Happy New Year! Here's a 1940/41 recording of Judy Garland singing Auld Lang Syne.
Brought to you courtesy of Yahoo's The Judy Garland Experience. Home of Judy's rarest recordings: http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/thejudygarlandexperience/
Happy New Year: Judy Garland sings 'Auld Lang Syne'
First gay Anglican bishop, Gene Robinson, reflects on tenure in New Hampshire
BY LYNNE TUOHY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
CONCORD, N.H. -- New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson says he chafed for several years at being branded the first openly gay bishop of the Anglican Church until he realized that he was wasting a pulpit from which he could advocate for equality.
"I'd been given this really remarkable opportunity and it would be selfish of me not to be the best steward of that opportunity," he recently told The Associated Press in an interview as he prepares to retire in January. "We went from my consecration, which set off this international controversy, to nine years later seeing gay, lesbian and transgender congregants welcome at all levels of the church, including bishop."
Robinson's election in 2003 as the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican church created an international uproar and led conservative Episcopalians to break away from the main church in the United States.
Robinson, 65, will hand the pastoral staff to his successor, A. Robert Hirschfeld, in a ceremony at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Concord on Jan. 5.
As he prepared to retire after nearly a decade as bishop, Robinson reflected on the crucibles and crusades of his tenure.
Orchid: The Show extends run at Miami's Pleasure Garden; New Year's Eve ticket packages available
Orchid: The Show has extended its run at The Pleasure Garden, 299 NE 38th St. (Northeast 38th Street and Biscayne Boulevard) in Miami's Design District.
The show, which opened Nov. 6, now runs through Jan. 13. A New Year's Eve performance package, including dinner by Chef Michelle Bernstein, starts at $155. Regular tickets other nights range from $59 to $119 (VIP). Click here for details.
Friday night, George Coronado of Give Me a Beat Productions, played host to dozens of LGBT guests at the show. DJ Oren Nizri entertained before the performance. Click here to view a gallery of pictures from the event. Photos by STEVE ROTHAUS / Miami Herald Staff.
President Barack Obama urges Illinois lawmakers to legalize gay marriage in his home state
President Barack Obama announced Saturday that he supports legalizing gay marriage in his home state of Illinois.
"While the president does not weigh in on every measure being considered by state legislatures, he believes in treating everyone fairly and equally, with dignity and respect," White House spokesman Shin Inouye told The Chicago Sun-Times on Saturday.
Illinois state lawmakers are expected to take up the gay marriage issue next week, according to the Sun-Times.
'Love is love': First same-sex couples are married early Saturday morning in Maine
BY DAVID SHARP, ASSOCIATED PRESS
With tears in their eyes, they were among the first gay couples to exchange wedding vows early Saturday morning after Maine's same-sex marriage law went into effect at midnight.
"We're paving the way for people to go after us. I think it's just amazing. It's freeing. It's what's right," an emotionally drained Gorney said after their ceremony in front of City Hall.
After waiting years and seeing marriage rights nearly awarded and then retracted, gay couples in Maine's largest city didn't have to wait a moment longer than necessary to wed, with licenses issued at the stroke of midnight as the law went into effect.
Steven Bridges and Michael Snell were the first in line, and they received cheers from more than 200 people waiting outside after they wed in the clerk's office.
"It's historic. We've waited our entire lives for this," said Bridges, a retail manager, who's been in a relationship with the Snell, a massage therapist, for nine years. Bridges, 42, and Snell, 53, wore lavender and purple carnations on black T-shirts with the words "Love is love."
Meet 'Mary Poppins' cast member Curtis Schroeger
BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
Mary Poppins cast member Curtis Schroeger says the Disney show about the magical nanny and her influence on the dysfunctional Banks family reminds him of his own teen years.
"The character arc of the father, George Banks, reconnecting to his family that he’s neglected, in my own family life, it resonates with me," says Schroeger, who's touring Florida with Poppins, which arrives Tuesday for five days at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami.
"My family, we went through a divorce," recalls Schroeger, 29, a Florida State University musical theater grad. "For my two younger sisters, that division in my family ... we didn't have the full presence of both my parents. They separated right before my freshman year of college."
Since FSU (where he also was a competitive diver), Schroeger has toured in three Broadway productions: Poppins, South Pacific and Fiddler on the Roof.
