Sen. Jeff Sessions Irked By Lesbian Mom’s Crying Child: “Enough With The Histrionics” (VIDEO)
Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee had a hearing on the Uniting American Families Act, a bill that will “amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to eliminate discrimination in the immigration laws by permitting permanent partners of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents to obtain lawful permanent resident status in the same manner as spouses of citizens and lawful permanent residents and to penalize immigration fraud in connection with permanent partnerships.” Of course, some of the discrimination that the bill would eliminate would benefit same-sex couples, so, CONTROVERSY!
One of the people who testified in support of the bill was a woman named Shirley Tan, who is in a same-sex relationship and thus caught in the crosshairs of existing law. The New Republic‘s James Kirchick documents her circumstances thusly:
Testifying was Shirley Tan, a Fillipino woman who has been with her American partner for 23 years. Together, they are raising twelve-year-old twin boys. She originally left the Phillipines after suffering a violent attack from a man who murdered her mother and sister (one of the reasons why Tan does not want to return to her native country, aside from the fact that her partner and children live in the U.S., is that the man who brutalized her has since been released from prison.) Tan was originally scheduled to be deported on April 3rd, but won a reprieve after Senator Diane Feinstein introduced a private bill allowing her to stay in the country temporarily.
Almost right from the start of Tan’s testimony, one of Tan’s young children started crying. The committee chairman, Pat Leahy, paused the testimony and offered the child some measure of comfort. According to Kirchick, these kindly sentiments were not shared by everyone on the committee:
For most people, the sight of a 12-year-old boy in tears at the prospect of his mother being deported halfway around the world would invoke some sympathy. Unmoved, however, was Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions, ranking minority member of the Committee and the only Republican to bother to attend the hearing. At the sight of the weeping boy, according to a Senate staffer who was at the hearing, Sessions leaned towards one of his aides and sighed, “Enough with the histrionics.” Sessions’s press secretary did not return a call seeking comment.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/jeff-sessions…
Senate to Hold First-Ever Hearing Addressing Anti-Gay Discrimination in U.S. Immigration Law
June 3rd Judiciary Hearing Will Debate Uniting American Families Act
The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold its first-ever hearing on The Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), a bill to end discrimination against lesbian and gay Americans in U.S. immigration law and allow lesbian and gay citizens to sponsor their partners for residency in the United States.
The hearing was scheduled by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the lead Senate sponsor of UAFA. Witnesses will include binational couples who have been separated, or face separation, because of discriminatory U.S. immigration law.
An estimated 36,000 binational couples are affected by U.S. laws prohibiting gay and lesbian Americans from sponsoring their partners for residency. Countless lesbian and gay families, including many with children, are torn apart by U.S. immigration law, or are forced to leave the United States to remain together. While 19 other nations allow lesbian and gay citizens to sponsor their partners, the United States continues to discriminate against tens of thousands of families. As the nation prepares to consider immigration reform, the Judiciary Committee hearing will provide an important opportunity for lawmakers to hear from some of those families.
The session is set for Wednesday, June 3, 2009, 10:00 a.m. in Room 226 – Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/senate-to-hol…
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
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New Hampshire set for divisive gay marriage vote -
New Hampshire moves to the forefront of America’s debate on gay marriage on Wednesday when the state Senate will decide whether to approve a bill to legalize same-sex marriage and send it to the governor.
By a vote of 3-2 on Thursday, New Hampshire’s Senate Judiciary Committee said the bill was “inexpedient” to legislate, recommending the full senate defeat it.
The committee’s chairman, Senator Deborah Reynolds, said New Hampshire took a major step in legalizing civil unions last year — the fourth state in the country to do so — and needs some time to “build consensus on this issue”.
The Democrat joined two Republicans to vote against it.
On Wednesday, the committee’s recommendation will get the first vote. Thirteen of the state’s 24 senators are needed to kill the bill. If the senate splits at 12-12 or if a majority wants to keep it alive, a motion to pass could be entertained.
The bill, which would redefine marriage to include same-sex couples and make New Hampshire the fifth state in the country where gay marriage is legal, could also end up tabled, where it could remain in political limbo. If it passes, a likely veto by the governor could derail any Granite State gay marriage law.
