tagged w/ same sex marriage
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By Andrew Jones
Monday, December 12, 2011
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney had an interesting exchange with a gay veteran at a New Hampshire diner Monday morning.
According to The Boston Globe, 63-year-old Vietnam vet Bob Garon asked the former Massachusetts if he would support a repeal of the state allowing same sex marriage.
“I believe marriage is between a man and a woman,” Romney replied. “That’s my view.”
Garon was upset by Romney’s answer, explaining to the GOP candidate the troubles married gay veterans face.
“If two men get married, apparently a veteran’s spouse would not be entitled to any burial benefits or medical benefits or anything that the serviceman has devoted his time and effort to his country,” he told Romney. “And you just don’t support equality in terms of same-sex marriage?”
After Romney said “we apparently disagree,” Garon further showed his displeasure.
“It’s good to know how you feel,” he said. “That you do not believe that everyone is entitled to their constitutional rights.”
Romney instantly replied back to Garon’s opinion.
“No, actually, I think at the time the Constitution was written it was pretty clear that marriage is between a man and a woman,” he said. “And I don’t believe the Supreme Court has changed that.”
What has changed however is Romney’s position on another issue. While running for the Senate in 1994, he told a gay newspaper that same sex marriage was a “state issue as you know – the authorization of marriage on a same-sex basis falls under state jurisdiction.”
Garon told The Boston Globe afterwards that Romney’s chances at winning were doomed.
“The guy ain’t going to make it,” he said of Romney. “He is not going to make it. You can’t trust him. I just saw it in his eyes. I judge a man by his eyes.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/12/romney-tells-gay-veteran-hell-repeal-same-sex-marriage/
WATCH: Video from Politico, which was published on December 12, 2011.
"I thought these folks were all about Patriotism and Flag lapel pins??? WTF???"
"I guess serving your country ain't all it used to be???"By Andrew Jones
Monday, December 12, 2011
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney... more
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KB723
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The Future of Same-Sex Marriage Ballot Measures
"Last week’s passage of a bill to make New York’s marriage law gender-neutral may accelerate efforts to put the issue before voters in other states.
A measure to ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota’s Constitution is already scheduled to be on the ballot in 2012, and one could follow in North Carolina. But with relatively few states now holding neutral positions on same-sex marriage, there may be efforts to repeal constitutional bans that already exist, such as in California and Oregon.
It is high time, therefore, to revisit the model that I originally built in 2009, which aims to predict the percentage of the vote that gay marriage-related ballot initiatives will receive.".........
Great article and presentation
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/29/the-future-of-same-sex-marriage-ballot-measures/The Future of Same-Sex Marriage Ballot Measures
"Last week’s passage of a... more
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TDK729
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7 months ago
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The New York State Senate will bring the Marriage Equality Bill to a vote tonight (Friday). During the day, an agreement was reached for the addition of an amendment that would strengthen and clarify language that would protect religious institutions and specify that the proposed law would allow the state to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. From the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/nyregion/new-york-state-senate-to-vote-on-same-sex-marriage.html?hpThe New York State Senate will bring the Marriage Equality Bill to a vote tonight... more
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Hawaii lawmakers Tuesday sent the governor a bill that would allow civil unions for same-sex couples.
Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie's office says he intends to sign the bill into law within 10 days. Civil unions would begin Jan. 1, 2012.
The Hawaii Senate voted 18-5 on Wednesday to give the bill final legislative approval following years of thousands-strong rallies, election battles and passionate public testimony on an issue that has divided the Rainbow State for nearly two decades. The measure passed the House on Friday.
"I have always believed that civil unions respect our diversity, protect people's privacy, and reinforce our core values of equality and aloha," Abercrombie said in a statement released minutes after Wednesday's vote. "For me, this bill represents equal rights for all the people of Hawai'i."
The measure grants gay and lesbian couples the same rights and benefits the state provides to married couples.
Hawaii would become the seventh state to grant essentially the same rights of marriage to same-sex couples without authorizing marriage itself.
Five states and the District of Columbia permit same-sex marriage.
The anxiously awaited civil unions vote came immediately after the Senate confirmed the state's first openly gay Supreme Court justice, Sabrina McKenna.
Gay rights advocates praised the vote as a victory for equal rights in a state known for its diversity and tolerance.
Opponents of the measure, many of them Christians, said civil unions erode the concept of the traditional family and could lead to same-sex marriage.
The Hawaii Legislature also passed a similar civil unions bill last year, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican. She was term-limited from running for election again in November.
