (‘EUKidsOnline’) by the London School of Economics (LSE), which looked at the use of parental controls and internet filtering, has revealed that UK parents lead the rest of Europe with 54% blocking or filtering their children’s internet access. By contrast the EU average is just 28%, with Romania on the lowest at 9%.”

Toronto Sun: “Moving up the relationship ranks is the very modern – and considerably cheaper – option of living together, sans the ‘I dos’. ‘It’s the first time in Canada there are more unmarried people than married people,’ explains Gemini-award winning documentary filmmaker Sue Ridout, producer and director of the new hour-long doc entitled, ‘Thoroughly Modern Marriage’ (Dreamfilm Productions).”

Iona Institute: “Divorced people had the highest rate of hospitalisation in psychiatric units last year, according to new figures from the Health Research Board (HRB). The figures show that the rate of hospitalisation for divorced people was 115.9 per 100,000, nearly twice the national average of 66.3 per 100,000.”

Pink News: “As part of the Equality Act, all public bodies will be required to publish information about the diversity of their staff from April but the government will not set diversity targets. Instead, the public will be expected to hold bodies to account if they feel certain sections of society are not represented well enough.”

CKNW: “Carolyn Jessop recounted how she escaped her abusive husband, and the community of Colorado City, Arizona in april of 2003. She loaded up all eight of her kids into an uninsured van and drove away with the lights off. She described the terror she felt every time a car approached her vehicle, convinced it was someone coming to force her back.”

Breitbart: “One-third of Japanese men aged 16 to 19 were uninterested in or even averse to sex as of last year, doubling from 2008, a government survey showed Wednesday.”

B92: “The Gay-Lesbian Info Center (GLIC) NGO has asked for the Serbian Constitution to be changed to include a new definition of marriage.”

Wall Street Journal: “But producing kids takes both men and women, and according to a Bank of Korea economist there’s a key reason why men put off marriage and baby-making, and not just because of the cost of having kids. In Korea, the bridegroom is traditionally asked to provide a home upon marriage . . . and getting a “sweet nest” as it’s known locally can be tough for a young single man to afford.”

LifeSiteNews: “Chile’s Constitutional Tribunal, which is the nation’s highest tribunal for constitutional issues, has agreed to decide on a suit alleging that “marriage” between two people of the same sex is a constitutional right.”

The Vancouver Sun: “Evidence so far has been overwhelming that polygamy is inherently harmful both to individuals and to society. That’s the bar that government lawyers must leap in order for Chief Justice Robert Bauman of the B.C. Supreme Court to conclude that it’s okay to override the constitutional guarantees of religious freedom and freedom of expression.”

Winnipeg Free Press: “A law professor says polygamy has been defined as a crime in western cultures for centuries because it has been considered ‘unnatural and dangerous.’”

New Zealand Herald: “McDonald’s is under pressure to change the internet access policies at its restaurants because gay websites are not accessible.”

AFP: “As Brazil gears up for its annual carnival festivities, a row has broken out over toilets for the exclusive use of gays and transvestites in samba schools readying for the event.”

The Globe and Mail: “A landmark court proceeding to weigh the constitutionality of Canada’s polygamy law resumed Wednesday with testimony from a religious scholar who said fundamentalist Mormon beliefs do not provide for someone to be forced into a polygamous relationship.”

Pioneer Press: “China’s exploding wealth has created a culture of secret mistresses and second wives. Now officials are putting marriage records online so lovers and spouses can check for cheaters.”

LifeSiteNews: “The Vancouver Sun reported December 21 that ‘homosexuality’ was still listed in the Alberta Health and Wellness Diagnostic Codes under ‘Mental Disorders: Sexual Deviations and Disorders.’ It appeared there alongside bestiality and pedophilia. The article prompted quick action from the provincial government, which not only removed homosexuality, but also transvestitism and transsexualism.”

