For gay couples, married matters
Five years after the first same-sex weddings in Massachusetts, gay and lesbian couples express deeply traditional reasons for deciding to wed and cite equally conventional benefits flowing from marriage, according to a study being released this week.
A significant majority of the 558 gay men and women surveyed said that since marrying, they feel more committed to their spouses, more accepted in their community, and more likely to be open about their sexual orientation at work.
The survey indicates that there is something universal about the legal protections and social advantages afforded by the institution of marriage, said the study’s authors from the University of California, Los Angeles as well as independent researchers. And it suggests, they said, that a ritual once scorned even by many same-sex couples has the power to ease discrimination.
“This really helps us confirm and makes us understand why same-sex couples demand marriage – if it’s just about the legal rights, why wouldn’t they be happy with civil partnerships?” said Stephanie Coontz author of “Marriage, A History.”
“They want access to that word that is so highly valued by our society and by other people.
“It is one thing not to invite your child’s girlfriend or boyfriend to dinner,” said Coontz, a professor at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. “It is quite another thing not to invite the spouse.”
Same-sex marriages began in Massachusetts on May 17, 2004, after the Supreme Judicial Court declared that gay and lesbian couples had the right to wed. The ruling ignited a political and social maelstrom in Massachusetts and beyond, but since then four other states – Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, and Vermont – have extended marriage rights to same-sex couples. Lawmakers in New Hampshire are currently debating whether to make their state the next to do so.
The study was prepared and paid for by UCLA’s Williams Institute, which examines legal and public policy issues related to sexual orientation and is funded by foundations and individuals, including supporters of gay marriage.
The authors of the survey, which consisted of about 30 questions, said they regarded it as an initial assessment of gay marriage, largely designed to explore issues arising during public debate rather than to delve into more personal aspects of couples’ relationships. For example, researchers asked whether respondents’ children had faced taunting as a result of their parents’ same-sex marriage – only 5 percent had – but did not ask how happily married partners were.
“We’ve been interested in the impact of marriage for a long time,” said Lee Badgett, researcher director of the Williams Institute and senior author of the study. “I’ve been combing the universe for data, but there just aren’t that many places to look at same-sex couples who are literally married.”
See For gay couples, married matters Boston Globe * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Same-Sex Unions Supplant Abortion As Social Priority for Conservatives In Fight Over High Court Pick
As President Obama prepares to name his first Supreme Court justice, conservatives in Washington are making clear that his nominee will face plenty of questions during the confirmation process on the legal underpinnings of same-sex marriage.
In addition to shedding more light on the nation’s most contentious unfolding social drama and legal frontier, Senate Republicans say the debate could provide a road map to an Obama nominee’s judicial philosophy.
“It may reflect the degree to which they think that they’re not bound by the classical meaning of the Constitution, and that they may want to let a personal agenda go beyond what the law said,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Questions on social issues in confirmation hearings have tended for the past 30 years to focus squarely on abortion, with partisans from both sides poring over a nominee’s writings and rulings and presidents typically denying that any “litmus test” was employed in the selection.
Same-sex marriage carries the same freighted potential to dominate a hearing, conservatives say.
“It is now the flash point where politics and law meet. That flash point used to be abortion. I don’t think anybody thinks that’s going to be the flash point in this nomination,” said William A. Jacobson, a Cornell University law professor and conservative blogger.
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), another GOP member of the Judiciary Committee, said conservatives are particularly eager to avoid a Supreme Court ruling akin to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide and has divided the country ever since. “I don’t think members of the court, or any of us, ever want to see a decision like that again,” Hatch said. Obama assured the senator in a recent meeting that he will not pick a “radical” to replace Souter, but Hatch added: “Presidents always say that. That’s why we have the hearing process.”
Same-sex marriage gained national resonance in the wake of last month’s Iowa Supreme Court ruling that legalized the practice in that state. And in the two weeks since Justice David H. Souter announced his retirement, Maine also legalized same-sex marriage, becoming the fifth state to do so; the New Hampshire legislature sent a marriage-equality bill to the governor; the New York State Assembly approved gay-marriage legislation; and the District of Columbia voted to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
Those actions, in so short a time, have outstripped the ability of Democrats in Washington to stake out their public position on the issue. MORE at Washington Post
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Mass. couples cheer gay marriage, 5 years later
BOSTON – Every year, the couples who led the fight for gay marriage in Massachusetts get together privately to celebrate both their own weddings and the marriages of thousands more couples who followed them.
