Wisconsin budget extends rights to gay couples
With the budget signed Monday by Gov. Jim Doyle, Wisconsin has become the first state with a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions to put in place domestic partnerships for same-sex couples.
Wisconsin also is the first Midwestern state to legislatively put in place legal protections for same-sex couples, according to advocates.
But supporters of the ban still contend the creation of domestic partner benefits violates the constitutional amendment on marriage because it creates a legal status that approximates marriage — and they could file a legal challenge soon.
Starting Aug. 3, couples will be able to apply for a declaration of domestic partnership in their home counties. Partnerships would be dissolved through a termination process at the county clerk’s office.
Some counties and municipalities already
*ecognize domestic partnerships, including Dane County and the city of Milwaukee. But Maria Cadenas, executive director of the Cream City Foundation, an advocacy group on gay and transgender issues, said that for her and her partner, registering in Milwaukee only affected their gym membership.
See Wisconsin budget extends rights to gay couples
Duluth News Tribune
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Milwaukee archbishop comes out in memoir
Milwaukee archbishop comes out in memoir
Tags: Memoir, MilwaukeeFormer Catholic Bishop Of Milwaukee Says He’s Gay
NEW YORK — A Roman Catholic archbishop who resigned in 2002 over a sex and financial scandal involving a man describes his struggles with being gay in an upcoming memoir about his decades serving the church.
Archbishop Rembert Weakland, former head of the Milwaukee archdiocese, said in an interview Monday that he wrote about his sexual orientation because he wanted to be candid about “how this came to life in my own self, how I suppressed it, how it resurrected again.”
Called “A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop,” the book is set to be released in June.
“I was very careful and concerned that the book not become a Jerry Springer, to satisfy people’s prurient curiosity or anything of this sort,” Weakland told The Associated Press. “At the same time, I tried to be as honest as I can.”
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Churches that staged protest wait for IRS response
(Milwaukee) Nearly seven months after defying a prohibition on endorsing candidates from the pulpit, 33 churches across the country are still waiting to learn whether the Internal Revenue Service will take action against them.
The goal of “Pulpit Freedom Sunday” was to trigger a legal fight and ultimately overturn regulations that …
Tags: Churches, Freedom, Internal Revenue Service, Irs, Legal Fight, Milwaukee, Prohibition, Protest, Pulpit, Seven Months