Canada: Alberta Health Minister calls for homosexuality to be removed from “mental disorder” list

Iona Institute: “After decades of gender equality campaigning many women now find it hard to admit that they would rather be housewife than have a successful career of their own, according to Dr Catherine Hakim of the London School of Economics . . . An analysis of figures for Britain shows that in 1949, 20 per cent of women married husbands with significantly higher levels of education than their own, but by the late 1990s, this had almost doubled to 38 per cent. Similar patterns are seen across much of Europe, the US and Australia.”

Bay Windows: “Following a referral from the Santiago Court of Appeals, Chile’s Constitutional Court will take up a same-sex marriage case this week.”

Life in Italy (ANSA): “A Sicilian court on Wednesday turned down a separated father’s appeal for exclusive custody of his children on the grounds that his ex was living with another woman.”

Associated Press: “Uganda’s High Court has ruled that the media should not publish the names and photos of gay Ugandans following a vitriolic campaign in the east African country which urged citizens to hang those featured.”

Yahoo (AFP): “The Spanish city of Barcelona will erect a monument to gays, lesbians and transgendered people who have been persecuted and repressed ‘throughout history’, it announced Thursday.”

Irish Times: “The next government should upgrade the Civil Partnership Act to bring it into line with same-sex legislation in Northern Ireland, the Church of Ireland Changing Attitude Ireland group has said.”

Daily Telegraph: “An autistic schoolboy has been granted court approval to begin treatment to become a woman – on the proviso the teenager has his sperm frozen in case he wants to have children in the future.”

Danna Harman writing in The Huffington Post: “In Malta, divorce is illegal . . . For the vast majority of those separating Maltese couples, for whom neither an annulment or a foreign divorce is an option, the solution is to avoid the extra headache, heartache and expense and simply separate unofficially. Meaning, people move on with their lives: Leaving the family home, co-habitating with new partners, having new families, and yet all the while still married to their original partner.”

New York Times: “Despite a growing wave of student protests in Britain over government plans to sharply raise university tuition fees that saw buildings occupied at campuses across the country, and battles in the streets between demonstrators and the police whose ferocity at one point even seemed to threaten the heir to the British throne, the year 2010 ended quietly, with students heading home for the holidays and university authorities once again in control of their premises.”

Scotsman: “Desperate efforts are under way to prevent the Church of Scotland splitting over the issue of gay ministers. New official figures suggest a clear majority of Kirk representatives in Edinburgh would back a more liberal attitude. A special commission is due to report to the General Assembly in May on whether practising gays and lesbians should be accepted into the ministry.”

Winnipeg Free Press: “Macedonia’s religious leaders are urging the government to prevent same-sex weddings by changing the constitutional definition of marriage.”

UKPA: “A new law legally recognising gay couples comes into effect on January 1, securing a range of rights over shared homes, maintenance payments and pensions.” | More from the Irish Times.

Kuwait Times: “A women’s group campaigning to stop polygamous marriages among Israeli bedouin is running into strong resistance from Islamic groups and even some politicians.”

The Daily Telegraph: “Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat Equalities Minister, is expected to announce that same-sex civil partnership ceremonies will be allowed in churches and other religious settings for the first time. The move, likely to come early next year, could be a prelude to overhauling the law on marriage itself, which currently applies only to the union of a man and a woman.”

LifeSiteNews: “A group of pro-life and pro-family British Catholics have reacted with dismay this month as the ‘conservative’ archbishop of Birmingham, Bernard Longley, has accused them of being ‘judgmental’ in their opposition to an officially approved ‘gay’ Mass that is ongoing in the archdiocese of Westminster.”

Toronto Sun: “The head of Ontario’s Catholic teachers’ union is defending a donation and partnership with a gay-rights lobby group that is often at odds with the Catholic Church and Catholic school boards.”

Indian Express: “A Bangladeshi man was clubbed to death allegedly by his four wives for cheating on them by keeping his marriages a secret.”

Edmonton Journal: “‘It has no place in Alberta,’ Zwozdesky said, adding he has called for a review of the entire 300-page diagnostic code. ‘It is simply an incorrect and unacceptable classification and I’ve ordered it to be removed immediately.’”

