Rapper apologizes at D. C. Black Pride
Advocate.com reports rapper Wale apologized to LGBT fans for initially pulling out of a scheduled appearance at D.C. Black Pride, where the rapper ultimately performed on May 30.
His management had explained his cancelation by saying the rapper was unaware he would be headlining a gay festival.
Wale commented via YouTube that hip-hop “knows no race, no color, no age, no gender, no sexual orientation.”
He added: “And I apologize for not having my best foot forward to understand the people I’m in business with. And I’m going to do better.”
Judge stays Maine gay marriage order
Portland’s WCSH6.com reports a federal appeals judge blocked an order that Maine officials be given information on donors who helped finance a campaign to repeal Maine’s gay-marriage law.
The May 28 U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order remains in effect until a further order of the court.
A magistrate recently recommended that the National Organization for Marriage turn over information about donors and fundraising to the Maine attorney general’s office. NOM was a major donor to last fall’s successful campaign to repeal Maine’s law legalizing gay marriage.
Just before the law was repealed, the state ethics commission decided to investigate whether NOM should have been required to submit names of its donors. NOM maintained that release of names would violate donors’ First Amendment rights.
Lawyers: ‘Mission from God’ to unseat judges
The Huffington Post reports a group of four conservative Christian attorneys campaigning for seats on San Diego’s Superior Court say they’re on a mission from God to replace liberal judges who support abortion rights and same-sex marriage.
“We believe our country is under assault and needs Christian values,” said Craig Candelore, a family-law attorney who is one of the group’s candidates. “Unfortunately, God has called upon us to do this only with the judiciary.”
San Diego District Attorney Bobbie Dumanis, who is a lesbian, says this kind of challenge aimed at packing the court threatens both the impartiality of the bench and the separation of church and state.
— Larry Nichols