To Form a More Perfect Union: Marriage Equality News

Greece may allow civil marriages for same-sex couples

Link: RIA Novosti

Excerpt:

Greek authorities are considering adopting a law that would allow same-sex couples to marry in a civil ceremony, the country's NET TV said on Monday.

The Greek Justice Ministry pledged to establish a working group on the rights of gay couples living together, which would "analyze all aspects of the issue, international practice and the existing domestic legal and social framework."

The move follows a request by the country's National Commission for Human Rights that proposed a civil union registry that would allow both same-sex couples to marry. Parliament could approve the law in a few months, national media said

[...]

[jw]

Support for marriage increases in Ireland

Link: Pink News

Excerpt:

As Irish gay rights advocates await the government's proposals on legal recognition of same-sex partners, a new opinion poll has found that the vast majority of their countrymen and women are in favour.

MarriagEquality, a group formed to campaign for full civil marriage, has released the details of a poll it commissioned which shows the number of Irish people who support partnerships only has fallen from 33% to 26%.

Overall 84% of those polled support either gay marriage or civil partnerships.

The Irish government has ruled out gay marriage, claiming that it would require a change to the country's constitution and a potentially divisive referendum.

Justice Minister Brian Lenihan is expected to bring forward proposals for a form of civil partnerships at the end of this month.

It is understood that the Republic of Ireland will recognise same-sex marriages, civil unions and civil partnerships from other countries when it legalises same-sex unions.

[...]

In December Mr Lenihan rejected the possibility of a referendum to allow gay marriage.

Article 41 of the Irish constitution says:

"The State pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of marriage, on which the family is founded, and to protect it against attack."
It does not give any definition of marriage itself, and critics and constitutional scholars argue it does not outlaw gay marriage.

[...]

Read more about the terms of the Civil Partnership Bill in the Irish Times.

 

[jw]

Ecuador: President Correa on marriage

Link: Blabbeando
by Andrés Duque

 

 

Excerpt:

After two weeks in which front page headlines blared that members of his own political party were pushing for changes in the Ecuadorian constitution that would 1) remove existing constitutional language protecting individuals from discrimination based on sexual orientation; 2) ban the official recognition of any sort of same-sex partnerships be it through marriage or civil unions; 3) determine that life starts at conception and ban all forms of abortion; and 4) enshrine the word "God" in the magna carta, President Rafael Correa [left] finally went on the record and addressed these issues in his weekly radio show on Saturday.

As Ecuador Inmediato (freebie online subscription needed) reports, Correa said the following:

On same-sex marriage and the recognition of same-sex partners: Correa stated that it wasn't even gays and lesbians who were asking for the right to marry. Instead, he said that it was a "story invented by certain communication media" and by groups that wanted to make an issue out of it to distract voters and to draw opposition to a new draft of the constitution.

"Every person has their dignity, in other words, there will be respect for a person regardless of their sexual preference," Correa stated, "Be warned on denying employment to someone based on their sexual orientation, that is discrimination, that is unconstitutional."

But when it came to specifics he didn't offer many.

"Let the profoundly humanist position of this government be clear, it will respect the intrinsic dignity of every person, of every human being, independently of his or her belief, race, sexual orientation, and that [the government] will seek to grant certain guarantees to stable same-sex unions, but without ever reaching the institution of marriage."

To me this sounds more like the piecemeal approach to partnership rights that has been taking place in Colombia in which courts have ruled that same-sex couples have the right to share and inherit belongings without necessarily recognizing civil unions or same-sex marriage. In this respect, Correa might be ceding ground to those who would deny same-sex couples any recognition of their partnership through civil unions while extending a few protections of their joint belongings.

El Comercio seems to back this up. In their coverage they say that Correa gave an example: "Now, if one dies, the other cannot inherit anything, for this reason we will extend certain guarantees to the pairs of gays that are stable, but marriage will continue to be reserved for a man, a woman and the family."

[...]

[jw]

NYC Gay Couple Teaches Tolerance In Poland

Link: 365Gay.com

Excerpt:

A married gay New York City couple have become the darlings of the Polish media since arriving in the country on the weekend. Brendan Fay and Tom Moulton were unknown in Poland until it was discovered they were the couple whose wedding pictures were illegally used by Lech Kaczynski last week to warn that ratifying a European Union treaty would lead to the forced legalization gay marriage.

When Fay found that the pictures were used without his or Moulton's permission he filed a formal complaint with the Polish consulate in New York. (story) 

Kaczynski used the pictures in his conservative Law and Order Party's campaign against the European Union's proposed charter of rights, called the Lisbon Treaty, during a national broadcast.

Fey and Moulton were legally married in Toronto in 2003. It was not clear where Kaczynski obtained the picture.

[...]

Reporters and camera crews were on the ground when the plane landed and have been following them ever since in what Polish gay rights advocates say it the biggest bonanza for LGBT in the country's history.

On Monday Fay and Moulton, met with Ryszard Kalisz, the head of the parliamentary committee on human rights in Poland and a leading member of the left of center coalition.

At a news conference on Monday Moulton said that he and Fay were impressed with the reception they've received.

