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From the Courage Campaign:

Rick Jacobs, Chair of the Courage Campaign, and Cleve Jones, Senior Advisor to the Courage Campaign, released the following statement today supporting the actions of Lt. Dan Choi and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo, who were arrested today outside of the White House as they protested against the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy:

“Lt. Dan Choi and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo today demonstrated the growing frustration with the pace of change in Washington.  History shows us that nonviolent civil disobedience can be a very effective tactic in the struggle for social justice.  Lt. Choi is a friend of ours and of the Courage Campaign and we are proud of the action he took today.”
 

UPDATE 6 pm

CBS reports:

The Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing Thursday on repeal [of Don't Ask, Don't Tell]. Witnesses included Marine General John Sheehan and two officers who were discharged because of their sexual orientation.

 According to reports, Choi crashed the rally, hosted by the gay rights group the Human Rights Campaign and comedian Kathy Griffin, and asked attendees to join him in a march to the White House, turning the event into more of a protest.

 Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese did not march to the White House, in an illustration of the split in the gay rights movement between establishment organizations like the HRC, which generally support the Obama administration, and activists like Choi, who are pushing more aggressively for action.

Also, Twitter reports say that Choi will spend the night in jail and will be in court tomorrow.

(Trenton, NJ) Gay couples who sued New Jersey for the right to marry once before are taking their case back to court.

Six couples plus the surviving partner from a seventh filed a motion Thursday claiming the state continues to discriminate against them even though it offers civil unions to same-sex couples.

The original suit, filed in 2002, resulted in a 2006 New Jersey Supreme Court decision that came one vote short of requiring the state to legalize gay matrimony. After an effort to get lawmakers to legalize gay marriage, the effort fizzled out.

Opponents say that there’s no constitutional right for gay couples to wed and that civil unions are working.

Gay marriage is legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Let me introduce myself.

I’m a law professor, father of two (twin) girls in a committed (gay) relationship, and a blogger. On my site, WordinEdgewise, I discuss all manner of issues – some with a legal dimension, some not so much – in a way that I hope is of interest to a curious audience that includes lawyers and non-lawyers: in other words, everyone.

In this column, I’ll concentrate on issues of particular concern to the LGBT community— mostly those with a legal dimension.

I’m honored and excited to be writing a column that will appear here each Thursday. Please, let me know how you think I’m doing, what stories you’d like me to cover from a legal angle, and…whatever.

Now:  today’s discussion.

Consider this question: What kind of accommodation is needed between religious beliefs and anti-discrimination laws and values?

In cases on either end of the spectrum, the answer is easy.

Let’s take the issue of marriage equality.

On one end of the spectrum, we all know that it isn’t enough for opponents to argue that religious teaching traditionally restricts marriage to the union of one man and one woman. First, some religious leaders support gay marriage. But there’s also the more basic problem that in a secular state, we need a public, non-religious reason for denying basic equality.

On the other end of the spectrum – as far as I know –  no one has argued that churches must directly violate their own central beliefs by marrying gay couples. And if they did, they’d be wrong.

But most cases are in the complicated middle. Consider these two seemingly unrelated stories, both in the news:

Two little girls are kicked out  of Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School in Boulder, Colorado because their mothers are lesbians. Meanwhile the school allows (non gay) divorcees, non-Catholics, and – as far as I can tell – just about anyone else to attend. (Try explaining that to a couple of little kids.)

At Hastings College of the Law (a California state school), the Christian Legal Society bars non-believers and – yes! – gays and lesbians from becoming voting members, and then sues when the school won’t give the group official recognition or funding. The case has made its way to the Supreme Court, where oral arguments are to be held next month. If you want to keep yourself busy well into the summer, read the full set of briefs that were filed (37, by my informal count).

I’ve written before about the accommodation issue , when it has come up as a last stand by opponents. They say: If you’re going to grant marriage equality (which they hate), at least create a religious exemption for people of faith for whom gay unions are immoral, against church teaching, and so on.

OK, but what should be the reach of that exemption? The same question comes up in these cases: How much accommodating should be done, if any?

The first question to ask is whether the state even offers relevant anti-discrimination law.

