Tag: gay marriage

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Anti-gay Washington state activists submit signatures to repeal marriage equality

Today, anti-gay activists in Washington state submitted enough signatures to place the freedom to marry on the November 2012 ballot.

In February, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire signed a freedom to marry bill into law after it was approved with bipartisan support in the Washington state legislature. The law was scheduled to take effect later this week. 

Now, the law will appear on the November ballot in the form of Referendum 74, which asks Washington residents to decide whether or not to uphold the freedom to marry in the state.  

 

The marriage opponents’ drop of 200,000 signatures did not come as a huge surprise in Washington – it was always expected that these activists would obtain the number of signatures required to put marriage to a vote in November.

Last week, a poll out of Washington demonstrated majority support for marriage in the state, with 55 percent saying they believe all loving couples should be allowed to marry. We need to continue growing that majority in preparation for the November election.

(Via Freedom To Marry)

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New poll: 54% support legalizing gay marriage

A majority of Americans say they support legal recognition of same-sex marriage amid growing evidence that the public’s become more comfortable with gays and lesbians, according to a new CNN/ORC International survey released Wednesday.

According to the survey, 54 percent of respondents now say that marriages between gay and lesbian couples should be leagl, with only 42 percent opposed.

The results also indicated that the number of Americans who say they have a close friend or family member who is gay jumped from 49 percent in 2010 to 60 percent today, the first time in CNN polling that a majority of Americans have said that.

More at LGBTQ Nation

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Support for marriage equality grows in Minnesota

Public Policy Polling reveals quite a shift in the past four months with regards to Minnesota voters’ stance on same-sex marriage.

Here are three of the proposed questions asked of 973 Minnesota voters from May 31 to June 3. The surveys have a margin of error of +/- 3.1%.

Q1 Should the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota?

Yes: 43%

No: 49%

Not sure: 7%

Q2 Do you think same-sex marriage should be legal or illegal?

Legal: 47%

Illegal: 42%

Not sure: 11%

Q3 Which of the following best describes your opinion on gay marriage: gay couples should be allowed to legally marry, or gay couples should be allowed to form civil unions but not legally marry, or there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship?

Gay couples should be allowed to legally marry: 43%

Gay couples should be allowed to form civil unions but not marry: 32%

There should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship: 21%

Not sure: 4%

Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling says, “The pro-equality side is now winning on gay marriage ballot initiatives in Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, and Washington. The landscape has changed significantly since Barack Obama announced his support for gay marriage.”
(source)

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Ninth Circuit refuses to hear Prop 8 appeal

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that it won’t rehear a case in which Proposition 8 had been ruled unconstitutional, setting up a possible fight before the U.S. Supreme Court.

After a three-judge panel in February agreed with Judge Vaughn Walker’s 2010 decision in Perry v. Brown that Proposition 8 violated the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause and the due process clause, proponents of the law sought an “en banc review.” Such a review would have required judicial evaluation by the full Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and could have included 11 appellate judges, but a majority of justices voted to deny the rehearing.

Now Prop. 8 backers have 90 days to decide whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, setting the stage for a national case on marriage equality. If they don’t decide to appeal, then same-sex couples would again begin marrying.

The nation’s most populous state narrowly passed Prop. 8 in 2008 and banned same-sex marriage, which had already been legal but then became outlawed. A federal challenge to the ban, led by American Foundation for Equal Rights and attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies, has been very successful, with wins in federal district court and in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Read more at The Advocate

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The costs of same-sex marriage bans

From TakePart.com: 70,000 gay couples in the U.S. are currently married, and 90,000 have entered civil unions or domestic partnerships.

But the cold hard truth is that throughout the U.S., gays and lesbians remain unable to enter into a legally recognized relationship with the person they love. And even in states that have legalized gay marriage, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) signed into law by President Clinton in 1996 prevents the federal government from recognizing those unions.

Click on the infographic above which shows exactly how same-sex marriage bans are bad for gay and lesbian couples — and the government.

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Michelle Obama: Marriage equality is a “matter of fairness”

In a video posted online by the White House Thursday night, the first lady answered questions submitted via Twitter.

One question said, “Please tell us about your family discussions about marriage equality and thank President Obama for his support.”

Michelle Obama responded, “For Barack and me, it really comes down to the values of fairness and equality that we want to pass down to our girls. I mean, these are basic values that kids learn at a very young age and that we encourage them to apply in all areas of their lives. And in a country where we teach our children that everyone is equal under the law, discriminating against same-sex couples just isn’t right. So it’s as simple as that. We’re proud to have your support.”

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Gay marriage opponents in WA state say they have signatures for ballot measure

Gay marriage opponents looking to overturn that state’s marriage equality law claim they have collected enough signatures to get their measure on this November’s ballot:

Joseph Backholm, with Preserve Marriage Washington, said that the campaign for Referendum 74 has at least 150,000 signatures on hand. Backers of R-74 need to turn in 120,577 valid voter signatures by next Wednesday in order to qualify for the ballot. The secretary of state’s office recommends that campaigns submit about 150,000 signatures in order to provide a cushion for invalid or duplicate signatures.” 

As we saw this morning, though, most Washington voters want to keep the equality law in place, and the pro-LGBT group Washington United for Marriage is ready for a campaign fight.

“We always expected [opponents] to reach the number,” said group spokesman Zach Silk “We’ve been preparing our campaign to talk to voters. We believe at the end of the day they’ll side with us to uphold the law.”

Silk also says his group has about $714,000 in the bank to maintain same-sex marriage. Preserve Marriage, in contrast, only has about $43,000.
(source)