"I want to reiterate that we feel comforted by the Polish people who feel badly how our images have been used. We come here in the hope of opening a dialogue with a community that may have not had much voice and that will make Poland a better place. The issue here is about equality."

But the right and left oppose same-sex marriage in Poland, but Tusk's party would grant some limited rights to gay couples.

[...]

[jw]

CA: Statewide campaign works to prevent marriage initiative

Link: Gay & Lesbian Times

Excerpt:

[...]

caption: Sean Wherley, a volunteer with Equality for All, educates shoppers outside a Lemon Grove Wal-Mart about the Protectmarriage.com petition aimed at banning same-sex marriage.

 

As the April 21 deadline nears for Protectmarriage.com to collect 700,000 signatures to qualify the initiative amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, Equality for All, a new GLBT coalition educating the public on marriage equality, is working nonstop to prevent opponents from reaching their goal.

“Through this unprecedented effort, we have had hundreds and thousands of volunteers all across the state doing this work,” said Seth Kilbourn, campaign manager for Equality for All. “And the folks in San Diego, The San Diego LGBT Center in particular, have done an amazing job recruiting volunteers and sending them out there to talk to Californians about the truth of what this amendment does.”

The campaign started in late February after GLBT state leaders began seeing paid signature gatherers circulating the Protectmarriage.com petition.

“We sighted paid signature gatherers on the street in late January and we had our people out on the street by mid-February,” said Kilbourn.

“We assumed at that point that they had 200 signature gatherers on the streets,” said Sarah Reece, project director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and currently the regional organizing coordinator for the Equality for All campaign. “We think now that that number is actually higher at about 300 to 400, which is why we need such a big team of people out staffing the locations.”

Protectmarriage.com needs to gather approximately 700,000 signatures, but given that not all the signatures it collects will be valid, “the general rule of thumb” is that it needs to collect about 1.1 million to ensure it has enough valid signatures, said Kilbourn.

“If their Web site is to be believed, they’ve already gathered 817,000 signatures. That’s not enough,” said Kilbourn. “They need to gather a few hundred thousand more.”

Back on the ground, the challenge for volunteers is competing with paid signature gatherers for shoppers’ time and patience.

“Our job is to educate the public. Their job is to get their signatures collected on their petitions. And so those things, while they’re not mutually exclusive, they do create conflict,” Reece said.

Kilbourn said paid signature gatherers often mislead the public.

“The paid signature gatherers are providing misleading information. They are doing anything they can to get people to sign the petition because every signature they receive, they get a dollar,” said Kilbourn.

One of the paid signature gatherers, who was circulating a petition for a cleaner energy bill, asked shoppers if they wanted to lower gas prices.

“Their catch phrase is ‘Would you like to lower gas prices?’ It’s a clean energy bill so it’s not going to lower gas prices. That’s their catch phrase to get people suckered in to get them to sign” petitions, among them, the marriage petition, said Morris.

[...]

[jw]

CT: Editorial--More Taxing For Some

Link: Courant.com

Excerpt:

Tax time is taxing enough. But consider the plight of Jason Smith and his partner, Settimio Pisu of Guilford. The same-sex couple, as well as their peers, must file not one, not two, but three tax returns by April 15.

That's because they are joined not in marriage, but by civil union, the only legal option for same-sex couples in Connecticut. Because there is no federal recognition of same-sex marriage or unions, they must file separate returns as well as a joint return, which is used as a work sheet to calculate their Connecticut taxes.

They tried to file online with H&R Block, but the forms used by the national tax preparer do not support returns stemming from civil unions. Instead, they were told to file at an H&R Block office and pay about four times the online fee.

[...]

Meanwhile, the tax hassle common to all such households reinforces the shortcomings of civil unions and debunks claims that they are an acceptable equivalent to marriage.

[jw]

From the altar, a vow of protest

Link: Baltimore Sun

Excerpt:

Rabbi Elizabeth Bolton was always vexed by the notion that despite the country's traditional separation of church and state, Maryland gave her - a religious leader - the power to change people's legal status by signing their marriage licenses. At the same time, the Reconstructionist rabbi from Baltimore was troubled by the state's laws prohibiting same-sex marriage.

Finally, after contending with her conflicted feelings for years, she decided she had had enough: She told couples she would happily conduct religious wedding ceremonies, but to find someone else to sign their civil documents.

The legalization of same-sex marriage in 2004 in Massachusetts - the only state where such unions are legal - was the tipping point for her. "The incongruity of that not being possible here was heightened. It was the last straw. I finally was able to say with clarity: 'I really cannot do this anymore,'" said Bolton, the rabbi at Congregation Beit Tikvah.

Bolton has joined a small but growing band of clergy who have decided that they won't sign any marriage licenses as agents of the state until it allows gays and lesbians to marry. Some rabbis and ministers in states including Virginia, Minnesota, Michigan and Connecticut have told their congregants that when it comes to weddings they are in the business of religious ceremonies - only - and they have redirected couples to the local courthouse for the paperwork.

[...]

