Mass. continues to ban funeral protests
According to the Boston Herald, Attorney General Martha Coakley said Massachusetts will continue to enforce state law that keeps protesters at least 500 feet from a funeral, despite the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the right of a Kansas church group to picket military funerals.
Coakley said she will advise police to continue to enforce a 500-foot buffer zone around funerals to prevent disruptions. She said police have discretion in maintaining order and that Massachusetts law strikes a balance between free speech and the rights of military families.
The Supreme Court ruled last week that members of the Westboro Baptist Church exercised their right to free speech when they picketed the Maryland funeral of a Marine killed in Iraq.
Ark. univ. blocks gay site
Arkansas Online reports Harding University at Searcy has blocked a website that details experiences of gay and lesbian students at the school.
Harding president David Burks said access to huqueerpress.com was blocked as a statement about what Harding believes. He said the school does not approve of sexual activity outside of marriage, whether heterosexual or homosexual.
According to its website, the school is a private Christian institution.
Wyoming Senate kills antigay bill
Advocate.com reports the Wyoming Senate, with a 16-14 vote, rejected a bill March 3 that would have prevented the state from recognizing marriages of same-sex couples performed outside the state.
The rejected bill had been pared down with the removal of language that said gay and lesbian couples in marriages or civil unions from other states could resolve disputes, such as divorce, in the courts.
Hours earlier, the House approved the compromised measure with a 31-28 vote.
Republican Rep. Owen Peterson argued that the bill was needed to close loopholes in Wyoming’s laws, which do not specify whether the state will recognize marriages from outside of the state.
— Larry Nichols