Anti-gay amendment resurfaces in Penn.
(Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) A proposed amendment to Pennsylvania’s state constitution banning same-sex marriage that failed twice before resurfaced Tuesday.
Republican state Sen. John Eichelberger, pointing to the legalization of gay marriage in Iowa and four New England , time is running out to preserve the “traditional family” in Pennsylvania.
The state already has …
Gay marriage stalls in Catholic RI
(Providence, Rhode Island) Gay marriage could soon become the law of the land across New England – except in the heavily Roman Catholic state of Rhode Island.
A string of sudden successes for gay marriage advocates has left Rhode Island a political outlier. Maine became the fourth state in New England …
Maine allows same-sex marriage
Maine’s governor signed a freshly passed bill Wednesday approving gay marriage, making it the fifth state to approve the practice and moving New England closer to allowing it throughout the region. New Hampshire legislators were also poised to send a gay marriage bill to their governor, who hasn’t indicated whether he’ll sign it. If he does, Rhode Island would be the region’s sole holdout. See Maine allows same-sex marriage
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/maine-allows-…
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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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/same-sex-marr…
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…
Roman Catholic Bishop Tobin: Roamn Catholic apathy on same-sex ‘marriage’ must end
“Abysmal” Catholic apathy must be overcome to oppose those who are “fiercely determined” to impose homosexual “marriage,” Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island Thomas J. Tobin has warned. Reasserting Catholic teaching on sexual morality, he also said that same-sex “marriage” will endanger religious freedom.
Writing in his April 23 column in The Rhode Island Catholic, Bishop Tobin spoke of a “relentless” political march towards homosexual marriage, with New England leading the way. “The supporters of gay marriage in Rhode Island are well-organized and well-funded. They’re fiercely determined to impose their politically correct agenda on all the citizens of the state – human history, culture and moral principles not-withstanding. Anyone who opposes them is quickly labeled a bigot,” the bishop observed.
However, he said the typical Rhode Island Catholic’s response was indifferent and cited not wanting to judge people. Tobin also said that Catholics give rationalizations about the decline of Catholic influence.
“[G]ay marriage will affect you and you should be concerned. And there’s a lot we can do,” the bishop wrote, proceeding to review reasons Catholics oppose same-sex “marriage.”
Bishop Tobin explained that “homosexual activity is unnatural and gravely immoral. It’s offensive to Almighty God. It can never be condoned, under any circumstances. Gay marriage, or civil unions, would mean that our state is in the business of ratifying, approving such immoral activity.”
The movement for same-sex “marriage,” he added, “seeks to radically redefine the most fundamental institution of the human race, the building block of every society and culture. From the beginning, marriage has been defined as the stable union of man and woman, designed by God to continue the human race through the procreation of children.
“Homosexual relationships are not marriage – never have been, never will be.”
Bishop Tobin introduced what he called the “champagne principle.” Saying that not every wine has the unique characteristics of champagne, the bishop argued that someone who relabeled a bottle of Chianti and tried to sell it as champagne would be arrested for fraud.
Similarly, those who seek to redefine marriage and “to usurp the title ‘marriage’ for their morally bankrupt relationships,” are “committing an act of fraud,”he charged. “It’s insulting to those who have entered the authentic, sacred and time-honored institution of marriage over the years.”
See Bishop Tobin: Catholic apathy on same-sex ‘marriage‘ must end
Catholic News Agency – Denver,CO,USA * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/roman-catholi…
Maine Senate Backs Same-Sex Marriage
BOSTON — Maine could be the next New England state to embrace same-sex marriage after the State Senate voted Thursday to legalize the practice.
The Democratic-controlled Senate voted 20 to 15 for a bill that would allow gay couples to marry starting later this year. The measure appears to have even broader support in the House of Representatives, which will take it up on Tuesday.
Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat, used to oppose same-sex marriage. But since the bill was introduced in January, he has said he is keeping an open mind.
“He said at the beginning of this process that he was going to listen to debate on the question,” said David Farmer, Mr. Baldacci’s spokesman, “and make his final decision once the bill reaches his desk.”
The vote was the latest victory for gay rights groups in New England, which are campaigning to get same-sex marriage approved in all six of the region’s states by 2012. Massachusetts and Connecticut already allow same-sex marriage, and the Vermont Legislature approved it last month.
See Maine Senate Backs Same-Sex Marriage New York Times
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Paterson Introduces a Same-Sex Marriage Bill
Gov. David A. Paterson introduced a bill on Thursday to legalize same-sex marriage, vowing to personally involve himself in the legislative debate at a level that is rare for a chief executive in New York.
Throwing the weight of his office behind legislation that still faces considerable obstacles in Albany, Mr. Paterson said he would leverage the personal relationships he developed over two decades in the State Senate to see the bill voted on — and passed. The vote is expected to turn on the thinnest of margins in the Senate, and some advocates say Mr. Paterson’s direct involvement could prove pivotal.
At a news conference in Manhattan on Thursday, Mr. Paterson, a Democrat, invoked the abolitionist movement of the 1800s, the writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision to argue that New York had neglected civil rights for gays and lesbians for too long. “I’m putting a stop to it,” he said. “We have a duty to make sure equality exists for everyone.”
The announcement came amid growing activity around the country on same-sex marriage: Iowa and Vermont have legalized the practice in the past month, and the New Hampshire State Senate has been debating it this week. Massachusetts and Connecticut already have gay marriage, and a campaign is under way to extend it across New England by 2012.
In New York, the State Assembly passed a same-sex marriage bill in 2007 by a vote of 85 to 61, a margin expected to widen when the measure is reconsidered this spring. But the path in the Senate is less clear: 32 votes are needed, and Democrats say about 25 of their 32 members now support it. So the outcome will most likely hinge on whether Mr. Paterson and other advocates can persuade Republican senators reluctant to break ranks with their leaders to back the bill. See Paterson Introduces a Same-Sex Marriage Bill * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Gay marriage effort shifts back to New England
(Montpelier, Vt.) Vermont was the first state to outlaw slavery. Neighboring New Hampshire declared its independence from England before any other colony. Maine led the way with Prohibition.
These days, Yankee activism has another cause – gay rights.
Two states in New England already allow same-sex marriage, and lawmakers in three more …
Gay-marriage backers target New England
Two New England states have already legalized same-sex marriage, and a Boston-based advocacy group wants to see the other four join them.
Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, known as GLAD, has launched a first-of-its-kind regional campaign aimed at winning approval for same-sex marriage in the six-state New England region by 2012.
Same-sex marriage is already legal in Connecticut and Massachusetts, a result of court decisions in cases brought by GLAD lawyers. The 2003 Massachusetts decision was the first in the nation, while the Connecticut ruling went into effect Nov. 12.
“We can make New England a marriage-equality zone by strategically combining existing legal, electoral and on-the-ground know-how to fast-track marriage in every New England state,” GLAD Executive Director Lee Swislow said.
“By 2012, we not only can have marriage equality throughout New England, we can have a road map for the rest of the country,” she said.
See Gay-marriage backers target New England
Washington Times – Washington,DC,USA
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/01/gay-marriage-…