Alas, the Colorado pre-school case is easier than it should be, because the protection the state offers against sexual orientation discrimination mostly covers housing and employment. Even if it were broader, though, it probably wouldn’t help. The associational liberty and religious freedom of the church would likely prevail, although one could make a convincing case that the church’s religious freedom claim is convenient, not principled.

After all, the school isn’t choosy about its students, except in this one instance. So a court might see the claims of association and liberty as a subterfuge for discrimination. (I doubt it, though, given how the Supreme Court rolled over and played dead in the Boy Scouts v. Dale case, where five Justices bought the Scouts’ every-changing justification for excluding gay scoutmasters.) But again, the law would have to be broader in the first place.

Law isn’t everything, though. The lesbian parents’ courageous statement, reported earlier this week, was a great use of the publicity that the case has generated to make some really compelling points about basic fairness. Sometimes the law isn’t the best or only way to move the ball.

In the Hastings case, the answer seems clear enough to me. I think that the law school has struck precisely the right balance between religious freedom and its commitment to non-discrimination. The Christian Legal Society requires members to subscribe to tenets that the law school found run counter to its anti-discrimination policy. Of particular interest, members must repudiate non-marital sex. (Even the Chess Club seems appealing by contrast.)

Hastings regards this requirement as sexual orientation discrimination, since all sexual relations between two people of the same sex are “non-marital” according to the group. But the school is attempting to be reasonable, by letting the group meet on campus, allowing some use of school facilities to publicize their meetings, and so on.

In other words, CLS’s right to association and speech has been protected. Hastings has drawn the line at funding and full recognition, though. It won’t lend its name to discrimination, no matter the justification. I’m optimistic that even this Supreme Court will see the wisdom in Hastings’ actions, but I’m not sure what odds I’d give.

Do products that boast probiotic bacteria actually have proven medical benefits? Dr. Vincent Smith explores the validity of this recent health trend.

A small but significant portion of medical studies exclude gays from participating, sometimes without an apparent scientific reason, several cancer researchers say.

In a letter in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine, three scientists from the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia cite several dozen studies requiring a participant to be “in a reciprocal relationship with a person of the opposite sex.”

There are legitimate scientific reasons for excluding gays from certain studies. Scientists would want only heterosexuals if they were studying how HIV spreads during male-female sex, for example.

But the Fox Chase folks found cases where the reason for excluding gays is not clear: tests of a drug for attention-deficit disorder, a treatment for erection problems after prostate cancer surgery, and studies on sexual function related to diabetes, depression and benign enlargement of the prostate as men age.

Brian Egleston, a biostatistician at Fox Chase, made the observation while overseeing enrollment of patients into clinical trials at the cancer center.

“When I first saw this, I thought it was a fluke. The second time, I thought I’d dig deeper,” he said.

Egleston and Roland Dunbrack Jr., a biologist, and Dr. Michael J. Hall, a medical oncologist, did a spot check of a government database of thousands of studies and turned up more examples, most of them private-industry trials.

Researchers seeking federal money for their work must explain why a study excludes a group based on gender, race or ethnicity, but no explanation is needed for exclusion based on sexual orientation, Egleston said.

Exclusion can become self-perpetuating: Researchers designing a study often “cut and paste” participation criteria from earlier trials on a similar subject.

“It becomes the way it’s done,” and any bias gets repeated, Egleston said.

Estimates of how much of the U.S. population is gay or bisexual vary widely; some polls have put it around 4 percent.

Good morning all. Today, it is sunny and warm in New York and Chicago and Toronto: all of my favorite cities, and so we can’t help but be full of good cheer. Given that, let’s start this week’s watercooler off with a happy video and sexy interview.

• Lady Gaga’s new hit music video,Telephone, has a sexy and steamy kiss with her “prison girlfriend.” The actual girlfriend is a queer body builder with a fabulous take on bending the gender binary. After Ellen has an interview with her. Check out the video below and the interview by clicking here. At least you know the pics won’t disappoint!

