Clip description: “Big news coming this week from Rhode Island, where we may see the year’s first hearing on marriage equality. New lawmakers in Illinois and Colorado express eagerness to pass marriage and civil unions bills. Two lawsuits join forces in Hawaii and Nevada, plus one unlikely country that saw support for marriage double over the last decade.”
Illinois: Business leaders and corporations show support for same-sex marriage
Dozens of Illinois business leaders and corporations are throwing their support behind a marriage equality bill expected to be addressed by the state legislature at the beginning of February, the Chicago Tribune reports:
In addition to Google, Orbitz Worldwide and Groupon, individual signers of the letter include Desiree Rogers, CEO of Johnson Publishing Co.; Lance Chody, CEO of Garrett Popcorn Shops; Fred Eychaner, chairman of the Newsweb Corp.; and Laura Ricketts, co-owner of the Chicago Cubs. Eychaner and Ricketts are openly gay executives who are helping fund the statewide push for same-sex marriage, the Tribune has reported.
The letter closes with this: “Illinois simply cannot afford to be less competitive than other states.”
Paris: Thousands gather to protest same-sex marriage in France
Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Paris today in opposition to the same-sex marriage bill proposed by President Francois Hollande and his Socialist Party.
Organisers reserved five high-speed trains and 900 buses to bring protesters from provincial towns to the capital, some before dawn, to join Parisians and display the extent of the opposition that has built up in recent weeks. “Nobody expected this two or three months ago,” said Frigide Barjot, a flamboyant comedian leading the “Demo for All” she described as “multicultural, multireligious and multisexual.” Strongly backed by the Catholic hierarchy, lay activists have mobilised a coalition of church-going families, political conservatives, Muslims, evangelicals and even homosexuals opposed to gay marriage. “We want this draft law to be withdrawn,” Patricia Soullier, a protest organiser, told BFM-TV before boarding a Paris-bound train in Montpellier in the south of France. Hollande angered opponents of same-sex marriage by trying to avoid public debate on the reform, which Justice Minister Christiane Taubira described as “a change in civilisation”, and wavering about some of its details.
Reports vary in terms of the number of protesters that took part, with some press accounts estimating the crowd “in the tens of thousands” while the organizers say more than 800,000.
Edith Windsor, the face of marriage equality fight
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| Photographs by Macey J. Foronda for BuzzFeed |
Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed has a fantastic interview with Edith Windsor, whose court case against DOMA will be heard by SCOTUS in March.
Her story is inspiring to read as she describes the journey of realizing she was lesbian, meeting her future wife Thea Spyer and now being the face of the marriage equality fight.
Just a snippet:
“I certainly did not want to be queer,” she says, looking off to the side of the room while talking about an era when President Eisenhower added “sexual perversion” to the possible grounds for dismissal from public service. “There was no way. I could not imagine a life that way. I wanted to be like everybody else. You marry a man who supports you — it never occurred to me I’d have to earn a living, and nor did I study to earn a living.”
What would a queer life have been?
“I had no idea what that life would have been, except underground. And denigrated. I didn’t think there was anything inferior about me, but I knew that a lot of my friends would think that if they knew. And I lied all the time. My big sister knew, and ultimately became very homophobic. It was a hidden world. And Philadelphia didn’t have much of that hidden world, to my knowledge.”
Read the entire interview at Buzzfeed.
Rhode Island: Governor says “pass marriage equality now”
Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee has issued a statement that he will likely veto any attempt to put same-sex marriage to a public vote.
Gov. Lincoln Chafee told reporters Thursday that lawmakers owe it to voters to decide themselves. The state House of Representatives is expected to vote within weeks on legislation that would allow gay and lesbian couples to wed. But some opponents have voiced support for alternative legislation that would put the question before voters. Same-sex marriage supporters say the issue is one of civil rights and shouldn’t be decided by a vote. Rhode Island is now the only state in New England without same-sex marriage.
Through a White House spokesman, President Obama has endorsed marriage equality in Rhode Island.
“While the President does not weigh in on every measure being considered by the states, he believes all couples should be treated fairly and equally, with dignity and respect,” said White House spokesperson Shin Inouye. “As he has said, his personal view is that it’s wrong to prevent couples who are in loving, committed relationships, and want to marry, from doing so.”
Minnesota Vikings Chris Kluwe on Colbert Report
Stephen Colbert hosted Randy Report favorite and marriage equality advocate, Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe last night. Colbert made a point of addressing Kluwe’s use of the term “lustful cockmonster” to describe a Maryland lawmaker in an Op-Ed piece last fall.
