Colorado Independent

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput posted a defense of the decision by Sacred Heart parish in Boulder to expel the children of a lesbian couple. In the face of mounting bad press criticizing the school for discrimination, Chaput explained simply that Sacred Heart is Catholic and that gay sex and marriage are not condoned by the Church. He said the children and the lesbian moms are loved but not wanted at Sacred Heart. How the children were let into the pre-school program in the first place and the parents allowed to pay for the privilege of having their children integrated and then booted ...

Obama-supporter Gen. Merrill “Tony” McPeak, Air Force Chief of Staff, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times Friday saying he believed repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy to allow gay soldiers to serve openly would weaken “warrior culture” at a time when “we have a fight on our hands.” McPeak is not knee jerk. He doesn’t martial strange medical arguments to make his case. In fact, McPeak’s case against gays in the military seems about as good as it’s going to get. Problem is, McPeak is bigoted toward gay people, the same as are most other 72-year-old American men. McPeak ...

DENVER– As Denver Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Hickenlooper waffles on climate change, the U.S. Geological Society is reporting that Montana’s Glacier National Park will be glacier-less in a decade. Scientists had previously estimated that the park’s signature glacier-grade ice fields would last until 2030. Glacier National Park, where glaciers are an endangered species. “The 2020 date is new. Dan Fagre, glacier-melting expert [for the USGS], took a close look at his monitoring data last year and determined that the glaciers are melting faster than he had ...

Fire Dog Lake blogger Teddy Partridge has been doggedly live blogging the California Proposition 8 gay-marriage trial in San Francisco– the trial to determine the constitutionality of the anti-gay mariage ballot initiative that the Mormon Church and Colorado Springs evangelical group Focus on the Family poured money into to help pass in 2008. Only one short post from Partridge this morning but he posted nine entries over the last two days– running transcripts of the courtroom exchanges and smart very brief commentary. It is historic courtroom dialog transcribed fast and rough, technical in ...

High-powered conservative lawyer Ted Olson, the man who argued the case for the George W. Bush campaign in Bush v. Gore, today pleaded a court in San Francisco to strike down the ban on gay marriage in California approved by 52 percent of the state’s voters in 2008. The ban is discriminatory, he told the court, and “adds yet another chapter to the long history of discrimination these individuals have suffered.” The case will be decided without a jury by U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker. The proceedings were scheduled to be YouTubed, but attorneys arguing in favor of the ban thought their ...

WASHINGTON– Senate Democrats on Thursday approved the best health care reform bill they could manage: a sweeping $871 billion proposal designed to extend coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and slow the growth of runaway costs. It was at once a monumental achievement, which if signed into law would represent the most expansive overhaul of the nation’s dysfunctional health care system in generations, and a disappointment to many liberals who’d hoped the reforms would go further to rein in the medical-services industries most responsible for the skyrocketing expenses. Senate ...

Colorado U.S. Rep. Jared Polis is an openly gay Democrat internet millionaire who fights for gay rights. Utah U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz is a Mormon Republican skin-care professional who is now fighting to revoke the right to gay marry in Washington D.C. The two men co-star in the CNN series “Freshman Year.” The next episode should be good! Reps. Jared Polis and Jason Chaffetz The law legalizing same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia was approved by the city council on December 15 and signed into law by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty three days later. But Washington D.C. is a city without a ...

Transgender anarchist Ariel Attack pleaded guilty today to smashing eleven storefront-style windows at the Colorado Democratic Party headquarters in August. She pleaded to a second-degree misdemeanor, will be placed on one year probation and pay $5,000. In the wake of the politically charged dramatic act of vandalism, Attack faced felony charges of criminal mischief. Attack smashed the windows with an accomplice at 2:30 in the morning August 25 and was apprehended on her bicycle after a brief chase. The accomplice was never caught and remains unnamed in public records. The morning ...

Anti-illegal immigrant conservative GOP firebrand Tom Tancredo loathes hate-crimes laws, which he thinks are biased in favor of minorities and redundant. But Tancredo’s recent engagement with hate crimes is complicated. Most recently, he is showing his distaste for the laws by asking for more not less prosecutions under the statutes, in effect joining federal authorities who announced Thursday that they are ratcheting up efforts to enforce civil rights laws after years of decline during the Bush administration. In June, as Tancredo railed against confirming Supreme Court Justice Sonia ...

The Mormon church poured money and effort into the campaign to pass Proposition 8 in California, the initiative that outlawed gay marriage there. Director Reed Cowan’s documentary about the effort was accepted into the Sundance film festival and will make its debut in Park City next month. The film features interviews with Mormon leaders and delves into the Mormon anti-gay marriage movement as it was taking shape in the 1990s. Understandably not included in the film, is the major role in helping to defeat Prop 8 played by Colorado Springs-based evangelical organization Focus on the ...