Music Code Provided by MusicVideolife.com

• Because I’m in such a good mood, I get to transition right into a little jab at one of the worse labor offenders in North America. A Walmart in New Jersey, yesterday, announced over the loudspeaker that all Black people had to leave its store. Walmart has a pathetic tradition of worker exploitation and the added side effect of pushing out local retail outlets by opening megastores that flog low quality wares to the poorest North Americans. Are they racist? Perhaps not explicitly. But how fun to see them lambasted in the press!

• In another blow against the establishment (of a different kind), The Episcopal Church has elected their second openly gay Bishop and their first lesbian Bishop. Last night, Mary Glasspool received enough votes for consecration. Australia’s Anglican church is up in arms. But we can celebrate enough for the bigots down under too.

• Finally, today in New Jersey, Lambda Legal will be arguing in the State Supreme Court for the right to marry. New Jersey has civil unions (court ordered in 2006) with the same rights and privileges as marriage, but no title of marriage. After the Senate bill conferring marriage failed, Lambda has stepped in to try the legal route. Makes sense to me since we were always taught in law school that constitutions are enforced by the court to protect minorities from the majority… Still waiting for that to really be true in this country. Maybe New Jersey will take a step in the right direction.

Ok. Enjoy the sunshine. Enjoy the day. Thanks for reading.

(Los Angeles) The Episcopal Church has approved the election of a lesbian assistant bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles, making her the second openly gay bishop in the Anglican global fellowship, diocese officials said Wednesday.

Episcopal conservatives were quick to criticize the approval of the Rev. Mary Glasspool of Baltimore, who was elected last December, and said the move was “grieving the heart of God.”

Still, Glasspool’s victory underscored a continued Episcopal commitment to accepting same-sex relationships despite enormous pressure from other Anglicans to change their stand.

“I am … aware that not everyone rejoices in this election and consent, and will work, pray and continue to extend my own hands and heart to bridge those gaps, and strengthen the bonds of affection among all people, in the name of Jesus Christ,” Glasspool said in a printed statement.

Glasspool and the Rev. Diane M. Jardine Bruce were elected in December to serve as assistant bishops, making them the first women bishops to serve in that diocese. Both, however, needed the full church’s approval to be consecrated.

Both are scheduled to be consecrated on May 15.

The Episcopal Church, which is the Anglican body in the United States, caused an uproar in 2003 by consecrating the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Breakaway Episcopal conservatives have formed a rival church, the Anglican Church in North America.

Several overseas Anglicans have been pressuring Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world’s 77 million Anglicans, to officially recognize the new conservative entity.

In 2004, Anglican leaders asked the Episcopal Church for a moratorium on electing another gay bishop while they tried to prevent a permanent break in the fellowship.

Since the request was made, some Episcopal gay priests have been nominated for bishop, but none was elected before Glasspool. In July 2009, the Episcopal General Convention, the U.S. church’s top policy making body, affirmed that gay and lesbian priests were eligible to become bishops.

Glasspool’s approval shows that the Episcopal Church “creates no barrier for ministry on the basis of gender and sexual orientation, among other factors,” Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno said in a statement.

But some conservative Episcopalians were outspoken in their criticism Wednesday.

In approving Glasspool, the Episcopal Church has “sought to embrace a way of life which the church through the Bible has always understood to be forbidden,” said the Rev. Kendall Harmon of the traditional Diocese of South Carolina, which has voted to distance itself from the national church.

“The tragic damage the Episcopal Church has recently caused the third largest Christian family in the world will continue into the future, hurting our collective witness and grieving the heart of God.”

Glasspool, 56, an adviser, or canon, for eight years to the Diocese of Maryland’s bishop, said in an essay on the Los Angeles diocese Web site that she had an “intense struggle” while in college with her sexuality and the call to become a priest.

“Did God hate me (since I was a homosexual), or did God love me?” she wrote. “Did I hate (or love) myself?”

She said she met her partner, Becki Sander, while working in Massachusetts, and the two have been together since 1988.

Bruce was most recently the rector of St. Clement’s-By-The-Sea Episcopal Church in San Clemente, Calif.

Logo Drama Club sauntered on over to hear the cast of Million Dollar Quartet rock out to a jam session this week, and we got to interview the rockers after the show.

I felt like Kate Hudson in Almost Famous. One of the performers was Levi Kreis, out singer/songwriter and Logo Click List favorite, whom you may have heard of/desired physically. We discussed the true meaning of “great balls of fire,” and things got pretty heated. Seriously, there was major love tension.