Abercrombie said Wednesday that the Legislature's approval marked an end to an "emotional process" for the state, which has been a battleground in the gay rights movement since a 1993 state Supreme Court decision that nearly legalized gay marriage.
The ruling would have made Hawaii the first state to allow same-sex couples to wed, but it didn't take effect while voters were given a chance to decide.
They responded five years later by overwhelmingly passing the nation's first "defense of marriage" constitutional amendment, approved by 69 percent of voters who gave the Legislature the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples.
The amendment resulted in a law banning gay marriage in Hawaii but left the door open for civil unions.
Since then, 29 other states also have enacted defense of marriage amendments.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41630515/Hawaii lawmakers Tuesday sent the governor a bill that would allow civil unions for... more
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Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat equalities minister, is expected shortly to outline firm plans to lift the current ban on civil partnerships being conducted in places of worship.
In a political "win" for Nick Clegg and his party, the Coalition will also say that such ceremonies should for the first time be allowed to have a religious element, such as hymn-singing and readings from the Bible.
They could, it is understood, also be carried out in the future out by priests or other religious figures.
The landmark move will please equality campaigners but is likely to prompt a fierce backlash from mainstream Christian leaders, as well as some Right-leaning Tories.
The Church of England has already pledged not to allow any of its buildings to be used for civil partnership ceremonies, while last year
Pope Benedict said same-sex marriage was among the "most insidious and dangerous challenges that today confront the common good."
Some faiths, however – including the Quakers, Unitarians and Liberal Jews – support the change in the law and will apply for their
buildings to host same-sex "marriage" ceremonies.
Currently civil partnership ceremonies, which were introduced in 2005, have to be entirely secular and cannot contain any religious element, even though civil partners have almost exactly the same legal rights as married spouses.
Last year an amendment was added to the former Labour government's Equalities Act by Lord Alli, the Labour peer, paving the way for civil partnership ceremonies to be held in places of worship if religious groups permitted this.
However, before this arrangement could be fully legal ministers would be compelled to stage a separate consultation and to pass separate legislation. This is the process to be launched by Mrs Featherstone within days.
It is as yet unclear whether the new-style civil partnerships, formalised in a place of worship, would be officially called "marriage" under the law.
This is thought to be among the questions ministers will pose during the consultation period; they will also raise issues about the financial implications of the new arrangements, including their impact on tax.
Before last year's general election Theresa May, the current Home Secretary who was then shadow equalities minister, launched a Tory "equalities manifesto" which stated the party would, in government, "consider the case for changing the law to allow civil partnerships to be called and classified as marriage".
However, at the same time David Cameron sounded equivocal on the subject when questioned in a television interview.
He said MPs should "look to the future cautiously" about whether the current civil partnership system, which he described as having righted "one of the great unfairnesses", could be built on.
When the Equality Bill was passed by the House of Lords last March, a spokesman for the government equalities office said the move paved the way to allow religious groups "to let civil partnership ceremonies take place in their churches, mosques, synagogues and so on if they choose to do so".
The spokesman added: "It will not force any religious group to do anything that is not compatible with their faith."
However, the new move could open up a legal minefield with same-sex couples possibly taking anti-discrimination action against religious groups if they were barred from getting married in the place of worship of their choice.
Around the time of last May's general election, more than 26,000 civil partnerships had been formed in Britain, according to the Office for National Statistics.
There were also reports last night that other planned changes include allowing heterosexual couples, for the first time, to become "civil partners", an arrangement which up to has been the preserve of same-sex couples.
Campaigners have long called for this system to be changed – arguing that some heterosexual couples do not wish to enter into a state, in this case marriage, from which homosexuals are excluded.
Although civil partners have most of the same rights as married couples, critics claim the arrangement still carries a "second-class status" and can reinforce an idea of "sexual apartheid".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8320705/Gay-marriages-to-be-allowed-in-church.htmlLynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat equalities minister, is expected shortly to... more
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(AP) As much as Americans revere the family, they differ sharply on how to define it.
New research being released Wednesday shows steadily increasing recognition of unmarried couples - gay and straight - as families. But there's a solid core resisting this trend who are more willing to include pets in their definition than same-sex partners.
How "family" is defined is a crucial question on many levels. Beyond the debate over same-sex marriage, it affects income tax filings, adoption and foster care practices, employee benefits, inheritance rights and countless other matters.
The new research on the topic is contained in a book-length study, "Counted Out: Same-Sex Relations and Americans' Definition of Family" and in a separate 2010 survey overseen by the book's lead author, Indiana University sociologist Brian Powell.