“Why would you support gay marriage? You are in the most hyper-masculine sport in the world. Okay? Football players are about a thousand miles from gay. Men in tight pants patting each other on the butt. Nothing gay about that. Get that butt out of my face. Get it out of there!”
They also address video game World of Warcraft and troll-on-elf marriage.
Washington National Cathedral to host same-sex weddings
Same-sex weddings may be held at Washington National Cathedral effective immediately, according to an announcement from its dean, The Very Rev. Gary Hall:
Even though it is known that the Episcopal Church, a small but prominent part of American Christianity, has been supportive of equality for gay men and lesbians, “it’s something for us to say we are going to do this in this very visible space where we pray for the president and where we bury leaders,” said the Rev. Gary Hall, who became dean of Washington National Cathedral in the fall. “This national spiritual space is now a place where [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] people can come and get married.”
As attention, political capital and lobbying dollars have been focused on fights over civil marriage, organized religion has been slow to embrace rights for same-sex couples. The vast majority of houses of worship don’t host blessings or weddings for people of the same gender. The Episcopal Church, with 2 million members, has been something of an exception, with leadership supporting the ordination of gay clergy and blessings for same-sex couples even as dozens of parishes broke with the denomination over the issue.
The Episcopal Diocese of Washington includes the city and its suburbs in Maryland.
Illinois: Marriage equality bills headed to both chambers of state legislature
Today begins the new session for the Illinois legislature and marriage equality bills are set to be introduced in both chambers. Via press release from Equality Illinois:
On the first day of the new legislative session, sponsors Senator Heather Steans (D-Chicago) and Representative Greg Harris (D-Chicago) say they will work to pass the legislation, known as the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, shortly after members of the 98th General Assembly are sworn in.
“Last week, the Senate Executive Committee made history by approving same-sex marriage and gave our efforts incredible momentum,” Senator Steans said. “With the full support of Senate President John Cullerton, I am confident legislators will grant all Illinois couples the freedom to marry this year.”
“We are one step closer to equality in the Land of Lincoln,” added Representative Harris. “The bills we filed today will treat all couples equally under the law. We are going full steam ahead on this.” Illinois Unites for Marriage — a coalition led by Equality Illinois, Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Illinois — is continuing its statewide campaign in support of the bill, marshaling support and urging allies to step up contacts with their legislators.
The language in the new bill is identical the one that passed in an Illinois Senate committee last week.
SCOTUS schedules same-sex marriage arguments
From LegalTimes: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in two pending same-sex marriage cases on March 26 and March 27.
The justices slotted arguments in Hollingsworth v. Perry, a challenge involving California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage, for March 26, and in U.S. v. Windsor, concerning the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), on March 27.
In the Perry case, supporters of Prop. 8 challenge a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. They ask the justices whether the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause prohibits a state from defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
In Windsor, the justices will decide whether Section 3 of DOMA, establishing that marriage, for all federal purposes, is the union between a man and woman, violates the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee.
Illinois: Marriage equality activists look to next legislative session as time runs out
Despite the fact that it passed the Senate Executive Committee late Thursday in an 8-5 vote, Illinois Senate Democrats say there is not enough time left in the lame duck session for the full Senate to address the marriage equality bill.
Via press release from Equality Illinois:
Today, the movement for marriage equality achieved a milestone victory, with the adoption of the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act by the Senate Executive Committee. This was the first step of many. Today’s victory builds on all the work we have done, adds to the momentum that the supporters have created, and puts us in great position to advance the freedom to marry in the coming months. With just a handful of days remaining in the current lame duck session, time to move the bill through both chambers is not on our side. So we will act in the new General Assembly that convenes next week, on Wednesday, January 9.
“We have come so far. Just to be able to witness the historic public debate over the desire of all loving, committed couples to be able to marry in Illinois is a major accomplishment. And with the landmark action by the Senate Executive Committee in favor of the bill, for the first time ever an Illinois legislative body voted to extend the freedom to marry. Never before has the issue gone this far in the Illinois legislature,” said Bernard Cherkasov, CEO of Equality Illinois, the state’s oldest and largest LGBT advocacy organization. “Our opponents should not believe they have turned the tide against the growing national and Illinois consensus favoring marriage equality. The clock simply ran out, and our legislative supporters ran out of time,” he said.
The above release closes by noting the expectation that “the new Illinois House and Senate are considered to be more supportive of LGBT issues.”
(via JMG)