Same-sex marriages gradually gain legal ground
“There’s a sense people have — a sense of inevitability — and a tremendous sense of frustration because of the history of the gay rights fight in Maine,” said Michael Heath, executive director of the Maine Family Policy Council.
Those rights are expanding as legally married gay couples relocate to states that don’t allow same-sex marriage, forcing courts, legislatures and employers to deal with the resulting issues of custody, divorce, inheritance and end-of-life decisions.
The adoption ruling in Maine had the effect of granting parental rights to same-sex couples. By the time the Legislature adjourns for the summer, experts expect Maine to become the fifth state to legalize same-sex marriage — 11 years after voters banned it.
In California, federal judges have twice overruled decisions by the federal government to deny healthcare coverage to gay employees’ legal spouses, teeing up a constitutional challenge to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which forbids federal benefits for same-sex couples.
Same-sex marriage is legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and Massachusetts, which began the trend five years ago. (Iowa issued its first marriage licenses April 27, a few weeks after its Supreme Court gave approval; weddings in Vermont will begin in September.) Within a year, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York will probably follow suit, say sexual orientation scholars at the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute; New Hampshire’s Senate approved a same-sex marriage bill Wednesday.
And as more same-sex couples wed in places where it is legal, the administrative fallout in other states is expected to keep expanding.
“The courts are going to have to wrestle with these issues as more and more states make it possible for people to marry,” said Toni Broaddus, executive director of the San Francisco-based Equality Federation. “People don’t stay in the same state for their whole lives anymore, so the courts in states without marriage equality are going to have to address these issues.”
The recent moves in New England and the heartland to legalize gay marriage appeared to reinvigorate campaigns for passage of same-sex marriage bills in Maine, Maryland and Hawaii. Rights advocates predict the tide will eventually sweep even into some of the 30-plus states that have passed laws or constitutional amendments defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
“A body of law is emerging because it has no choice. Cases have been filed and they have to be decided one way or another,” said Joseph Milizio, a Long Island lawyer specializing in gay and lesbian representation.
The legal developments allow people to become comfortable with “the fact that gay marriage is going to be recognized in many different aspects, even in states that don’t allow it,” said Milizio, whose firm recently secured the first dissolution of a same-sex marriage in New York.
In the workplace, proponents of extending spousal rights such as healthcare benefits and life insurance to same-sex couples have succeeded by challenging employment practices that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Seven states, including California, now guarantee full equality to same-sex couples — another incremental advance that is lamented by opponents.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/same-sex-marr…
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…
Iowa Marriage Roundup as Same-Sex Couples Rush to Tie the Knot
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In Iowa, Same-Sex Couples Rush to Tie the Knot
Washington Post - Joyous Day for Same Sex Couples in Iowa
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/iowa-marriage…
360+ same-sex couples apply for marriage licenses; most in Polk Co.
See 360+ same-sex couples apply for marriage licenses; most in Polk Co.
DesMoinesRegister.com –
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/360-same-sex-…
Details on same-sex marriage in Iowa
Marriage requirements in Iowa remain the same, with the exception that the ban on same-sex marriage has been eliminated:
–Two people, over 18.
–Not already legally married.
–Not closely related.
-Legally competent to enter into a civil contract.
To get a license:
–Visit a county recorder’s office and fill out an application.
–Show proof of identity.
–Pay a $35 fee.
–Have a witness sign the application.
–Both parties must be present or have the form notarized.
–Submit application and wait three days for license to be valid.
For the ceremony:
–It must be in Iowa, with both parties, an officiate and two witnesses present. All must sign the marriage certificate.
–Officiant, a judge or leader of religious faith, files certificate with county recorder within 15 days
–Same-sex marriage licenses submitted on Monday, April 27, the day Iowa legalizes same-sex marriage, will become valid on Thursday, April 30. Judges can grant a waiver.
What if a same-sex couple has had a ceremony elsewhere?:
–If a same-sex couple has been legally married elsewhere, their marriage is valid in Iowa as of Monday. They do not have to get remarried.
–It is unclear if civil unions from another state or registered domestic partnerships will be recognized in Iowa.
For more see Details on same-sex marriage in Iowa
Chicago Tribune – United States
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/details-on-sa…
Five stories from five years of same-sex marriage
Cambridge, Mass. - Susan Shepherd looks up at the rough-hewn pink granite of City Hall, just across the Charles River from downtown Boston. An American flag ripples in the wind. Inside the building, a plaque commemorates Cambridge as America’s birthplace of legal same-sex marriage.
“I can’t believe it’s been five years,” Shepherd says, hugging her wife. “I feel like I just met her yesterday.”
Nor can gay marriage opponents believe what’s happened in Massachusetts since, in their view, traditional marriage came to an end.
Yet in the past five years as same-sex marriage became part of Massachusetts’ landscape, many Bay Staters say something unexpected has happened: Life is as it always was.
Just after midnight on May 17, 2004, Shepherd and Marcia Hams, a Cambridge couple who’d been together three decades and raised a son, became Massachusetts’ first same-sex couple to get a marriage license. They had waited 24 hours in rain and cold, and by the time they got the license, 10,000 supporters gathered on the front lawn of City Hall.
Five years later and 1,300 miles away, Iowa on Monday will allow same-sex marriages. As Iowa enters into uncharted territory for the Midwest, the Bay State may serve as a sign of what may come.
Since same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts, about 12,000 same-sex couples have applied for marriage licenses. Gay marriages now comprise about 4 percent of all marriages performed in the state, meaning there are about 1,500 a year.
There have been some same-sex divorces, too, most notably by the couple whose name was on the court case that legalized same-sex marriage.
To be sure, a sizable chunk of Massachusetts’ 6.3 million residents remain opposed to same-sex marriage, mostly on religious grounds. Some say legal same-sex marriage has led to censorship of those who remain opposed, to infringement on the rights of parents who object to same-sex marriage being taught in schools, and to Catholic Charities of Boston ending adoption work because it refused to allow same-sex couples to adopt.
But polling results show a shift toward acceptance of gay marriage. A 2004 survey by the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston found the state split: 42 percent supported gay marriage, 44 percent opposed it. A similar survey in 2008 found 59 percent in support of gay marriage, 37 percent opposed.
As Iowa enters a new era, a drive through Massachusetts and into Maine shows how same-sex marriage has changed life – for better, for worse or, as many say, hardly at all.
See Five stories from five years of same-sex marriage
DesMoinesRegister.com – Des Moines,IA,USA
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/five-stories-…
