Se3nate Power struggle impedes New York gay marriage vote
New York’s annual Gay Pride parade was a colorful celebration of 40 years of progress toward civil rights for gays, but once the dust settled, gay couples who wish to marry in New York state remain thwarted.
A bill to legalize gay marriage in the state that saw the dawn of the gay rights movement is mired in political stalemate in the state capital Albany, where Democrats and Republicans are battling over control of the state Senate.
“I had hoped today’s march would have been a bit of a wedding march. It’s not,” Christine Quinn, the gay speaker of the New York City Council, said at Sunday’s Gay Pride parade. Held annually, this year’s event marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York’s Greenwich Village, which triggered the modern U.S. gay rights movement.
“We are disappointed. … But I know there have been other times our community has been disappointed and you need to keep fighting,” Quinn said at the start of the parade, which organizers said drew more than a million people.
Gay couples can marry in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa and will be allowed marry in Vermont starting in September and in New Hampshire from January. Other states offer same-sex unions that grant many of the same rights as marriage.
See Power struggle impedes New York gay marriage vote
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TA Gay Pride parade to swing to the sound of the ‘Wedding March’
The 11th annual Tel Aviv Gay Pride parade this summer will feature an event organizers believe to be the first ever for such an event anywhere in the world and certainly in Israel - two weddings, one of a gay couple and one of a lesbian pair.
A campaign will be launched on the Web site gogay.co.il seeking couples interested in being wed as part of the event to submit their candidacy.
A committee at the city’s gay community center will determine which two couples will participate in the historic event.
“The idea began with the thought that in the framework of the [city’s] centennial celebrations, we wanted to do something substantive and deep to advance the community’s agenda,” said Yaniv Weizman, the adviser to Tel Aviv-Jaffa Mayor Ron Huldai on gay affairs and a Rov Ha’ir city council member.
“The idea is to wed both a gay and lesbian couple on one of the stages during the parade,” he said, adding that the right to marry stands at the top of the gay community’s agenda, particularly as Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party has raised awareness of civil union rights. See TA Gay Pride parade to swing to the sound of the ‘Wedding March’
Ha’aretz
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/04/ta-gay-pride-…
