NJ gay couples: We’ll fight for same-sex marriage

(Trenton, NJ) The ceremony was going to be at their home. Along with friends and family, Marty Finkle and Mike Plake were going to invite their state lawmakers who helped them win the right to be married

Last Thursday, their wedding – never scheduled but certainly anticipated – was postponed indefinitely …

More than 450 gay couples seek licenses

More same-sex couples sought marriage licenses in Polk County than any other large Iowa population center in the first week after a court ruling went into effect that legalized gay marriage in the state, county numbers show.

Polk County Recorder Julie Haggerty said 116 gay and lesbian couples had applied for licenses by Friday afternoon. More than two-thirds arrived on Monday, when the Supreme Court’s April 3 decision took effect, and dwindled as the week progressed. The proportion of same-sex couples compared with heterosexual couples also dropped later in the week in Polk County. By Friday, Haggerty said, only eight of the 25 couples who applied for licenses were of the same sex.

The Des Moines Register’s survey of county recorders offices indicates more than 450 same-sex couples sought marriage licenses last week. No state agency keeps track of marriage applications on a real-time basis. The Register contacted all 99 county recorders offices on the first day that same-sex couples could seek licenses and received updated tallies from selected offices on Friday.See More than 450 gay couples seek licenses

DesMoinesRegister.com -

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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/more-than-450…

Beijing’s ‘happy couples’ launch campaign for same-sex marriages

With her bouquet of roses and fluffy white dress, Han Xincheng looked the epitome of the glamorous modern Chinese bride. But, although her parents had been pressing her to marry, the photographs were not what they might have expected: she is gazing adoringly at another woman, surrounded by onlookers.

The series of “wedding pictures” staged by lesbians and gay men in the heart of Beijing might not raise eyebrows any longer in most western countries, but they are evidence that attitudes are finally changing in a country where gay sex was illegal until 1997 and homosexuality classified as a mental illness until four years later.

There is still no legal protection against discrimination in China and few role models: no mainstream figures are openly gay. Yet now parts of China’s gay population are calling for the right to wed – and meeting with some sympathy.

“Many reactions were quite positive and some people even came up to give us their blessing,” said Han, though she acknowledges that overall the public reaction was negative.

SeeBeijing’s ‘happy couples’ launch campaign for same-sex marriages