The Gazette's Davin White covers the growing PFLAG group in Kanawha County.

A new study shows that the toughest place to be gay is in a rural area.  The Education Week blog  covers a study published in the August issue of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

The Gazette covered the fall out from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America's vote to allow non-celibate gay and lesbian ministers serve.  It is important to note that the ELCA had allowed gay and lesbian ministers, but only if they did not have sex.  The Charleston church, St. Timothy's, has a vocal opposer of the policy as its minister.  He indicated that his Church might leave the ELCA.  Someone went so far as to cover up the "Lutheran" on the Church sign.  WV Public Radio's Erica Peterson had a good piece on the controversy this morning.

The doom and gloom predicted by the minister at St. Timothy's is reminiscent of the integration of churches and the decision to include women.  Ironically, one of the reasons for his opposition is that it would “have a major affect on our relationship with the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and other evangelical churches throughout the world”  Did he review the effect of the ordination of women and the relationship with the Catholic Church?  The Church organizations that preceeded the current ELCA only started ordaining women in the 1970s.

An Inclusive ENDA was introduced in the Senate today.  HRC covers the full story on their blog.  Neither Senator Byrd nor Senator Rockefeller were included in the co-sponsor list.  A quick call to their state offices might help them join!

Senator Rockefeller: (304) 347-5372

Senator Byrd:(304) 342-5855

Erica Peterson has an amazing story on Nicholas White, the young teen who was harrassed at 4-H camp.  The story covers what a hate crime is, the status of the Mathew Shepard Act, and a bit of what it means to grow up gay in rural West Virginia.  This is a well researched story that touches on  Nicholas and his friend John Bennett's lives in Ripley with extreme sensitivity.  Erica Peterson and WV Public Radio deserve a lot of credit for this story.

Today's New York Times magazine profiles the Fayetteville, WV Kutil-Hess family and their quest to keep and adopt their foster child.  That fight revealed the pure homophobia and bigotry of the child's court appointed lawyer.  Fairness WV helped coordinate national and state groups to file Friend of the Court briefs in support of the family.  Fairness joined Lambda Legal in filing its brief along with the Foster Care Alumni of America, COLAGE, and CASA of the Eastern Panhandle.  All of the briefs and the final opinion can be found here.  In a rare move, the circuit court judge hired the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson (WV) to defend his own ruling to take the baby away from her parents.

There was some discussion of the science of sexual orientation in last week's meeting.  Readers should take a look over at Pam's House Blend and her piece on the creator of the junk science, Paul Cameron.  Pam does a thorough job at examining the craziness of the fake science that sexual orientation is a choice.

C.G. Shields of WVU's Daily Athenaeum has written a concise editorial following up on the proposed marriage amendment.  Shields astutely points out that the current arguments about "traditional marriage" are "relatively recent concepts in the lengthy and ever-evolving cultural consensus about marriage."  Shields goes on to touch on the very recent history of marriage where women were considered the property of their husbands.  The piece also looks at the statistics of marriage and violence and to a study that suggests that violence between intimate partners costs us 5.8 billion per year.  The editorial is a must-read.

The Edge Boston reporters are covering the 4-H Camp and the Marriage Hearing from last week in one article.