In addition to Levi Kreis, we had our video way with Robert Britton Lyons, Eddie Clendening, and Elizabeth Stanley who all appear as participants in the epic night the show depicts. Million Dollar Quartet is about a crazy day in 1956 when Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash all made magical music together. Also, some girl named Dyanne was there.

For more info about the show, check out http://milliondollarquartetlive.com.

Our sister site LogoTV.com allowed us to grab video of their red carpet interviews with Cynthia Nixon, Brian Batt, Joy Behar and others.

There’s a pedophilia scandal and some kids in preschool. Guess who gets punished?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Holy Sh*t www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show
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From an ACLU press release:

 

(Jackson, Miss.) The Mississippi Department of Corrections  agreed to end the segregation of prisoners with HIV, a longstanding discriminatory policy that has prevented prisoners from accessing key resources that facilitate their successful transition back into the community.

The decision by Mississippi’s corrections commissioner Christopher Epps, prompted by recent advocacy by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, leaves Alabama and South Carolina as the only states in the nation that segregate prisoners based on their HIV status. Epps made the decision ahead of a forthcoming report by the ACLU and Human Rights Watch analyzing the harmful impact segregation policies have had in the three states.

“Commissioner Epps deserves a tremendous amount of credit for making this courageous decision to replace a policy based on irrational HIV prejudice with a policy based on science, sound correctional practice and respect for human rights,” said Margaret Winter, Associate Director of the ACLU National Prison Project. “The remaining segregation policies in South Carolina and Alabama are a remnant of the early days of the HIV epidemic and continue to stigmatize prisoners and inflict them and their families with a tremendous amount of needless suffering.”

Public and correctional health experts agree that there is no medical basis for segregating HIV-positive prisoners within correctional facilities or for limiting access to jobs, vocational training and educational programs available to others.

Since 1987, however, the Mississippi corrections system has performed mandatory HIV tests on all prisoners entering the state prison system, and has permanently housed all male prisoners who test positive in a segregated unit at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, the state’s highest security prison.

As a result, prisoners with HIV have been faced with unjustified isolation, exclusion and marginalization, and low-custody prisoners have been forced unnecessarily to serve their sentences in more violent, more expensive prisons.

The change in policy will enable prisoners with HIV to participate in jobs, training programs and other services to which they were previously denied access because of their HIV status and which are designed to prepare prisoners for a productive return to society.

Prisoners with HIV will now be able to participate in kitchen work, for example, which can be beneficial to them in many ways. Many prisoners worked in kitchens, cafes or restaurants prior to their incarceration, and continued employment in that area can help them upon re-entry into the workforce. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, there is no medical basis for preventing persons with HIV from working in kitchens or other food service employment.

Additionally, prisoners with HIV will no longer be assigned to a segregated HIV unit, which resulted in the public disclosure of their HIV status and left them at risk of being ostracized and subjected to hostility and violence at the hands of other prisoners.

Epps said he will phase in the new desegregation policy gradually for prisoners currently housed in the HIV unit, and will form a committee to make individualized placement decisions for these prisoners. Starting immediately, incoming prisoners will be housed using only criteria set out in the state classification plan such as criminal history, length of sentence and other factors unrelated to their HIV status.

“Prisoners with HIV were often forced to live in cruel, inhumane and degrading conditions, and we’re delighted that Mississippi has changed its policy,” said Megan McLemore, health researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Integrating prisoners with HIV is the norm across the United States and MDOC deserves significant credit for making this decision.”

Additional information about the ACLU National Prison Project is available online at: www.aclu.org/prison

About 600 people have said on Facebook they will dress in evening wear on April 2 to protest the Mississippi school that cancelled prom instead of letting a lesbian in a tuxedo and her girlfriend attend.

The event, called Dress You Up in my Love/The Nationwide Equality Prom, is the brainchild of activist Jen Dugan. It

Details below. Will you dress up?

 

Dress You Up In My Love (The Nationwide Equality Prom)

When: April 2nd, 2010.

