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A retired pastor has been barred as a marriage celebrant because he won't marry same-sex couples. Auckland pastor Barrie Baker, 65, is one of 22 people barred from becoming marriage celebrants in the past 15 months because they refuse to do same-sex marriages . Family First director Bob McCoskrie says the rejections breach their rights under the Bill of Rights Act to "freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief". "It's coercing and it's bullying," he said. But the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Jeff Montgomery , said independent marriage celebrants were bound by the Human Rights Act not to discriminate against people on the basis of their sexual orientation. Labour MP Louisa Wall 's marriage equality bill, which legalised same-sex marriages in 2013, exempted celebrants nominated by a church or other approved organisation whose "religious beliefs or philosophical or humanitarian convictions" do not allow sa...

English: Coat of arms of Vietnam 日本語: ベトナムの国章 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Vietnam's National Assembly struck down the nation’s ban on same-sex “marriage” January 1, making the communist country the first in Southeast Asia to do so. An attempt to attract homosexual tourism, as well as the influence of US foreign policy, was instrumental in the government's decision to change the law, according to observers. While the revised law scrapped the same-sex "marriage" ban, the government reportedly does not officially recognize it, nor does it provide any legal framework or "rights" for those who enter into such a union. “It’s getting out that Vietnam is a more friendly place,” the director of a homosexual advocacy group called Utopia Asia told the Bangkok Post. “Gays in Vietnam are certainly becoming more open. It has not ruffled any feathers as it might in some other countries in Southeast Asia. It will have a positive effect on tourism.” The new law ...