The Rev. David Ensign, pastor of Clarendon Presbyterian Church in Arlington, Va., was surprised by the flurry of media attention he received in 2005 when the ruling body of his small church unanimously passed a policy - at his recommendation - declaring that the pastor would not sign marriage documents as long as the legal rights were available only to straight couples. Ensign said did not hear a negative peep - once the policy was clearly explained - and unexpectedly, church membership grew after word of the church's position got out.

"A lot of people were interested in what we were doing. They were looking for a place that shared those commitments to justice and commitments to being an open and welcoming and progressive Christian community," he said.

In some ways, separating the legal elements of marriage has made religious wedding services more meaningful, Ensign said.

"There certainly is an intentional political statement on the part of the church," he said. "But an equal part of it has been to say, 'Let's reclaim what is essential about marriage and set aside the questions that are properly the domain of the state and focus in on the ones that are the domain of the faith community.' ... It's allowed us to have some rich and deep conversations with couples about their faith lives."

[...]

[jw]

PA - Official: Gay ceremony largest in Pennsylvania

Link: Altoona Mirror

Excerpt:

As he recited vows of commitment Saturday, Frank Vasquez stopped speaking, overcome with emotion.

He got past the snag only after partner Paul Datti leaned over their double-clasped hands and kissed him, setting off sympathetic laughter from the crowd at Alumni Hall in the HUB-Robeson Center at Penn State.

Vasquez and Datti were one of four couples in what Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission Chairman Steve Glassman guessed was the largest-ever same-sex commitment ceremony held in public in Pennsylvania.

Glassman, the highest ranking openly gay official in the state, hit an emotional snag himself before finding his voice to recite short love poems from Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Walt Whitman and Maya Angelou to the capacity crowd of several hundred friends, family and supporters.

Neither Delia Guzman nor Kat Sinclair ever fantasized about a big wedding day as kids, but growing up in Texas, Guzman figured she would get a man someday — until the reality of her sexual orientation set in.

But that wedding day, ‘‘we ended up with it after all,’’ she said.

Sinclair and Guzman were at the point in their six-year relationship in which they were ready to commit and decided that the ceremony also gave them a chance to make a political statement.

It was a little scary at first, Guzman said, who is helping to raise Sinclair’s 12-year-old daughter.

But when they got to the stage and saw the rainbow umbrellas and a welcoming crowd, ‘‘It instantly became fun and exciting,’’ she said.

Tom Koerber, co-director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual & Transgendered and Allies suggested the ceremony because members wanted to do something different than the usual educational forum for Gay Pride Week.

[...]

[km]

IL: Conservatives 'lack strong statewide organization' to obtain signatures

Link: PJStar.com

Excerpt:

[...] 

Another effort to get an advisory referendum on a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in Illinois isn't doing too well, a local activist said. 

The petition drive is the second effort to get such a question on the ballot. A 2006 petition submitted with 347,000 had enough signatures knocked off that it didn't meet the required number. The new drive started in December 2006, according to Lou Carr, editor of the Coalition of Concerned Citizens Checkpoint newsletter. 

Carr blamed the lack of a strong, statewide organization as well as no organization at the county level. He said he personally contacted 226 churches. 

He also partly blamed newspapers for not publicizing the effort, "which is not surprising in that many of these are known to have a liberal bias." 

Peter LaBarbera of Protect Marriage Illinois, the organization behind the petition drive, said the current effort has netted more than 100,000 signatures so far, with a goal of at least 269,000 by early May. 

Getting petitions signed this time is easier, he said, but Protect Marriage Illinois went through a "changeover" last year and is no longer a subset of Illinois Family Institute. Taking that into account, LaBarbera said if this effort doesn't work, PMI will take another stab at the 2010 November ballot. 

The proposed amendment is worded - "the union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose" - in such a way as to cover even the efforts of such legislators as Sen. David Koehler, D-Peoria, who recently proposed civil union legislation. 

LaBarbera said that and a similar bill in the Illinois House appear to be stalled. But, he said, the homosexual-rights movement won't slow down in its effort, and conservative organizations such as Protect Marriage Illinois shouldn't, either. 

"We see ourselves as going forward until we finally get the amendment, recognizing that it's going to take a lot of work," he said.

[km]

D.C.: Wedding announcements in The Washington Post?

Link: washingtonpost.com

Excerpt:

[...]

Dear Wise Guys:

I don't think I am crazy, but I remember when The Washington Post would print pictures and announcements of weddings when the couples were same-sex. Now I look and everyone is heterosexual! What gives with that? Has The Post changed its mind, or is no one gay getting married in the D.C. area?

Justin: You are correct: No one gay is getting married in the D.C. area. While the District allows gay couples to formalize their relationships through domestic partnerships, it doesn't allow them to marry. And Maryland and Virginia are at least as restrictive, if not more so. 

Same-sex union announcements can be found on the Celebrations page in Sunday's Style & Arts section, but they are listed as "Commitment Ceremonies." Of course, some gay couples, as well as straight people such as myself, may feel that doesn't carry the same weight. The Post is always open to feedback from readers, so feel free to express any concerns about this policy to the ombudsman at ombudsman@washpost.com. 

[...]

[km]