Why: In solidarity with Constance McMillan

 Constance McMillan wanted to take her girlfriend to prom. Rather than allow a same-sex couple to attend, her school canceled the prom for everyone.

 Well, that’s just uncalled for.

 April 2nd was the original date for the dance. If her school won’t hold it – then let’s dress up in support of equality and have a nationwide prom that day.

 Here’s what to do:

 Schools (without dress codes), universities, clubs, organizations, & interested individuals:

 On April 2nd, dress up in your absolute FINEST. If you have a suit or old tuxedo and want to wear it – put it on. If you have a nice dress or an old prom gown that fits – wear it. If you have none of this, just find whatever nice clothes you have and feel comfortable wearing.

 ”But I’ll look completely out of place and ridiculous. People don’t wear formal clothing every day.”

 Exactly.

 Wearing a tuxedo, suit, gown, or formal dress clothes to class, work, or grocery shopping IS out of the ordinary. And it’s going to draw attention and get some questions asked.

 So, if anyone asks why you’re all dressed up – tell them: A young woman in Mississippi wanted to go to prom with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo. Instead of being allowed to do this, the administration canceled the prom for everyone.

 Since April 2nd was the original date for the prom – you’re dressing up to show your solidarity with Constance and support for equality.

 Get a group of your friends to dress up with you. April 2nd is a Friday. Have fun with this while taking a stand.

 (Extra points if you can manage to organize some type of prom-esq social or function in your local community on this day).

 RSVP on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=365198770039

 Email: equalityprom@me.com

The company that created the gay and lesbian cruise concept is commemorating its 25th birthday with a Silver Anniversary Cruise in Hawaii.

RSVP Vacation said Monday that it will be the company’s first cruise in the islands.

The seven-day cruise aboard NCL’s Pride of America departs Honolulu Oct. 30. It makes calls at Maui, Kauai and the Big Island before returning to Honolulu Nov. 6.

Hawaii Tourism Authority’s vice president of marketing, David Uchiyama, says Hawaii is honored that RSVP selected the state for its Silver Anniversary Cruise.

The Minneapolis-based company hosted its first all-gay cruise in 1986. Since then, RSVP says more than 80,000 men and women have participated in its ship and riverboat cruises, land tours and resort vacations. over the campaign documents could push back the closing arguments.

Editor’s question: Have you ever been on a gay cruise? To where? With whom? What did you think?

(San Francisco) More legal wrangling in the federal trial over California’s gay marriage ban is threatening to delay the case.

The sponsors of Proposition 8 are seeking access to the internal campaign documents of gay rights groups that opposed the measure.

But the groups, including Equality California, want to block that request. At a hearing Tuesday, their lawyers told Judge Vaughn Walker that the e-mails and memos are irrelevant because the groups are not officially part of the litigation.

Walker is presiding over the first federal trial on whether the U.S. Constitution prevents states from outlawing same-sex marriages. Testimony ended in January, and Walker had planned to schedule closing arguments after he’s had time to review evidence.

Now apeals over the campaign documents could push back the closing arguments.

* Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Here’s a College Humor video of “The Nightmare Before St. Patrick’s Day” to get you in the holiday spirit because I can’t serve you whisky through the internet.

* A certain 42 year old Silver Fox graced the cover of ‘Outside’ Magazine this month. HINTING. Inside the pages, he discusses fear, skydiving, and Haiti.

* The Observer reports that C.I.A. tried to recruit a spy in Al Qaeda in the run up to 9/11 who was secretly gay. The gay terrorist was Ahmad Hikmat Shakir, who was reportedly “tall as a mushroom, fat, and gay.”

* Jessica Simpson’s VH1 show, “The Price of Beauty” is finally airing, and  she’s speaking out about some of the most beautiful women of the world. She especially found the women of Morocco “so beautiful,” describing the way they speak “through their eyes.”

MTV Shows

* “Sondheim: The Birthday Concert” celebrated the musical theater composer’s 80th birthday this Monday with a star-studded event at Lincoln Center. Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Elaine Stritch, and George Hearn all took part in the concert event.

* Not only is Betty White hosting SNL, but now she’s got her own TV series, hilariously titled, “Hot in Cleveland.” You’re hot everywhere, Betty.