See New Hampshire set for divisive gay marriage vote
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-hampshire…
Hawaii Senators Hesitate On Rescue Of Gay Civil Unions
Hawaii senators who had vowed to rescue a stranded gay civil unions bill from a deadlocked committee and pass it this legislative session have begun to backpeddle.
House Bill 444, which would grant gay and lesbian couples all the rights of marriage, was marooned on February 25 when it deadlocked on a 3-3 vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The final tally came after a grueling 18 hour marathon hearing session that ended at 3AM.
Even before the votes were in Senate leaders had begun discussing the possibility of rescuing the bill out of committee for a full vote on the Senate floor. The bill sailed through the House on a 33 to 17 vote. See Hawaii Senators Hesitate On Rescue Of Gay Civil Unions
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/hawaii-senato…
Hawaii lawmakers cautious on future of civil union bill
(Honolulu, Hawaii) A bill that would allow civil unions for same-sex couples remains stalled in committee with Senate leaders uncertain how to move forward.
Last month, after 15 hours of hearings, the Senate Judiciary and Government Operations Committee tied 3-3 on whether to advance the bill to the full Senate.
Senate leaders …
VT Hearings to start March 16 on gay marriage
BENNINGTON — Legislative leaders said Thursday that they will move quickly to pass gay marriage legislation, beginning hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 16 — the day the Legislature reconvenes following the Town Meeting break.
The announcement came at a Statehouse press conference hosted by Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, D-Windham, and House Speaker Shap Smith, D-Morristown, as they outlined an aggressive agenda for the remainder of the legislative session.
Shumlin, who served as Senate president in 2000, when Vermont became the first state to pass civil union legislation, said Thursday he was proud of the state at the time for taking such a momentous step. But his “pride has given way to uneasiness,” he said, as other states have since bypassed Vermont and have allowed gay marriage.
“Vermont is no longer alone, and we’re no longer leading. Here in Vermont, people’s fears in connection with the civil union law have proven unfounded,” he said. “Nobody was harmed, some families enjoy a little more security, and our state is a better place for having taken that step.”
See Hearings to start March 16 on gay marriage
Bennington Banner -
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/vt-hearings-t…
`Anti-Gay’ Adoption Bill Advances in KY
Don’t you just love it when “Christian lawmakers” like those in Kentucky move to ban “gay adoption” and “gay foster care” but never get around to opening their own homes up to the kids who need to be adopted? Their hypocrisy is stunning.
A bill seeking to prohibit gay and lesbian couples from adopting children has won approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The measure would also bar unmarried heterosexual couples from adoption or foster care.
See `Anti-Gay‘ Adoption Bill Advances WBKO
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/anti-gay-adop…
Bill to allow same-sex unions introduced in Minnesota
Bill to allow same-sex unions introduced
The next round of the perennial battle over same-sex marriage in Minnesota was officially joined on Thursday. A bill that would define marriage as a civil contract between “two persons,” rather than a man and a woman, was introduced in the state Senate, sponsored by five DFL members.
It has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, but no hearings have been scheduled.
The bill would strike language from state law that specifically prohibits marriage by persons of the same sex, along with language that refuses to recognize same-sex marriages from another state or country.
Debate over the bill is likely to be fierce if the recent track record in the Legislature is any guide. Between 2004 and 2006, gay marriage opponents proposed bills to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would have decreed marriage is a union of a man and a woman only. The bills didn’t get out of the Legislature, but opponents said last year they would try again in 2009. So far, gay rights advocates are seizing the offensive this year, after trying and failing to pass a bill in 2008.
See Bill to allow same-sex unions introduced
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/bill-to-allow…
Kentucky Panel backs bill to bar adoption by unmarried couples
FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Senate Judiciary Committee gave unanimous approval this afternoon to a bill that would ban unmarried couples from adopting children or becoming foster parents in Kentucky. See Panel backs bill to bar adoption by unmarried couples Louisville Courier-Journal
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/kentucky-pane…
