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Mob: If you're gay, you die
TRENTON, N.]. — A
Mafia turncoat testified
that he ordered the
killing of a mob soldier
because he heard the
man had performed a
sex act on another man.
“What’s the rule in [the
Mafia] about this?” fed
eral prosecutor john
John D'Amato Hillebrecht asked snitch
Vincent (Vinnie Ocean) Palermo. “You die,”
Palermo replied. Palermo, a former
DeCavalcante crime family boss, offered up
his killer credentials as he testified at the
racketeering trial of aging reputed
Genovese mobster Federico (Fritzy)
Giovanelli in Manhattan Federal Court. The
gay slay rule came up as Palermo recount
ed ordering the 1992 killing of
DeCavalcante underboss |ohn D’Amato, to
which he pleaded guilty when he agreed to
cooperate with the feds in 2000. Using a
slang term for oral sex, Palermo said he
ordered the hit after another mobster told
him that D’Amato’s girlfriend said he once
performed the sex act on a man at a
“swingers club.”
Methodist court rules
PITTSBURGH — United Methodist law
clearly teaches that the practice of homo
sexuality is incompatible with Christian
teaching, the highest court in the denomi
nation has ruled. The judicial Council,
which met during the denomination’s
General Conference, said violating that
church law could be cause for removal
from church office. A delegate from
Arkansas had asked for the council to rule
after a lesbian minister was found innocent
at a church trial in March. The Rev. Karen
Dammann of Washington state told her
bishop that she was in a committed rela
tionship with a woman and was subse
quently charged with practices declared
“incompatible with Christian teaching”
under Methodist law. The jury of 13 pas
tors effectively ruled that church law did
not make it a chargeable offense for homo
sexual clergy to be sexually
active. Traditionalists said
the jury knowingly ignored
church law out of sympathy
for homosexual pastors.
Conservatives came to the
national meeting intent on
finding a way to enforce the
gay ordination ban.
Hundreds rally lo oppose amendment
OSHKOSH, Wis. — Hundreds of gays,
lesbians, bisexuals and others gathered
for a rally to oppose a state constitution
al amendment to ban same-sex mar
riages and civil unions. The rally was
sponsored by Queers on the Water, a
local support group for gays and lesbians.
State Sen. Carol Roessler (R-Oshkosh)
and state Rep. Carol Owens (R-Nekimi)
drew criticism for their co-sponsorship of
a constitutional amendment to define
marriage as a union of a man .and a
woman only. The bill has received
approval during one legislative session
and must be approved during a second
session before it goes to a statewide refer
endum. If it’s approved, it would become
a part of the state constitution.
Bork criticizes court's interpretation
STAMFORD, Conn. — One-time
Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork told a
religious gathering that legal justification
for gay marriage is a “judicial sin” that
exists beyond the U.S. Constitution.
Speaking to about 300 Catholic clergy,
judges and lawyers at a breakfast, Bork
criticized the Massachusetts Supreme
judicial Court’s ruling in November legaliz-
ing'gay marriage. “Many of our courts are
guilty of that judicial sin, that is willing
ness, even eagerness, to reach results
announcing principles that have no plausi
ble relation to any constitution,” Bork said.
“If each person defines meaning for them
selves, that means there are no allowable
moral truths,” said Bork. a former U.S.
Appeals Court judge. “If decisions like
those I’ve been discussing are the waves of
the future, our culture will slide into chaos
and self-government will be a shrunken
remnant of what we once aspired to.”
Bork, whose nomination by President
Ronald Reagan to the U.S. Supreme Court
in 1987 was rejected by the U.S. Senate,
spoke following a Red Mass for members
of the legal profession at St. John the
Evangelist Roman Catholic Church.
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