But this year, the celebration feels a little bit sweeter for the six couples who will gather Sunday to mark the fifth anniversary of Massachusetts becoming the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. This year, they will also be celebrating the legalization of gay marriage in four other states.
“We’ve been very happy that it’s started to be accepted in other places,” said Maureen Brodoff, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led to a Supreme Judicial Court decision legalizing gay marriage.
“It’s important to us that same-sex relationships get recognition outside of our home state, and I think that that is happening slowly as people look to the Massachusetts example and see that, you know, the sky didn’t fall, that it’s strengthened families, that it’s brought joy to a lot of families,” Brodoff said. See Mass. couples cheer gay marriage, 5 years later Chicago Tribune * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Bill Making Identification Change More Accessible for Transgender Persons Passes Key Assembly Committee, Moves One Step Closer to Becoming State Law
Sacramento – The Equal ID Act took one step closer to becoming law today when it passed the State Assembly Judiciary Committee by a 7-3 vote. The bill, sponsored by Equality California (EQCA) and introduced by Assemblymember Ted Lieu (D – Torrance), increases the legal rights and recognition enjoyed by transgender people by clarifying that qualified transgender people born in California can return to the county of their birth to obtain a court order reflecting their correct gender and accompanying name change. The court order is then used to obtain a corrected California birth certificate.
“All Californians deserve legal documentation that accurately reflects who they are,” EQCA Executive Director Geoff Kors said. “Once passed, this law will make it easier for transgender people both in California and beyond to obtain accurate identification, apply for jobs, and live their lives as full and equal members of society.”
Until recently, California law only allowed transgender persons to petition the court for an order recognizing a change of gender in the county in which they presently reside. Last month, the Transgender Law Center successfully challenged the residency requirement in the California Court of Appeals. In Somers v. Superior Court, the court held that the residency requirement violated the equal protection rights of California-born transgender people residing out of state. The Equal ID Act is the next step in ensuring that all Californians are able to obtain accurate birth certificates.
“The Equal ID Act would bring the Health and Safety Code up to date with case law,” said Kristina Wertz, Legal Director of the Transgender Law Center. “It would alleviate any confusion and ensure that California-born people residing in other states know that they, too, can be afforded the dignity of a birth certificate that reflects who they truly are.”
The new bill ensures that transgender people born in California know that they can return to the county of their birth to obtain a corrected birth certificate. It also provides greater access to transgender persons living in the state, allowing them for first time to petition the court in their home counties.
“The Equal ID Act would make it clear to others in my situation that they can go back to the counties in which they were born to get a court order changing their gender. It would save people all the trouble I went through finding attorneys and spending nearly four years in the courts,” said Gigi Marie Somers, who testified at this morning’s committee hearing. Ms. Somers, a transgender woman born in California, was unable to obtain a new birth certificate in the state of Kansas, where she now resides. Ms. Somers was the plaintiff in the legal action brought by the Transgender Law Center.
“The rights of Californians should not end at our state’s borders,” Assemblymember Leiu said. “The Equal ID Act makes certain every Californian has the freedom and liberty to be true to his or herself.”
Birth certificates are used as primary source of identification and are often necessary to secure other forms of identification, including social security cards and passports.
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Equality California (EQCA) is the largest statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender-rights advocacy organization in California. In the past decade, EQCA has strategically moved California from a state with extremely limited legal protections for LGBT individuals to a state with some of the most comprehensive civil-rights protections in the nation. EQCA has passed over 50 pieces of legislation and continues to advance equality through legislative advocacy, public education and community empowerment. www.eqca.org
The Transgender Law Center (TLC) is a civil rights organization advocating for transgender communities. TLC uses direct legal services, education, community organizing, and advocacy to transform California into a state that recognizes and supports the needs of transgender people and their families. www.transgenderlawcenter.org
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California Assembly passes legislation that extends protections for the LGBT community
The bill, which will require prisons to include sexual orientation and gender identity when identifying prisoners who need protection, passed by an overwhelming margin of 65 to 9. 14 of the 29 Republican members voted for the legislation and 6 members abstained from the vote.