Telegraph: “For six months, Minati Khatua, 27, from Rourkela, Orissa, India, was told by her husband, who gave the name Sitakant Routray, that they could not consumate their marriage because ‘he’ was observing a religious ritual.”

ynetnews.com: “Local Bedouin newspaper sparks calls on single Bedouin women who are over 30 to consider polygamous marriages, saying ‘it’s the Sharia solution’ . . . As polygamy is illegal in Israel, the people behind the ad campaign refuse to reveal their identities, but sign the ad as The Negev Committee for Women’s Rights.”

Maebh Harding, The Right to Marry in Irish Law: Three Different High Court Approaches (September 7, 2009). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1729237

“Article 41.1.1 of the Irish Constitution gives constitutional protection to the institution of marriage in Irish law. In recent Irish High Court decisions this constitutional protection of the institution of marriage has been used to deny the right to marry to same sex couples and transsexual individuals. This paper will explore the interaction between the right to marry in Irish law and the constitutional protection of the institution of marriage. Three contemporaneous Irish High Court judgments will be examined to show the lack of consensus on the ambit of the right to marry and the force of Irish constitutional protection of the institution of marriage – O’Shea v. Ireland, Foy v. An t-Ard Chlaraitheoir (No.2) and Zappone v .Revenue Commissioners.

The paper will draw parallels between the Irish discourse and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in cases such as Goodwin and Wena & Anita Parry v. UK to examine whether the goal of protecting a traditional definition of marriage is a valid justification for restricting the right to marry.”

Hindustan Times: “Campaigners against forced marriages were left worried after a British court, ruling on an immigration matter on Tuesday, struck down a law aimed at preventing such marriages. The High Court overturned a ban on married people from outside Europe joining their British spouses if they are below 21 years of age.”

Times of Malta: “The Attorney General has filed an appeal from a court sentence which had granted Joanne Cassar the right to marry a man after her gender reassignment surgery.”

Typically Spanish: “The Partido Popular leader, Mariano Rajoy, is now saying that before overturning gay marriage legislation in Spain he will wait to see what the Constitutional Court decides over the appeal placed to it by his party. Rajoy says he will also see what the people think before eliminating the law which allows couples of the same sex to get married.”

BBC: “A bid by eight British couples to challenge the UK’s ban on gay marriages and heterosexual civil partnerships has been postponed, campaigners have said. Campaign group Equal Love postponed the legal challenge at the European Court of Human Rights to next month.”

Bendict XVI: “We are well aware of the particular gravity of this sin committed by priests and of our corresponding responsibility. But neither can we remain silent regarding the context of these times in which these events have come to light. There is a market in child pornography that seems in some way to be considered more and more normal by society. The psychological destruction of children, in which human persons are reduced to articles of merchandise, is a terrifying sign of the times . . . ”

Washington Examiner: “A document released by WikiLeaks described efforts by high-ranking Afghan officials to quash reports of police officers and other Afghans arrested for ‘purchasing a service from a child’ . . . The vast gulf between U.S. and Afghan attitudes about homosexuality and pedophilia has generated concern among U.S. advisers in Afghanistan since the American presence there began to expand.”

Jerusalem Post: “A breakthrough legal ruling in the Jerusalem Family Court on Thursday will pave the way for homosexuals to officially adopt their partner’s or spouse’s child, the Tel Aviv-based New Family organization told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.”

Daily Mail: “The number of lesbian couples and single women seeking to start a family through IVF has rocketed since the law governing a child’s need for a father was relaxed.”

BBC: “A group of village elders and clerics sentenced Sufia Begum under Sharia law to 40 lashes for adultery. The 40-year-old died of her injuries almost a month after the beating in Rajshahi district, her family says.”

Jerusalem Post: “Discrepancies between colloquial and literary Arabic may have far-reaching legal ramifications in Egypt. Egypt may have the highest divorce rate in the Arab world, but that might be moot if a new ruling by the country’s senior jurists goes into effect. Sheikh ‘Ali Goma’a, Grand Mufti of Egypt, found in a recent study that the Egyptian mispronunciation of the Arabic word for ‘divorced’ may nullify the action, meaning the couple was still legally married.”

