Lesbian couple weds in Texas
The Texas Supreme Court has issued an emergency order blocking gay couples from obtaining marriage licenses after a lesbian couple wed in Austin, according to NBC Dallas/Fort Worth.
The Feb. 19 ruling does not invalidate the marriage of the two women who were allowed to marry hours earlier based on a one-time court order issued for health reasons. One of the women has cancer.
The license was issued exclusively for Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant, who requested the license in Travis County two days after a local judge ruled in an unrelated estate case that Texas' gay-marriage ban was unconstitutional. The couple cited that case, saying it should allow them to wed.
The Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) issued a statement congratulating the couple. HRC Legal Director Sarah Warbelow said, "All couples in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippistates covered by the 5th Circuitshould have access to marriage licenses as soon as possible. In light of recent events, we firmly believe that the Texas courts should not issue a stay in the case at hand."
The original article is at www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Gay-Couple-Married-in-Austin-Despite-Statwide-Ban-292670721.html .
Denver teen's autopsy differs from report
The autopsy results of 17-year-old Denver lesbian Jessica Hernandez contradict official police reports, according to a Slate item.
Two bullets struck Hernandez through the left side of her chest, which her family has said directly contradicts the claim by cops who say they opened fire when she tried to run them down.
She also had bullet wounds on her thigh and pelvis. Police insist the cops repeatedly told those in the car to exit the vehicle, but a passenger toldthe Associated Press that was not the case. However, a retired police chief who cautioned against making definite conclusions from the autopsy report, saying other factors need to be considered.
The original article is at http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/02/28/jessica_hernandez_autopsy_of_teen_killed_by_police_appears_to_contradict.html?wpsrc=fol_tw.
Gay priest Malcolm Boyd dies at 91
The Rev. Malcolm Boydthe gay Episcopal priest whose book Are You Running With Me, Jesus? took prayer onto the city streetshas died at age 91, The L.A. Times reported.
Boyd died Feb. 27 under hospice care in Los Angeles from complications of pneumonia.
In 1961 in the segregated South, he was among the first white ministers to work the voter-registration drives. In 1976, he announced that he was gay, following his public statement with the book Take Off the Masks, saying he wrote it because he was tired of living a lie.
In 1984, he helped organize one of the first Christian Masses for people with AIDS. Boyd and Mark Thompson, a senior editor for The Advocate, married in July 2013, after Proposition 8 was overturned and same-sex unions resumed in California.
A celebration of Boyd's life will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 21, at the Cathedral Center of St. Paul, 840 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles.
The original article is at www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-malcolm-boyd-20150228-story.html.