Gay Rights

(Newser) - Rick Warren continues to refine his stance on gays and gay marriage, saying he is “not opposed to gays having their partnership,” and that his anti-gay marriage stance doesn’t make him anti-gay, the AP reports. “I’m opposed to gays using the term marriage for their relationship,” the pastor, whose inauguration invitation raised hackles in the gay community, tells his church in a new video. More »

(Newser) - Gay and Christian groups have slammed Pope Benedict XVI's remarks that defending the “natural order” of man and woman is as important as protecting the rainforests, the Times of London reports. British Catholic leaders have countered that the pontiff didn’t explicitly mention homosexuality in his annual Christmas speech, but critics say the church—which has taken a harder line against gays recently—is fanning the flames of homophobia. More »

(Newser) - Rick Warren—whose upcoming invocation at the Obama inauguration is causing a ruckus—has removed anti-gay language from the website of his Saddleback Church, Queerty reports. A page that explicitly barred gays from membership has suddenly gone missing, along with some Catholic bashing and a defense of dinosaurs in the Bible. Warren also posted a video in which he blamed bloggers for distorting his views and accused them of "Christ-o-phobia," the Boston Globe notes. More »

(Newser) - Melissa Etheridge is Rick Warren’s new best friend. She met with the pastor last week, after finding out they were set to perform at the same event, and discovered he's not, as expected, a "hate spouting, money grabbing, bad hair televangelist," one of those guys who has "his own gay little secret bathroom stall somewhere, you know." In the Huffington Post, she urges fellow gay-marriage advocates not to protest or boycott the man Obama’s invited to do the invocation at his inauguration, but to reach out. More »

(Newser) - Pope Benedict XVI used a Christmas address today to call for a defense of heterosexuality, which he suggested was as endangered as the rainforest.  He called homosexuality and deviance from gender norms "a destruction of God's work." The pontiff said "the tropical forests do deserve our protection; but man, as a creature, does not deserve any less," the Guardian reports. More »