All of EQCA’s current legislation continues to pass their committees, including yesterday’s Assembly Judiciary Committee vote to make changing one’s gender identification more accessible for transgender persons and last week’s bipartisan vote in the Senate Education Committee to designate May 22 as Harvey Milk Day.
And this recent activity is evidence that the arc of equality always bends toward progress.
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Same-Sex Marriage & the Family
New England has been at the center of the debate over granting marriage rights and responsibilities to same-sex couples.
Vermont became the first state in the nation to grant those rights in 2000 when it adopted civil unions. Four years later, Massachusetts became the first state to give gay and lesbian couples full marriage rights.
And last year, Connecticut’s Supreme Court determined that civil unions didn’t go far enough and ordered marriage, instead.
As part of annual Law Day observances, on April 30, 2009, Dartmouth College invited a lawyer and three Supreme Court justices who have participated in these decisions to talk about rulings from their respective courts.
The panelists are: Beth Robinson, a Middlebury lawyer who argued the Vermont case; retired Vermont Supreme Court Justice James Morse; Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justice Robert Cordy; and Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Joette Katz.
See Same-Sex Marriage & the Family
Vermont Public Radio – Colchester,VT,USA
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Methodist Court Rejects Gay Marriage, OKs Bush Library
The United Methodist Church’s highest court has ruled that clergy may not officiate at same-sex unions, even in states where such marriages are legal, and gave the final OK for the George W. Bush Library to be built at Southern Methodist University.
The church’s nine-member Judicial Council rejected separate resolutions passed by the California-Nevada and California-Pacific Conferences that voiced support for clergy who officiate at such unions.
Last year, the 8.3 million-member church upheld rules in its Book of Discipline, or constitution, that Methodist churches cannot be used to host same-sex unions and clergy are prohibited from officiating at them.
The latest court ruling rejected a California-Nevada resolution that supported retired clergy who volunteered to conduct gay weddings, and a California-Pacific resolution upholding the “pastoral need and prophetic authority” of clergy to do so.
Between May and November, 2008, California allowed same-sex couples to marry until voters banned the practiced with a constitutional amendment.
“An annual conference may not legally negate, ignore or violate provisions of the Discipline with which they disagree, even when the disagreements are based on conscientious objections to the provisions,” the court ruled, according to United Methodist News Service.
In a separate case, the court said it found no reason to halt construction of the planned George W. Bush Presidential Center at the church-owned school in Dallas.
Critics contend the library complex and affiliated policy center will promote policies that the United Methodist Church officially opposed, including the Iraq War. The former president and his wife, Laura, are both United Methodists.
See Methodist Court Rejects Moves to Support Gay Marriage, OKs Bush …
Beliefnet.com
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Maine: Vote on Gay Marriage Expected
The joint judiciary committee of the Legislature approved a bill to allow same-sex marriage in the state, setting the stage for the House and Senate to vote on it as soon as next week. Eleven of the 14 committee members voted in favor of the bill, two voted against it and one proposed letting voters decide the matter in a referendum. Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat, has not said whether he will sign the bill. The New Hampshire House of Representatives approved a same-sex marriage bill last month, and the Senate is scheduled to take it up Wednesday.
See
- Maine: Vote on Gay Marriage Expected @ New York Times -
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Gay marriage bill moves on: Judiciary Committee votes 11-2-1 in favor Brunswick Times Record
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Tears, resolve for gay marriage fight York Weekly
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Maine Judiciary Committee Endorses Gay Marriage
A same-sex marriage bill is going to the Maine Senate and House with a strong committee endorsement.
Eleven of the 14 Judiciary Committee members voted Tuesday to pass the bill, while two voted against it and one proposed sending it to voters in a November referendum. Gov. John Baldacci remains undecided.
Supporters said the bill corrects an inequality that’s long existed in Maine law, while one of the opponents pointed to overwhelming constituent opposition to the bill.
Republican Sen. David Hastings of Fryeburg said he prefers sending a straightforward question to voters.
See Maine Judiciary Committee Endorses Gay Marriage
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