California Gay Weddings May Start June 14

Same-sex couples in some California counties will be able to marry as soon as June 14, the president of the California's county clerks association said.
Stephen Weir, who heads the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials, said Monday he was told by the Office of Vital Records that clerks would be authorized to hand out marriage licenses as soon as that date, which is a Saturday and exactly 30 days after the California Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage should be legal.
The court's decisions typically take effect after 30 days, barring further legal action.
"They are shooting for the 14th," said Weir, adding that the state planned to give California's 58 counties advice this week for implementing the historic change so local officials can start planning.
Suanne Buggy, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Public Health, which oversees the vital records office, would not confirm Monday that state officials have settled the matter of when counties can or must start extending marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
"We will be getting guidance out to the counties soon," Buggy said.
According to Weir, it would be up to each county clerk to decide whether to open their offices to gay and lesbian couples on that Saturday or to wait until the following Monday.
Some clerks have said they would try to accommodate couples at the earliest possible date, depending on their staffing and anticipated demand, he said.
If the court's decision does take effect on June 14, couples could, in theory, plan to obtain their licenses and take their vows at 12:01 a.m. that day, he said.
As it happens, Weir's office in Martinez already holds open hours on the second Saturday of each month, so serving couples who want to get hitched as soon as possible won't be a problem, he said. He and his partner of 18 years hope to be the first ones to tie the knot.
"Just because we have been so close to it, and so far, I would really like to be first," Weir said.
An effort, however, is under way to stay the Supreme Court's decision until voters can decide the issue with an initiative planned for the November ballot. The measure would overrule the justices' decision and amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage.
Justices have until the ruling's effective date to weigh the request, but could give themselves longer to consider it, attorneys have said. Another complicating factor is that the Supreme Court also directed a mid level appeals court that upheld the state's one man-one woman marriage laws a year ago to issue a new order legalizing same-sex marriage, and it's not clear when the appeals court would comply.
Massachusetts is the only other state to legalize gay marriage, something it did in 2004. More than 9,500 same-sex couples in that state have wed.
from The Associated Press

Photos Of High School Water Polo Players Merit No Charges

Orange County, CA - Two men, including a UCI police dispatcher, who allegedly took photographs of area high school water polo players that were posted on gay sex websites will not face criminal charges, the Orange County District Atty.’s office said Thursday, although a university investigation continues.
“We investigated this case extensively — we pursued the criminal angle and also asked if we could pursue a civil lawsuit,” said Orange County District Atty.’s spokeswoman Susan Kang Schroeder. “There’s nothing in the statutes that would make this be a crime.”
Although prosecutors found the photographers did not break any laws, the water polo players and their parents still have the option of filing a civil suit, Schroeder said.
“This doesn’t preclude the victims from going after the people who put up the pictures and made money off theses images,” she said.
Newport Harbor High School Water Polo Coach Jason Lynch said he wasn’t surprised to learn that posting the photographs of young male players in small bathing suits on the Internet was not against the law.
Since word of the photographs spread through the local aquatics community, Newport Harbor officials and parents are keeping a closer watch on who comes to the pool with a camera, he said.
“We’ve continued to take some steps to be more vigilant and police the pool deck,” Lynch said. “We’ve designated some of our booster parents to be more vigilant of people who come with cameras. It’s still hard with little tiny cameras and cellphones, but at least we’re trying to do something.”
Parents and school officials now keep an eye out for people with cameras equipped with telephoto lenses, and photographers from visiting schools need a pass when they go to Newport Harbor for water polo events, Lynch said.
Scott Cornelius, 44, a UCI police department employee, remains on paid administrative leave as the university’s investigation into his conduct in the case continues, said UCI spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon.
Cornelius was placed on paid administrative leave in January after he and another photographer, Allen Rockwell, were accused of posting photos of unsuspecting high school-aged male water polo players, including Newport Harbor High School students, on websites with gay pornographic content.
UCI is conducting its own investigation to see if Cornelius’ conduct broke any university regulations. The investigation is examining whether photographs Cornelius allegedly took were taken on department time, a police department official told the Daily Pilot in March.
The discovery of numerous photographs of area, underage water polo players on gay porn websites prompted a state Assembly bill that would make it a crime to take and publish photographs of minors without their knowledge or consent on pornographic websites. AB 2104, written by Assemblyman Cameron Smyth (R-Santa Clarita), would make such acts a crime punishable by up to one year in county jail and/or a $5,000 fine. The bill has already successfully passed out of the Assembly public safety committee and has been passed onto the appropriations committee.
from The Daily Pilot

Thanks to NGblog for the heads up.