* Is this somehow Beau Breedlove’s fault? Porn Magazine Unzipped has been ordered to close by Here/Regent Media chief Paul Colichman. The media company also publishes titles, “Out” and “The Advocate.”

* Daily Intel reports thats some emails have recently surface which may get Governor Paterson off the hook on that whole Yankees scandal. Congrats! Maybe that’s why he was so jokey at the Barclays Center ground breaking last week.

* Are the Gorges at Ithaca and Cornell causing students to kill themselves?

* A guy with a giant dick walked into the New Museum.

Big Dick enters The New Museum from David Livingston on Vimeo.

HOT TV NEWSER OF THE WEEK

DAVID MUIR!!

Pennsylvania’s Republican-majority Senate Judiciary Committee killed 8-6 a bill to amend the state constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

This is the third time in four years a gay marriage ban bill has been tabled. There was no debate.

Committee Chairman Stewart Greenleaf, a Republican, told the Inquirer that the vote “was a referendum on gay marriage” and that the “measure would not come up again this session.”

Said the Inquirer:

“I believe that Senate Bill 707 is the antithesis of what Pennsylvanians need and want, and I am happy that the majority of my colleagues agree with me,” said Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery).

Earlier this year, Leach introduced a measure (S.B. 935) that would provide for marriage equality in Pennsylvania. It has drawn just one cosponsor.

Pennsylvania already bans gay marriage, but opponents have sought to write the ban into the constitution to prevent a judge’s decision from reversing it. Currently, there are no legal challenges to the statute, said Andy Hoover, legislative director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

(Blantyre, Malawi) Church leaders say they have met in this fiercely conservative southern African nation to “understand the phenomenon” of same sex partners days ahead of a court verdict that could send two gay men to jail for up to 14 years.

Bishop Joseph Bvumbwe, head of the Malawi Council of Churches, says the leaders gathered Wednesday in the southern town of Mangochi to discuss homosexuality as an issue “most Malawians do not understand.”

Blantyre magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa is scheduled to deliver a verdict Monday on Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, arrested and jailed since Dec. 26 after holding a public engagement ceremony.

Homosexuality is illegal in most sub-Saharan African countries. The arrests have outraged human rights groups and Western donors in Malawi, one of Africa’s poorest nations.

You know it’s bad when Mark Foley and Ted Haggard can’t even be in the top five. For a little humor go examine the top 10 list of  anti-gay politicians caught doing the gay.

They are all there, from Larry Craig and his bathroom antics to good ol’ Roy Ashburn, who voted against rights for gays and immigrants but was enthralled with Latino male tail (who isn’t?). Some of these guys are really low-down dirty dogs. There is Richard Curtis, a Washington State representative who voted consistently against  domestic partnerships and discrimination laws. How did his sodomy loving ways come out? He hired an escort (no problem there), but reneged on the agreed upon price. Really Curtis? That’s so not classy and rather cheap. Glad the working lad had pictures of you in sexy red negligee.

Then there is creepy Bruce Barclay, although his creepy nature saved him from living as a guest of the state. He and a young guy had some booty time. The young thing called it rape. The authorities were called in. Mr. Barclay had many videotapes preserving his sexual conquests, filmed without the consent of his fellow actors. The tape didn’t show rape; however, if you meet this guy in  bar and want to give him shot, take him to your place.

Go check the list out. Any glaring omissions? Any problems with the order?

A federal judge annuled the marriage of two gay men that took place in Buenos Aires last week, according to the Catholic News Agency; but gay marriage bills are still moving ahead in Argentina.  Judge Felix Gustavo de Igarzabal of Buenos Aires ruled that marriage is defined by being between a man and a woman – and since both parties were men, no marriage took place. This reversed an earlier decision allowing two gay men to marry at the city’s civil registry office on March 3. The Argentine congress is currently considering two bills that would legalize marriage equality. Some polls have shown that up to 70 percent of Argentinians support gay marriage. The Argentine Supreme Court is also currently hearing two cases on gay marriage. The Justice Minister is on record as favoring a gender neutral marriage law, as is former president Nestor Kirchner. Two men were legally wed in the province of Tierra del Fuego in December, after the governor ordered the civil registry office to perform and register their marriage. Cohabitating same-sex couples have the right to collect the pensions of their deceased partners in Argentina and gay prisoners can receive conjugal visits. Civil unions are recognized in four jurisdictions in Argentina, including Buenos Aires.

