Fla. gay org works for patient visitation rights
press release from SAVE Dade:
Despite the recent United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ruling that Jackson Memorial Hospital had no obligation to allow visitors to see patients, and that that there was no obligation to provide patients’ families, healthcare surrogates, or visitors with access to patients …
Tags: gay rights, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Obligation, Patient Rights, Patient Visitation, Press Release, Southern District Of Florida, States District Court, Surrogates, United States District, United States District Court, United States District Court For The Southern District, Visitation RightsA Great Lakes shift on gay rights? Detroit Free Press
Poll numbers released last week indicate that Michigan voters, who only five years ago overwhelming supported a constitutional amendment that limits marriage to one man and one woman, may be softening on the question of gay marriage and other rights for same-sex couples.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090607/NEWS06/906070461&s=d&page=2#pluckcomments”>This story by Free Press reporter Dawson Bell details the results of a May 27-29 survey by Chicago-based http://www.glengariffgroup.com/“>Glengariff Group, which showed support for gay marriage in Michigan at 46%, with opposition at 48%.
The 2004 constitutional amendment was approved 61% to 24%.
The poll also found majority support for hospital visitation rights, benefits for public employees and adoption rights for same-sex couples.
If accurate (and every poll is susceptible to some error) this would mark a pretty dramatic swing in public opinion. And if you think about it, a lot has happened in the past two years to shape public opinion more favorably toward equal rights for same-sex couples.
Michigan passed its constitutional amendment at what seemed like the tail end of the national haste to “protect” marriage through referenda. Since then, several other states have actually embraced gay marriage - New Hampshire and Iowa, hardly bastions of liberalism, being the latest. New Hampshire, with its traditional libertarian leanings, is a particularly notable example, as it suggests that support for gay marriage may be picking up steam on the backs of factions other than traditional left-wing constituencies.
See A Great Lakes shift on gay rights? Detroit Free Press
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Montana Supreme Court weighs gay parental rights
(Missoula, Montana) A Montana woman wants the state Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that gave visitation and other parental rights to her former partner.
Barbara Maniaci wants the justices to overturn a 2008 lower court ruling that said her former partner, Michelle Kulstad, must be recognized as a …
Tags: gay rights, Maniaci, Missoula Montana, Montana Supreme Court, Parental Rights, State Supreme Court, Visitation RightsBattle over child visitation rages on despite rulings
(Winchester, Virginia) A woman attempting to keep her former partner from having visitation rights to her daughter is refusing to accept court rulings in two states and the refusal of the US Supreme Court to become involved.
Lisa Miller has filed another appeal in the case. This time her attorneys argue …
Tags: Attorneys, Child Visitation, Court Rulings, Lisa Miller, Partner, Rages, Two States, Us Supreme Court, Visitation Rights, Winchester VirginiaJudge issues stern warning in nasty lesbian custody case
(Rutland, Vermont) In a long-running legal dispute between two women over parental visitation rights, a Vermont Family Court judge Thursday issued a stern rebuke to a Virginia woman over her latest attempt to deny her former partner visitation rights to their child.
Judge William Cohen denied a new bid by Lisa …
Tags: Custody Case, Family Court Judge, Judge Issues, Judge William, Legal Dispute, Nasty, Parental Visitation, Running, Rutland Vermont, Stern, Two Women, Vermont Family, Virginia Woman, Visitation Rights, William CohenIn 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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Phoenix domestic-partner registry in the works
Just a month after Arizona voters passed a constitutional ban on gay marriage, the state’s largest city is poised to create a program that would grant hospital-visitation rights to unmarried gay or straight couples who live together.
The Phoenix City Council on Wednesday will consider making the city just the second in Arizona to offer its residents a domestic-partner registry.
Tucson launched a similar program in 2003.
