Greater Miami cultural tourism director George Neary gets giant, jeweled key to city on his 65th birthday

Happy birthday to George Neary, director of cultural tourism for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau since 1998.

This week, Neary received an oversize, jeweled key to the City of Miami Beach, presented at a party in his honor at the World Erotic Art Museum on Washington Ave.

Click here to view a few more pictures from the party. Photos by STEVE ROTHAUS / Miami Herald Staff.

Wide range of potential outcomes on gay marriage

BY MARK SHERMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court can choose from a wide array of outcomes in ruling on California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage and the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

The federal law, known by the shorthand DOMA, defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman and therefore keeps legally married gay Americans from collecting a range of federal benefits that generally are available to married people.

The cases will be argued Tuesday and Wednesday; rulings are not likely before late June.

The justices might come out with rulings that are simple, clear and dramatic. Or they might opt for something narrow and legalistic.

The court could strike down dozens of state laws that limit marriage to heterosexual couples, but it also could uphold gay marriage bans or say nothing meaningful about the issue at all.

A look at potential outcomes for the Proposition 8 case and then for the case about DOMA:

Click here to read more.

Il Volo pop teens to record two PBS concerts at Fillmore Miami Beach (with rehearsal video)

BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com

Il Volo, the classically influenced teenage Italian pop stars who last fall toured North America with Barbra Streisand, wish everyone happy holidays.

Not Easter or Passover. Merry Christmas.

“Only Il Volo can sing Christmas songs in March,” says tenor Ignazio Boschetto, 18, who with fellow tenor Piero Barone, 19, and baritone Gianluca Ginoble, 18, perform two concerts (including a 2013 Christmas special) to be recorded for PBS on Tuesday and Wednesday at The Fillmore Miami Beach theater.

“We feel very Christmas-y in March,” says Richard Jay-Alexander of Miami Beach, their concert director who also guided them on the Streisand tour.

The young men say they’re excited about working again with RJA.

“We are really lucky because we have another grandpa,” jokes Barone. “We didn’t know that. A big grandpa — Richard Jay-Alexander.”

“Very funny,” deadpans Jay-Alexander, 59, during a concert rehearsal at WLRN-TV studios in Miami.

“These guys are so talented, I was dying for this opportunity to work with just them,” says the concert director, who works closely with Streisand and Broadway stars Kristin Chenoweth and Bernadette Peters. “The thing that’s going to make these shows very different, quite honestly, is that this show doesn’t exist yet. I’m building it with these young guys and we’re going to bring it to the people and their fans.”

The Il Volo teens began their show business association three years ago in Italy and already have released several albums including their current CD, We Are Love. They just finished recording a second Christmas album, to be released later this year.

Boschetto says Il Volo fans might not recognize the trio these days.

“We are so excited because on our first PBS show, we were so different. We’ve really changed. I’m different. I lost a lot of weight,” he says. “We are mature now.”

“We are mature? What do you mean mature?” says Barone, still clowning.

One subject the teens treat with reverence: Streisand.

“She’s a legend,” Barone says.

“She’s amazing. She’s a monument. She’s the biggest star in the world,” says Boschetto.

“She’s a teacher of music and life,” Ginoble says. “When I met her for the first time, I was crying. To sing with her was a dream.”

And even though Funny Girl is about to turn 71 in April, the teens wouldn’t dare call her “grandma.”

“She was so nice with us,” Boschetto says. “She was really like an aunt for us.”

Click here for more photos from the Il Volo rehearsal in Miami.

IF YOU GO

Il Volo performs two concerts 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (‘We Are Love’) and Wednesday (Christmas) for PBS at The Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach. Tickets range from $62.50 to $96. concerts. Visit concerts.livenation.com.

London mayor wins case over anti-gay bus ad ban

ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONDON -- Britain's High Court ruled Friday that the mayor of London acted lawfully when he banned bus ads from a Christian group suggesting that homosexuality can be cured.

A Christian charity had challenged mayor Boris Johnson's decision, as chair of London's transport authority, to ban ads declaring: "Not Gay! Ex-Gay, Post-Gay and Proud. Get over it."

Judge Beverley Lang said the ad would have caused "grave offense" to many people and increased "the risk of prejudice and homophobic attacks."

"My conclusion is that (Transport for London's) decision was justified and proportionate in pursuit of the legitimate aim of protecting the rights of others," she said.

"In order to give effect to the primary right of freedom of expression in a democratic society, those who wish to promote an offensive or controversial message should be entitled to do so," the judge said. "In my view, it is proportionate to ask those people to express those views in a way other than by advertising on buses in a major city."

The charity's lawyer, Paul Diamond, told the court hearing that the ad was a response to a campaign by gay rights group Stonewall, featuring bus ads reading: "Some people are gay. Get over it!"

He argued the trust was equally entitled to express its view on the sides of buses.

The judge conceded the charity had an "arguable" case on human rights grounds, and gave it permission to appeal. She said the case raised freedom of speech issues that were of "fundamental importance."

Civil unions signed into law in Colorado

BY IVAN MORENO, ASSOCIATED PRESS

DENVER -- Civil unions for gay couples got the governor's signature in Colorado on Thursday, punctuating a dramatic turnaround in a state where voters banned same-sex marriage in 2006 and restricted protections for gays two decades ago.

Cheers erupted as Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper signed the bill during a ceremony at the History Colorado Center near the state Capitol. Hundreds looked on, with many chanting "Equal! Equal!"