LifeSiteNews: “Faithful Catholic teachers are outraged after discovering that the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA) is funding Canada’s leading homosexualist organization with dues collected from them.”

Telegraph: “Volker Kauder, the parliamentary leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said the question of children’s wellbeing should come before the wishes of adults wanting to become parents.”

LifeSiteNews: “Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva has become the ‘Santa Claus for gays’ as his reign comes to an end, approving hundreds of millions of dollars for pro-homosexual propaganda, as well as a new government agency to promote the gay agenda.”

News.com.au: “The Catholic Church is instructing parishioners to lobby federal MPs against voting for gay marriage, suggesting they base arguments on the natural order and the importance of a biological relationship with children rather than on marriage being a religious institution.”

Toronto Star: “Rose McDermott, who teaches political psychology at Brown University in Rhode Island, testified Thursday at a B.C. Supreme Court reference case examining polygamy that she’s conducted a statistical analysis of polygyny — in which a man has multiple wives. McDermott says her data shows that as polygyny increases, so do the rates of maternal mortality, teenage marriages and births, sex trafficking and domestic violence.”

Marina Adshade, economist at Dalhousie University, writing in the Globe and Mail: “In the economic sense a policy is not optimal if someone can be made better off without making others worse off. If this is the criterion, then it has to be that criminalization of polygamy not be an optimal policy. If we allow everyone to act in their own best interests when making marriage choices, and assume that parents act in the best interest of their children, then surely those who chose to live in a polygamous household are better off than they would be in a monogamous household. They have to be because that is the arrangement they have chosen.”

Vaterland [Google Translation]: “On Thursday, the votes of Members of Parliament on the Partnership Act [showed] clearly in one direction: to act on the submission of the government was not in dispute.”

Al Masy Al Youm: “Egyptian fathers and sons are expected to save 100 percent of their joint salaries for 3 to 8 years in order to save for marriage, according to Singerman. But with Egyptian saving rates currently at around 17 percent, it can take a father and son duo anywhere from 16 (highest income bracket surveyed) to 43 (lowest income bracket surveyed) years to come up with sufficient marriage funds.”

Boston.com [AP]: “Iranians convicted for same-sex activities are on death row and awaiting hanging, including several who were minors when arrested, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.” Access the report here.

Brussels Journal: “The bureaucrats and intellectuals who create the curriculum for Norway’s State schools, most of whom attended university during the 1960s and 1970s and partook of that era’s student radicalism, agree that the goal of education is not the transmission of knowledge, but the propagation of soixante-huitardisme, relativism, and a bellyfeel hatred of white Europeans.”

Herald Sun: “Andrej Pejic, 19, from Broadmeadows has taken the international modelling scene by storm in the past six months, with his gender- bender appearance . . . ‘At the start photographers really tried to work against my look, they tried to make me look more masculine,’ Pejic said.”

Christian Science Monitor: “The moral of these stories seems clear: If you want kids to succeed, don’t talk about their intelligence. That will only hold them back. Americans like to say that their country is a land of opportunity; that anyone can make it, if they just try hard enough. But our educational system tells another story altogether. By emphasizing who is smart – and who is not – we teach our kids that their inborn capabilities are more important than their sweat and toil.”

Washington Post: “Persecution of gays is intensifying across Africa, fueled by fundamentalist preachers, intolerant governments and homophobic politicians. Gay people have been denied access to health care, detained, tortured and even killed, human rights activists and witnesses say.”

Telegraph: “Official rankings published by the Department for Education showed almost two-thirds of primaries with top Sats results were Anglican, Roman Catholic or Jewish schools.”

Yahoo [Reuters]: “The United States vowed on Friday to seek to restore to a U.N. General Assembly resolution against unjustified executions a reference to killings due to sexual orientation, cut out by Arab and African states.”

BusinessWeek: “The Brazilian government says gay couples in a stable relationship are entitled to the same social security pension benefits enjoyed by heterosexual couples.”