(Paris) The latest show at Paris’ Quai Branly museum comes with a warning for visitors: “This exhibition of Moche ceramics shows sexual acts of an explicit nature.”

But the extraordinary and graphic testimonial of the ancient Moche civilization of Peru isn’t about physical pleasure or procreation, according to the curator.

He says the sexual acts evoke the rituals that accompanied the death of dignitaries, and the human sacrifices that went with them. They tell a story about the power of the elite that he says has parallels with modern life.

“Sex, death and sacrifice in the Moche religion,” which opened this week and runs until May 23, brings to Europe for the first time 134 erotic Moche ceramics on loan from the Larco Museum in Lima, Peru.

The Moche lived on what is now the northern coast of Peru between the first and eighth centuries. The ancient Andean people belonged to one of the first societies to organize itself in way that would be recognized as a state, constructing cities with elaborate monuments and specialized centers for the production of textiles, metal and ceramics.

Their culture is on display at the anthropological Quai Branly museum, whose recent exhibits include an exploration of the Teotihuacan people of ancient Mexico and a tribute to African literature and culture.

The visitor to the Moche show is asked to look beyond the graphic nature of the exhibits, such as the outsize penis used for pouring liquids, or the grimacing woman being forced to perform oral sex.

Some of the acts are disturbing and violent – but not in the provocative fashion of pornography or some modern artists.

They don’t reflect scenes from ordinary Moche life, the exhibition explains.

Curator Steve Bourget, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has made his career studying the Moche, says he believes they were part of ritual or sacrificial ceremonies – bloodthirsty and wild though strictly controlled affairs.

Some of the ceramics are almost anatomical – the Moche artists have made clear, often in minute detail, the nature of the acts they are depicting.

That may be because the artists were making what Bourget says is an important distinction between vaginal intercourse, which is rarely shown, and other forms of sex.

Vaginal sex is usually performed by a supernatural being called Wrinkle Face – which Bourget believes makes it associated with the afterlife.

Non-vaginal intercourse often involves women engaging in sex with skeletal beings or sacrificial victims, seen as inhabiting a place between this world and the next.

As such Bourget believes the sexual acts are linked to a ritual inversion of order which takes place during funerary or sacrificial rituals associated with the transition into the other world.

“How do you go back from being dead into going in another form of life?” he told The Associated Press during a visit this week. “All the cultures have problems with that.”

Both an anthropologist and an archaeologist, he says its only possible to understand such a long-gone culture because “I eat the Moche, I sleep the Moche, I talk to the Moche.”

It’s a relationship that seems to be working out for him.

“The Gods of the Moche seem to like me so they keep letting me find stuff,” he says.

Fifteen years ago he discovered the broken and sex-sated bones of male warriors who’d lain for centuries in a massive sacrificial site.

After the first bodies were discovered, it took archaeologists several days to work out what they had found, but the cut marks on the throats, on the vertebrae, on the neck bones gave it away.

He also found outfits, textiles, and objects similar to those depicted in the ceramics, after which “it’s only a small step” to imagine them performing the sexual rituals.

Originally interpreted as evidence of a decadent culture, Bourget says the sexual acts should be seen as a visual discourse on the power of the Moche elite.

It’s a story that has parallels with modern debates from the burqa to the death penalty.

“All state societies be they French, be they American, be they any, are by definition violent systems,” Bourget said.

“The state gives itself the right to kill, to put people in jail, to control them.”

In places where the ideological pole is strongest – from the Moche sacrifices through Ancient Rome to modern day Texas – the state tries to magnify its power through ritualized violence.

He says the Moche religion is not the only one to seek to control sexuality. The burqa is a form of control, as is the Catholic aversion to condoms, he says.

“You control sexuality, you control access to it, and in the process you give yourself power over groups, over people and you embed this power into values and you disseminate the values as being part of the population,” he says.

“The population accept this because they believe its part of their values. They don’t think they are being controlled.”