See Phoenix domestic-partner registry in the works
Arizona Republic, AZ
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Supreme Court: Va. Must Enforce Gay Visitation Rights
The U.S. Supreme Court has let stand a ruling that Virginia must enforce a Vermont court order awarding child-visitation rights to a mother’s former lesbian partner. See Supreme Court: Va. Must Enforce Gay Visitation Rights
WRIC, VA -
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NEWSWEEK COVER: The Religious Case for Gay Marriage - “Religious Objections to Gay Marriage are Rooted Not in the Bible at All”
Newsweek Poll Shows Two-Thirds of People Who See Gay Marriage as a Religious Matter Oppose it
NEW YORK, NY — The latest Newsweek Poll shows growing public support for gay marriage and civil unions, with a number of factors playing a role in swaying people one way or the other. According to the poll, 62 percent of Americans say religious beliefs play an important role in shaping their views on gay marriage. “According to the survey, two-thirds of those who see marriage as primarily a legal matter support gay marriage. On the other hand, two-thirds of those who see it as mostly a religious matter (or equal parts religious and legal) oppose gay marriage.” Religion Editor Lisa Miller examines this issue in the December 15 cover, “The Religious Case for Gay Marriage” (on newsstands Monday, December 8), and writes that “not since 1860, when the country’s pulpits were full of preachers pronouncing on slavery, pro and con, has one of our basic social (and economic) institutions been so subject to Biblical scrutiny … All the religious rhetoric, it seems, has been on the side of the gay-marriage opponents, who use Scripture as the foundation for their objections.” A mature view of scriptural authority requires the ability to move beyond literalism, as common practice changes and evolves over time. “Religious objections to gay marriage are rooted not in the Bible at all, then, but in custom and tradition,” Miller writes.
Miller writes that the argument against gay marriage involves the idea that the Bible and Jesus define marriage as between one man and one woman, and homosexuality is in opposition to Scripture. To which there are two obvious responses: First, neither the Bible nor Jesus says any such thing. And second, no sensible modern person wants marriage — theirs or anyone else’s — to look in its particulars anything like what the Bible describes. “‘Marriage’ in America refers to two separate things, a religious institution and a civil one, though it is most often enacted as a messy conflation of the two. As a civil institution, marriage offers practical benefits to both partners: contractual rights having to do with taxes; insurance; the care and custody of children; visitation rights; and inheritance. As a religious institution, marriage offers something else: a commitment of both partners before God to love, honor, cherish each other — in sickness and in health, for richer and poorer — in accordance with God’s will.” Miller argues that the Bible offers no reason why gays and lesbians should not be married, in both civil and religious terms — and a number of excellent reasons why they should.
“We cannot look to the Bible as a marriage manual, but we can read it for universal truths as we struggle toward a more just future,” Miller writes. “The Bible offers inspiration and warning on the subjects of love, marriage, family and community. It speaks eloquently of the crucial role of families in a fair society and the risks we incur to ourselves and our children should we cease trying to bind ourselves together in loving pairs.”
Also in the cover package, Senior Writer Lorraine Ali tells the story of a custody battle between two women who were joined in a Vermont civil union. Their relationship failed, one partner decided she was no longer gay and now they’re fighting for custody of the daughter they both love. The case, Miller v. Jenkins, has important implications for gay parents everywhere.
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A Gay Marriage Surge: Public support grows, according to the new NEWSWEEK Poll.
When voters in California, Florida and Arizona approved measures banning same-sex marriage last month, opponents lamented that the country appeared to be turning increasingly intolerant toward gay and lesbian rights. But the latest NEWSWEEK Poll finds growing public support for gay marriage and civil unions—and strong backing for the granting of certain rights associated with marriage, to same-sex couples. (Click here to see the full poll.)
Americans continue to find civil unions for gays and lesbians more palatable than full-fledged marriage. Fifty-five percent of respondents favored legally sanctioned unions or partnerships, while only 39 percent supported marriage rights. Both figures are notably higher than in 2004, when 40 percent backed the former and 33 percent approved of the latter. When it comes to according legal rights in specific areas to gays, the public is even more supportive. Seventy-four percent back inheritance rights for gay domestic partners (compared to 60 percent in 2004), 73 percent approve of extending health insurance and other employee benefits to them (compared to 60 percent in 2004), 67 percent favor granting them Social Security benefits (compared to 55 percent in 2004) and 86 percent support hospital visitation rights (a question that wasn’t asked four years ago). In other areas, too, respondents appeared increasingly tolerant. Fifty-three percent favor gay adoption rights (8 points more than in 2004), and 66 percent believe gays should be able to serve openly in the military (6 points more than in 2004).
Despite the recently approved state measures, public opinion nationally has shifted against a federal ban on same-sex marriage. In 2004, people were evenly divided on the question, with 47 percent favoring a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage and 45 percent opposing one. In the latest poll, however, 52 percent oppose a ban and only 43 percent favor one. When respondents were asked about state measures, the numbers were closer: 45 percent said they’d vote in favor of an amendment outlawing gay marriage in their states, while 49 percent said they’d oppose such a measure.
See A Gay Marriage Surge
Newsweek
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