LGBTQ news and entertainment
• The lawsuits are piling up in Pennsylvania, where a judge has put marriages on an indefinite hold.
• It’ll be at least a month and a half before the New Mexico Supreme Court will decide whether the state can issue marriage licenses.
• And the New Mexico clerk who first issued licenses has started a fundraising campaign — he now needs tens of thousands of dollars to defend against an anti-gay lawsuit.
Michael Steele, former RNC chairman, said during the “after broadcast” online segment of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher talk show that the 2016 GOP Presidential nominee could “likely – probably” support marriage equality:
Maher: ‘Do you think the Republican candidate in 2016 will support same-sex marriage?’
Steele: ‘Good political question. It’s a very good political question and I think likely … probably.’
Maher: ‘I’ll say this, if he does … he won’t in the primaries. You cannot do it in the primaries.’
Steele: ‘He won’t in the primaries … that’s where it’s going.’
(source)
At Tom Harkin’s steak fry in Iowa yesterday, Vice-President Joe Biden said “I could not remain silent anymore. It’s time we start talking. It’s the civil rights of our day. It’s the issue of our day. It’s the reason why the President eliminated DADT and DOMA.”
Watch the video for more.
Marriage continues to expand one county at a time in New Mexico, and one couple at a time in Ohio. But a state Supreme Court ruling may soon change all that.
We had oral arguments in Pennsylvania, there’s a new southern lawsuit, and a controversial voter initiative in Arizona seems to have died before it could make it to the ballot.
Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie WILL call a special session of the state legislature to consider marriage equality.
The special session will convene on October 28th. From Advocate:
“This is now the 20th year of discussion that has taken place on the issue and associated issues with it,” Abercrombie told reporters at a press conference. “I feel very, very strongly that the votes are there to pass this because it is time for marriage equity to take place.”
The special session will last about five days, and the proposed bill will include a religious exemption to quell the fears of those who worry marriage equality will be forced upon any church, Abercrombie said. If the bill is approved, same-sex marriages could begin in the state as early as November 18.
Good luck, Hawaii. Get out there, do that community outreach and get some “aloha.”
“I don’t see myself as a crusader.
“Some people have said I’ve broken the law, which I may have done. But I’ve broken an unconstitutional law. It’s not about me. It’s a serious equal protection argument at stake here.
“I don’t want to speculate about the outcome of the case. But I firmly believe that I’m on the right side of history.” – Pennsylvania Montgomery County Clerk Bruce Hanes
Add Los Alamos county to the growing list of counties issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in New Mexico.
The County Clerk, Sharon Stover, didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon, but a district judge ordered the licenses be issued:
Janet Newton and Maria Thibodeau were denied a marriage license last week and they filed a lawsuit that led to a ruling by District Court Judge Sheri Raphaelson that same-sex couples are entitled to be married in New Mexico.
Los Alamos County Clerk Sharon Stover went to court Wednesday to defend her decision, but the judge ruled against the clerk.
Seven of the state’s 33 counties are issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples and number 8, Grant County, plans to start granting licenses next week.
The latest on the New Mexico county clerks who are asking the state Supreme Court for a ruling on the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The state currently has no law on the books outlawing marriage equality.
New Mexico State Senator William Sharer, in an effort to explain his opposition to marriage equality, suggested that gay men should stop “whoring” around and marry women instead.
Sharer is behind a Republican legal effort to stop six New Mexico counties from issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
In a blog post published Friday, Sharer noted that Alexander the Great “may have engaged in homosexual activity, but he married a woman.”
“[Alexander the Great] directed his officers to stop ‘whoring’ around and find a local woman to marry.”
“’It is only through blood relations that hatred and war will end.’ In other words, Alexander the Great thought that marriage was about creating and raising the next generation,” Sharer wrote.
He went on to suggest that allowing gay couples to marry could lead to the end of the human race: “As marriage goes, so go the children, so goes the nation, so goes the world.”
However, Sharer does want to make it clear he totally has no animosity towards gays and lesbians.
I’m sure some of his best friends are gay.
Riiiiight….
(source)
With all the same-sex marriage activity in New Mexico, the issue of marriage licenses that were briefly issued back in 2004 by the Sandoval County clerk have come back to the forefront, and there’s good news:
Attorney General Gary King says marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples in 2004 in Sandoval County remain valid.
King said Wednesday that licenses issued by a county clerk are “presumptively valid” unless voided by a court.
King delivered the non-binding advice in a letter to the current Sandoval County clerk, who found that some of the 2004 licenses recorded in the clerk’s office were labeled as void or invalid.
King said a county clerk is responsible for issuing marriage licenses but “New Mexico law plainly does not provide county clerks with the rights to invalidate marriages.”
Former Sandoval County Victoria Dunlap issued more than 60 licenses on Feb. 20, 2004, but stopped later the same day after then Attorney General Patricia Madrid objected.