Related Article: Teen Swimmers' Photos Put On Gay Sites

Surrogate Mothers Fulfilling Gay Men's Parenthood Dreams

NEW YORK — An ever-growing number of gay couples are paying tens of thousands of dollars to have surrogate mothers carry their babies, turning America's concept of traditional family on its head.
It took two women and two men for two-year-old twins Katherine and Connor to come to life.
Their fathers, Michael Eidelman and A.J. Vincent, who have lived together for years, invested love, time and all their savings to build their family in New York's Chelsea neighborhood.
The eggs were donated by a woman in Washington state and fertilized in vitro with sperm from both men. The fertilized egg was then inserted in the uterus of a woman from Ohio.
Each man is the biological father of one of the twins, who were born in Los Angeles, where the laws are less stringent for same-sex couples.
"I am so glad that we chose that pathway," said Eidelman, a 40-year-old dermatologist.
"It definitely has challenges on a day-to-day basis. You never know what is coming your way," he said. "But, on the other hand, it is more rewarding than any other thing I have done in my life."
To fulfill their dream of parenthood, the couple turned to Circle Surrogacy, a company that helps people find egg donors and host mothers and navigate through the legal and medical insurance process.
"It is a very successful business," said Circle Surrogacy President John Weltman.
"In 12 years we have grown 6,000 percent with no borrowing whatsoever and profit made every month," he said. "We expect to double in the next two and half years."
When the company was launched, 10 percent of its clients were gay couples. Today, 80 percent are same-sex couples from 29 countries.
"Actually, of the 250 or so couples we have helped, all but about four are still together, a less than two percent break up rate, as opposed to the national average of 50 percent," he said.
The "gay baby boom" has made families with two fathers a common sight in New York City's daycare centers and parks, although gay couples legally marry only in one US state, Massachusetts.
"It is not looked at anymore as something so weird or strange," said Sanford Benardo, president of the Northeast Assisted Fertility Group from Boston, Massachusetts.
"More and more people are doing it," said Bernardo, whose company has clients from Asia to the Middle East and Europe. "It is not for celebrities anymore."
The process costs at least 100,000 dollars, with 25,000 dollars going to the surrogate mother and between 4,000 and 10,000 dollars of the egg donor. The rest goes to the agency, medical costs and legal fees.
Coupled with adoption, the number of families with gay parents is growing. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, between one million and nine million children under the age of 18 have same-sex parents today.
Henry, a blue-eyed baby turning two in August, has two fathers -- Christopher Hietikko and Jeffrey Parsons -- both in their 40s. His surrogate mother, a lesbian from California, has been made part of the family.
"We became very close and we still are very close," said Parsons, a psychology professor at Hunter College. "We didn't want to treat it as a business arrangement. We wanted to treat it more like creating a family."
The two men don't know who fathered Henry, but they will take a DNA test once they are ready for a second child to decide who will be the next baby's biological dad.
For their first child, the sperm samples from both men were mixed together to give each an equal chance at becoming the biological father, Parsons said.
The boy was born in California, and the names of both fathers appear on the birth certificate.
The psychologist insists that children born in these 21st-century families are as happy as kids whose parents are a woman and a man.
"The research shows very clearly that what children need the most to strive and survive is a safe, and secure, and loving home," he said.
"It really doesn't matter whether there are two moms in that home, two dads in that home, a single dad, a single mom, whatever, as long as a child knows that he/she is loved and is cared for."
from AFP