He's based in New York, but spends most of his time on the road.
"New York’s kind of tricky," Schroeger says. "You have to be in New York to get work, but 80 percent of the work is not in the city.
Schroeger says he interested in eventually producing,directing and choreographing musicals.
He's been active in Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, appeared in the annual 2009 "Broadway Bares" fundraiser and recently organized a Broadway Cares cabaret for the Poppins company called "A Very Mary Christmas."
Schroeger, 29, grew up in Overland Park, Kansas -- beef country. His family has long participated in barbecue competitions.
After taking a college class in the history of India,Schroeger for a short time became a vegan.
Says Schroeger: "It was harder to tell my father that I was not eating meat anymore, than to tell him I was gay."
Log Cabin Republicans names Gregory T. Angelo interim executive director
News release from Log Cabin Republicans:
(Washington, DC) - The National Board of Directors of Log Cabin Republicans today announced that Gregory T. Angelo has been named Interim Executive Director of the organization. Mr. Angelo follows R. Clarke Cooper, who had announced his intent to step down at the end of the year after serving as executive director since 2010.
"I hope LGBT Republicans and our allies who support freedom and liberty will join me in welcoming Gregory T. Angelo as the interim executive director of Log Cabin Republicans," said National Board Chairman Peter Bertelsen.
"Gregory's longstanding involvement with Log Cabin as leader of the New York State chapter, and his demonstrated ability with grassroots advocacy as head of our sister think tank, the Liberty Education Forum, make him the clear choice to continue the significant strides made by Clarke Cooper over the last three years."
"It has been a tremendous honor to work with our Republican allies in Congress, various partners in liberty, and the Log Cabin Republicans national staff and chapters across the country to advance freedom and equality for all Americans regardless of one's sexual orientation or gender identity," said R. Clarke Cooper. "I am also proud of our work as a force multiplier and LGBT voice within the Republican Party and remain committed to building a stronger more inclusive GOP focused on the core conservative values of limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, free markets and a strong national defense. For the good of the Republican Party, the LGBT community, and our nation as a whole, it is vital that Log Cabin Republicans continue its work. Victory for equality is on the horizon, and Log Cabin must continue to lead the way onward and upward."
"I am both humbled and thrilled to have the support of the Log Cabin Republicans National Board of Directors and to follow in the footsteps of the inimitable Clarke Cooper," Mr. Angelo stated. "There has never been a more exciting and historic time to be a gay Republican-with the wind at our backs following four referendum victories for the freedom to marry last November and the United States Supreme Court soon to rule on marriage equality, 2013 could mark a turning point in the fight for equal rights for all. It has never been more critical to advocate for equality to Republicans, as Republicans. As the Interim Executive Director of this esteemed organization, I will do everything I can to work for Republican victories that return the party to its roots of freedom, fairness, and liberty for all."
Mr. Angelo is the current Chairman of Log Cabin Republicans of New York State, a position he has held since 2009. As New York State Chairman, Mr. Angelo led Log Cabin Republicans as part of New Yorkers United for Marriage, a coalition that collaborated to make marriage equality legal through legislative vote for the first time in a Republican-controlled legislature. He is also the Executive Director of the Liberty Education Forum, a non-partisan think tank that advocates a message of gay acceptance among conservatives and people of faith throughout the United States. Mr. Angelo is a longtime resident of Manhattan, where he serves as a GOP District Leader. He was an Alternate Delegate for Newt Gingrich in the 2012 election cycle.
Mr. Angelo's first day as Interim Executive Director of Log Cabin Republicans will be January 2.
White House website petition wants Westboro Baptist Church recognized as hate group
BY MIKE HENDRICKS, THE KANSAS CITY STAR
At 275,000 signatures and counting, the petition with the most signatures on the White House website as of Thursday seeks to have the federal government “legally recognize” the Topeka-based Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group.
The White House has promised to respond to any petition with 25,000 signatures, but it has not responded to this one yet.
Groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center have long had the Westboro group on their lists of hate groups.
The problem is there is no such designation as a “hate group” in federal law.
The government compiles no official lists. Federal laws refer only to hate crimes, which the FBI characterizes as any “traditional offense like murder, arson or vandalism with an added element of bias” based on the victim’s race, gender, ethnicity or other such characteristic.