Some wiped away tears and others hugged during the signing ceremony.

"There is no excuse that people shouldn't have all the same rights," Hickenlooper told the crowd, which included dozens of gay couples and others watching from floors above.

The law takes effect May 1.

"It means I can change my name finally," said 21-year-old Amber Fuentes of Lakewood, who plans to have a civil union with Yolanda Martinez, 34.

"It's not marriage, but it still gives us a lot of the rights," Martinez said.

Colorado will join eight states that have civil unions or similar laws. Nine states and the District of Columbia allow gay marriage.

Click here to read more.

Supreme Court’s gay marriage cases: What they’re about, what they could mean

BY MICHAEL DOYLE, MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday and Wednesday will confront two distinct gay marriage cases, which together pose some very ground-breaking questions. Here’s a rundown.

Q. What are the cases?

A. On Tuesday morning, the court has scheduled 60 minutes of oral argument in Hollingsworth v. Perry. This involves a challenge to California’s Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriages that voters adopted in 2008. Opponents challenged the law and a federal appeals court eventually ruled it to be unconstitutional. Supporters asked for the Supreme Court to review the ruling.

On Wednesday morning, the court has scheduled an unusually long 110 minutes of argument in United States v. Windsor. This case challenges the federal Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that prohibits myriad federal benefits from going to gay married couples.

Click here to read more.

'Koch,' the documentary about late Mayor Ed Koch of New York City, opens Friday in South Florida

Koch, the documentary about former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, opens Friday at O Cinema in Miami; Cinema Paradiso in Fort Lauderdale; Living Room Theaters and Regal Shadowood 16, both in Boca Raton; Regal Delray Beach, Movies of Delray, Mos Art in Lake Park.

Here's the national news release:

KOCH opened theaters in New York on February 1, 2013, Mayor Ed Koch passed away that same day.  He will be dearly missed.

Former Mayor Ed Koch was the quintessential New Yorker. Ferocious, charismatic, and hilariously blunt, Koch, who died in February at the age of 88, ruled New York from 1978 to 1989—a down-and-dirty decade of grit, graffiti, near-bankruptcy and rampant crime. First-time filmmaker (and former Wall Street Journal reporter) Neil Barsky has crafted an intimate and revealing portrait of this intensely private man, his legacy as a political titan, and the town he helped transform. The tumult of his three terms included a fiercely competitive 1977 election; an infamous 1980 transit strike; the burgeoning AIDS epidemic; landmark housing renewal initiatives; and an irreparable municipal corruption scandal. Through candid interviews and rare archival footage, Koch thrillingly chronicles the personal and political toll of running the world’s most wondrous city in a time of upheaval and reinvention.

SunServe LGBTQ social services agency: March 2013 video newsletter

SunServe in Fort Lauderdale has produced its first video newsletter:

SunServe employees Bryan C. Wilson and Alana Wooten update constituents on this LGBTQ agency's happenings and community announcements. Departments include LGBTQ Youth, Senior Services, Senior Day Center, Housing Assistance, Mental Health Services and Training & Education.

Influential pediatricians group backs gay marriage

BY LINDSEY TANNER, AP MEDICAL WRITER

CHICAGO -- The nation's most influential pediatrician's group has endorsed gay marriage, saying a stable relationship between parents regardless of sexual orientation contributes to a child's health and well-being.

The American Academy of Pediatrics' new policy, published online Thursday, cites research showing that the parents' sexual orientation has no effect on a child's development. Kids fare just as well in gay or straight families when they are nurturing and financially and emotionally stable, the academy says.

The academy believes that a two-parent marriage is best equipped to provide that kind of environment. Their policy says that if a child has two gay parents who choose to marry, "it is in the best interests of their children that legal and social institutions allow and support them to do so."

The policy cites reports indicating that almost 2 million U.S. children are being raised by gay parents, many of them in states that don't allow gays to marry.

Click here to read more.

Video | 'History Is Watching - Light To Justice'

Posted to YouTube by GetEqual:

Since the birth of our nation, people held down by prejudice and discrimination have always moved slowly but inevitably toward justice and equality.

And throughout our history, the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States have been called upon to issue the critical rulings ensuring that our founding principles of justice and equality are delivered to those long denied them.

After centuries of injustice, countless generations lived in closets, through the watershed of Stonewall, the rise of Pride, the fight AGAINST AIDS, the fall of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", and the demand that our relationships and our lives be shown the respect they deserve, the great weight of history has brought us to the doorstep of the Supreme Court. An unstoppable TIDAL wave is about to sweep over OUR NATION as our history and THOSE OF OUR JUSTICES WILL come together, forever united.

Major civil rights decisions are the most famous in the history of the court. The justices that MAKE the inevitable ruling of national marriage equality will secure their legacy's forever. We have brought to your doorstep and laid at your feet your opportunity to craft one of the defining decisions of civil rights law for our republic, and with it, to define your legacy in history. If you let this opportunity slip away by ruling anything less than full national marriage equality, you will only be giving some future court the recognition for having done it. You have in your hands the power to bring to fruition decades of a people's struggle for equality, and with it the opportunity of a jurist's career to forever mark your name in our evolving understanding of the Constitution AND OUR COUNTRY'S PROMISE OF LIFE, LIBERTY & PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS FOR ALL.

Our equality will come. The only question is who will deliver it.

Equality is waiting...
History is watching...
http://www.lighttojustice.org