Between 2003 and 2010, three surveys conducted by Powell's team showed a significant shift toward counting same-sex couples with children as family - from 54 percent of respondents in 2003 to 68 percent in 2010. In all, more than 2,300 people were surveyed.
Powell linked the changing attitudes to a 10 percent rise between 2003 and 2010 in the share of survey respondents who reported having a gay friend or relative.
"This indicates a more open social environment in which individuals now feel more comfortable discussing and acknowledging sexuality," Powell said.(AP) As much as Americans revere the family, they differ sharply on how to define... more
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In a shocking display of E.S.P. , Haliburton decided to buy the firm that British Petroleum would later contract to develop strategies for the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Clean up.....less than two weeks before the explosion!
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/may/23/bp-readies-last-resort/In a shocking display of E.S.P. , Haliburton decided to buy the firm that British... more
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DefKid
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Mexico's supreme court has upheld a law allowing same-sex marriages in the capital, dealing a blow to federal prosecutors who argued that it violated the constitutional protection of the family. The justices' eight to two ruling this past week will be seen as legal victory for hundreds of gay couples who have been married in Mexico City since the landmark law took effect on March 4th.Mexico's supreme court has upheld a law allowing same-sex marriages in the... more
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Last week Argentina became the first Latin American nation to legalize gay marriage, granting same-sex couples all the legal rights, responsibilities and protections that marriage brings to heterosexuals.Last week Argentina became the first Latin American nation to legalize gay marriage,... more
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In Monday's article I introduced the The Jewish-American Marriage Oral History Project. In honor of Brooklyn Pride's 14th Annual Pride Celebration this week the first Jewish-American couple whose interview will appear in this column is a Brooklyn lesbian couple, Mindi Wernick and Malkie Grozalsky, whom I interviewed in their Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn apartment two years and ten months ago. To make the interview read like a dialogue I have edited out my questions; for clarity the interview subjects sometimes rephrase a question as a statement, and where this occurs it indicates a change of subject. I began the interview by asking how they met.In Monday's article I introduced the The Jewish-American Marriage Oral History... more
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1. Your tax dollars at work… in Obamastan
2. A cum blast from the past
3. Future crimes today
4. The Winter Olympigs
5. Worldwide Resistance Report
6. Ska-P
7. Ward Churchill deconcstruct’s Obama’s Cairo speech1. Your tax dollars at work… in Obamastan
2. A cum blast from the past
3.... more
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Via Lurleen at Pam's House Blend:
After over 8 hours of testimony and a brief debate, the NJ Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Freedom of Religion and Equality in Civil Marriage bill (S1967) on a 7 to 6 vote. The expectation is that the bill will be debated by the full Senate as early as Thursday.
Responses will be posted after the fold.
Here is the breakdown of the vote. The annotations are courtesy of Blue Jersey:
NO - Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen): Chairman, opponent of marriage equality. Doesn't have a law degree.
NO - John Girgenti (D-Passaic): Vice Chairman
YES - Nia Gill (D-Essex): Black Senator from Montclair, a diverse college town with a large gay population. Strong supporter of marriage equality
YES - Ray Lesniak (D-Union): Sharp, articulate lawmaker who led the fight to abolish the death penalty in New Jersey. Strong supporter of marriage equality.
YES - Nick Scutari (D-Union): a supporter of marriage equality.
YES - Bob Smith (D-Middlesex): a supporter of marriage equality. Smith represents a liberal district in Central NJ which includes New Brunswick and Piscataway.
YES - Brian Stack (D-Hudson): a supporter of marriage equality. Stack is also mayor of Union City, and an powerful Hudson County political boss.
YES - Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen): the sponsor of the bill and a progressive stalwart in the legislature.
YES - Bill Baroni (R-Mercer): very smart, well-liked Republican, and a supporter of marriage equality
NO - Christopher Bateman (R-Somerset)
NO - Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth): a wild card, and an up-and-comer in the Republican party.
NO - Gerald Cardinale (R-Bergen): probably the most outspoken opponent on the committee. A dentist by trade; has no law degree.
NO - Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth): former R party chair, probably an opponent.
Lurleen :: New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee APPROVES marriage equality bill
Blue Jersey has posted a quote from New Jersey Governor Corzine
I commend the Senate Judiciary Committee for allowing a thorough, open discussion on the proposed marriage equality law and approving the bill for action by the full Senate. This is an action that is long overdue. For far too long, a large segment of our population has been denied the fundamental rights and protections of a civil liberty that is granted to all Americans.
"Throughout the history of our nation, New Jerseyans have been among the first to champion the fundamental rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - from the fight for independence to the civil rights movement. By moving forward with marriage equality, today we have taken a significant step toward adding yet another chapter.
