Wash. gay partnership foes try to shield signers
State officials won’t resist a temporary restraining order that would block public release of petition signatures for a gay-partnership referendum.
The case centers on Referendum 71, which would ask voters to approve or reject expanded partnership rights for gay couples.
The names of everyone who signed R-71 petitions are publicly available under open-government laws.
A gay-rights group is planning to post all the names online, so partnership supporters can talk to those people about the referendum.
But the R-71 campaign says that could lead to harassment. So they’re asking a federal judge to keep the petitions secret, until they can make their argument in court.
See Wash. gay partnership foes try to shield signers
Seattle Times
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Could Gay Lt. Gov Rumors Be Playing in Favor of Cheating SC Governor?
The bombshell revelation that South Carolina governor Mark Sanford had disappeared to Argentina for a rendezvous with an extramarital romantic interest has failed to elicit calls fro the governor’s resignation from the state’s top officials-in part due to Bauer’s politics, though another factor may also be at work: rumors that the state’s Lieutenant Governor, Andre Bauer, is gay.
Bauer’s sexuality has been a topic of speculation before, most recently when openly lesbian South Carolina politician Linda Ketner, a failed candidate for one of the state’s congressional seats, “outed” several state officials, including Bauer, igniting a controversy about airing and repeating such allegations publicly. See Could Gay Lt. Gov Rumors Be Playing in Favor of Cheating SC Governor?
EDGE Boston
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Could Gay Lt. Gov Rumors Be Playing in Favor of Cheating SC Governor?
The bombshell revelation that South Carolina governor Mark Sanford had disappeared to Argentina for a rendezvous with an extramarital romantic interest has failed to elicit calls fro the governor’s resignation from the state’s top officials-in part due to Bauer’s politics, though another factor may also be at work: rumors that the state’s Lieutenant Governor, Andre Bauer, is gay.
Bauer’s sexuality has been a topic of speculation before, most recently when openly lesbian South Carolina politician Linda Ketner, a failed candidate for one of the state’s congressional seats, “outed” several state officials, including Bauer, igniting a controversy about airing and repeating such allegations publicly. See Could Gay Lt. Gov Rumors Be Playing in Favor of Cheating SC Governor?
EDGE Boston
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Gay marriage advocate downplays opposition to issue
The Chicago based group that orchestrated the move toward gay marriage in Iowa says it will have observers in 25% of the county recorders’ offices Monday when same-sex couples can first seek licenses to marry — but the group is dismissing the idea there is any opposition to the marriages.
Camilla Taylor is the Lambda Legal attorney who led the Iowa lawsuit which resulted in the Iowa Supreme Court ruling that Iowa’s law saying marriage is between a man and a woman is unconstitutional.
Taylor was asked during a conference call with reporters Thursday if there was confusion among state officials over how they should handle gay marriage issues. Taylor says she hasn’t heard any particular difficulties in working out what the decision means. She says Iowa isn’t the first state to rule that marriage licenses must be issued to same-sex couples, so there is a lot of help available if Iowa officials have questions.
Lambda officials say Iowa has “embraced” the gay marriage ruling, and Taylor dismissed recent attempts in the legislature to bring up a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Taylor says the state legislature “has made it very clear that the state legislature is not interested in putting discrimination into the constitution and that there are a lot of other issues that Iowans care about. She says there are budget issues and the state is recovering from natural disasters, “so I don’t think there is any will to amend the state constitution.”
Democratic leaders have blocked several attempts to bring up the vote on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Taylor was asked if her confidence would change if Republicans won back control or the legislature or if Iowa voters decided to call for a constitutional convention in 2010.
See Gay marriage advocate downplays opposition to issue
Radio Iowa - Des Moines,IA,USA
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Iowa orders clerks to comply with marriage ruling
(Des Moines, Iowa) Iowa state officials have told county clerks they must comply with the state Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses.
In an e-mail to all 99 county clerks, the Department of Public Health which registers marriages in Iowa said that clerks must “issue marriage licenses …
Tags: County Clerks, Department Of Public Health, Des Moines, E Mail, Iowa Iowa, Iowa State, marriage, Marriage Licenses, Marriage Ruling, Moines Iowa, Same Sex Couples, Sex Marriage, State Officials, State Supreme Court, Supreme Court RulingIn New Jersey, Push for Gay Marriage Meets Election Concerns
NEW JERSEY has never appeared so close to — and yet so far from — enacting gay marriage.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine; Richard J. Codey, the State Senate president; and Joseph J. Roberts Jr., leader of the Democratic-controlled Assembly, have all recently stated publicly that gay marriage is an idea whose time has come. Echoing the sentiments of a state commission report released last month, some state officials said that civil unions — the closest thing to marriage available to gay couples in the state — were woefully inadequate and that the legalization of gay marriage in New Jersey was not a matter of “if” but “when.”
But with the governor and all 80 members of the Assembly up for re-election in November, most of the officials say the “when” may not be for some time.
The New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission, a 13-member panel convened to evaluate the impact of the state’s 2006 civil union law, in its final report last month, called on the state to legalize same-sex marriage after finding that civil unions did not result in equal treatment. Likening the prohibition against gay couples marrying to the racial segregation laws imposed upon black Americans, the commission said hospitals were reluctant to recognize civil unions when it came to visitation rights, employers did not always extend health benefits to both partners, and the children of such unions were stigmatized.
Massachusetts and Connecticut are currently the only states that allow gay couples to marry, and in both instances the issue was decided by the courts rather than the legislatures. California was in that category until November, when gay marriage was overturned by voters.
Mr. Goldstein says his organization has been lobbying to get a measure passed.
“We are very, very close,” he said. “Do I believe we have the votes yet? It depends on how you count them. Even under our very conservative vote counts, we’re very close.”
While the governor had asked state lawmakers to refrain from raising the issue during the presidential election, for fear that it would sidetrack voters, he is now encouraging lawmakers to seriously review the commission’s report.
“While this administration is focused squarely on the economic crisis for the foreseeable future, it’s clear that this issue of civil rights must be addressed sooner rather than later,” Mr. Corzine said in a statement.
The governor promised to sign marriage-equality legislation when it reaches his desk. The question is whether state lawmakers will present him with the opportunity. “Politics will play a role in whether it actually gets posted to a committee,” said Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, a Democrat from Princeton and the deputy majority leader, who sponsored a gay marriage bill. “With the Assembly up this November, there will be a lot of members unlikely to get involved with such a polarizing issue.”
See Push for Gay Marriage Meets Election Concerns
New York Times, United States
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Birth certificates to reflect NY gay-marriage move
State officials will now let married same-sex couples list both their names on their children’s birth certificates in a policy shift deeply important to many gays and lesbians.
The decision, which echoes similar provisions in states that allow gay marriages or civil unions, is one of many changes since Gov. David Paterson ordered state agencies in May to respect out-of-state gay marriages.
See Birth certificates to reflect NY gay-marriage move
The New York Blade, NY
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