"I am confident that through this process, the marriage equality issue will be recognized for what it truly is - a civil rights issue that must be approved to assure that every citizen is treated equally under the law.
Blue Jersey also quotes Sen. Lesniak, a staunch supporter
A recent poll conducted by the Eagleton Institute of Politics determined that only 2% of New Jersey residents believe gay marriage is an important issue. But to those gay couples in a loving and committed civil union, it is an extremely important issue. It means they will be able to visit their loved ones in a hospital or make arrangements for their funerals without painful rejection, without questioning and delays caused by doubting Thomases unfamiliar with the meaning of civil unions.
"It means they will get the health and pension benefits they are entitled to without having to hire a lawyer to convince their employers that civil unions convey the same rights and obligations as marriage. It means they will be treated as human beings should be treated: with love, compassion, understanding and acceptance.
[more at link]Via Lurleen at Pam's House Blend:
After over 8 hours of testimony and a brief... more
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If you are a same-sex couple who would like to legally marry... or someone who wants to support equal rights and marriage equality... join us in New Hampshire for three days of events including legal wedding ceremonies and a group reception on January 1st. Start the new year off on a note of equality, courage and unity. Join us December 30th for a Meet & Greet party in Manchester, NH, at the Radisson Hotel, open to gay friendly businesses and organizations. Join us for a New Year's Eve party on the 31st at Element Lounge in Manchester. And on the 1st of January, the historic first day that same-sex marriage will be legal in NH, tie the knot and be among the first to marry in that State. We perform the legal ceremonies and help you with all the details including photography, flowers, accommodations, etc. A reception follows with full dinner buffet, a champagne toast, cake and entertainment. It will be a beautiful celebration of unity and equality. Start 2010 off on equal footing with the rest of the world. Demand your rights. Show your love. Get legal.If you are a same-sex couple who would like to legally marry... or someone who wants... more
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If you are a same-sex couple who would like to legally marry... or someone who wants to support equal rights and marriage equality... join us in New Hampshire for two days of events including legal wedding ceremonies and a group reception on January 1st. Start the new year off on a note of equality, courage and unity. Join us December 31st in Manchester, NH, for a party at a New Year's Eve party at a local nightspot, The Element Lounge. Then on January 1st, join us at the Radisson Hotel, for an Expo open to gay friendly businesses and organizations from 4-7pm. A reception follows from 7-11pm with full dinner buffet, a champagne toast, cake, dancing and entertainment. It will be a beautiful celebration of unity and equality. Start 2010 off on equal footing with the rest of the world. Demand your rights. Show your love. Get legal. AND HAVE FUN!If you are a same-sex couple who would like to legally marry... or someone who wants... more
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A gay Argentine couple vowed to keep fighting for the right to get married after a last-minute court ruling dashed their plans to hold Latin America's first legal same-sex marriage on Tuesday.
Alex Freyre, 39, and Jose Maria Di Bello, 41, were granted a marriage license by a city judge two weeks ago. That ruling gave approval for the two men to wed in the capital despite a national policy defining marriage as between a man and a woman.
But a national judge on Monday ordered the suspension of the ceremony, which had been planned for Tuesday, saying that the city judge had no power to make the earlier ruling.
The couple, dozens of friends, gay rights activists and curiosity seekers gathered at the civil registry office on Tuesday to protest the ban.
"Our rights and everyone's rights are being violated if the marriage can't go forward," said Di Bello, carrying a bouquet of roses. He and Freyre, both HIV-positive, wore red sashes to mark World AIDS Day, which they had picked as the day to get married.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN01321121A gay Argentine couple vowed to keep fighting for the right to get married after a... more
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Though the Maine Legislature passed legislation to allow same-sex marriage, residents voted against the bill in a ballot measure on election day by a margin of 53 to 47 percent. The Catholic church was a major funder of the forces opposed to same-sex marriage, and as MPR’s Tom Scheck notes, Minnesota Catholic were among those funding the opposition.
The Diocese of Crookston gave $5,000; the Dioceses of Winona and La Crosse, Wis., each donated $500; and New Ulm’s bishop personally gave $250.
Catholic dioceses around the country spent nearly $560,000 to repeal the same-sex marriage law (total fundraising by opponents of same-sex marriage was over $4 million), but not all Catholics opposed same-sex marriage.
Some 500 Catholics signed a letter stating in part, “We are Catholics who are concerned that the current political campaign to repeal Maine’s civil marriage equality law is at odds with fundamental principles of truth and charity, and with vital American traditions of separation of church and state.”Though the Maine Legislature passed legislation to allow same-sex marriage, residents... more
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