Tag: marriage equality

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Support for marriage equality jumps in California

California registered voters now favor same-sex unions by 59 percent to 34 percent, a 25-point gap that is the largest margin of support for the issue in the three-plus decades the Field Poll has been asking the question.

The new Field survey shows support has leapt markedly in the three and a half years since California voters approved Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, 52.3 percent to 47.7 percent.

The poll showed increases in support virtually across the board – among voters under 64, non-white voters, Catholics, Republicans and nonpartisans.

Poll Director Mark DiCamillo said the move to a 25-point gap goes beyond the gradual increase in support that has been expected as young voters age and “replace” older voters in the electorate.

“This is now showing that opinions are changing irrespective of generational replacement,” DiCamillo said. “This is real change.”

“The winds of change are blowing in other states (and) when judges start ruling the same way, I believe that has an influence,” he said.
(source)

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US Marine speaks about Homecoming pic going viral

Brandon Morgan and Dalan Wells, the couple in the Marine homecoming photo that went viral over the weekend speak to Honolulu news station KHON.

Says Brandon: “This is a homecoming picture. Gay, straight, it doesn’t matter who you are. Love is love. We haven’t fought for more rights or better rights than others. We fought for equal rights. And now we have them.”

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Majority of Iowans oppose constitutional ban on same-sex marriage

A new poll shows that 56 percent of Iowa voters oppose a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll says 56 percent of those polled earlier this month were against the proposed amendment. The poll says 38 percent favored the idea, while 6 percent weren’t sure.

A year ago, 40 percent of those surveyed supported an amendment, while 54 percent were opposed.

As opposition trends further downward, clearly, the future is clear on this issue.

It has been almost three years since the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the state’s constitution guarantees marriage equality, and the Iowa Senate has blocked any efforts to define marriage as only a union between one man and one woman.
(source)

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Gay Texas Judge refuses to perform weddings until marriage equality exists in Texas

Judge Tonya Parker

Texas Judge Tonya Parker cannot legally marry a woman in her state, so she refuses to perform any marriage ceremonies until there is equality. She finds it “oxymoronic” to perform a ceremony that cannot be performed for her.

Parker, an openly gay judge, told a group at a Stonewall Democrats of Dallas meeting Tuesday that when she turns a couple away, she uses it as an opportunity to teach them a lesson about marriage equality.

“I don’t perform marriage ceremonies because we are in a state that does not have marriage equality and until it does, I’m not going to partially apply the law to one group of people that doesn’t apply to another group of people,” Parker said in a video of the Tuesday discussion. “And it’s kind of oxymoronic for me to perform ceremonies that can’t be performed for me, so I’m not going to do it.”

A spokeswoman for the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct said the commission had no comment.

Parker is the first LGBT person elected as a judge in Dallas County and she is believed to be the first openly LGBT African-American elected official in the state’s history, according to the Dallas Voice.
(source)

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Boehner and Republicans appeal DOMA ruling

On Wednesday a federal court struck down Section 3 of DOMA as unconstitutional.

Today GOP House Speaker John Boehner ordered that ruling appealed.

In court papers, a group of congressional Republicans defending the federal gay marriage ban revealed they are appealing the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 9th Circuit will become the second federal appeals court to now consider the legality of the Defense of Marriage Act, a 16-year-old law known as DOMA.

The Obama administration has sided with Golinski in the case, arguing that DOMA is unconstitutional.

Republicans, led by House Speaker John Boehner, have jumped in to defend the law, filing the notice of appeal on Friday. With cases unfolding in several federal courts, many experts predict the issue will wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

On and on it goes kids. It’s clear which way history is headed. Clear.

In 50 years, those who want to keep inequality as the law of the land will look as strange and unseemly as the white supremacists and bigots of the last century do now regarding rights for African Americans.

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Maryland State Senate passes marriage equality bill

The Maryland state Senate has approved marriage equality after a Senate vote of 25-22 after a few hours of debate during which opponents attempted to add hostile amendments.. The House passed the bill last Friday.

Gov. Martin O’Malley has pledged to make Maryland the EIGHTH state with same-sex marriage.

From Gov. O’Malley: “I’d like to thank Senate President Miller for his leadership and our legislators in the Senate for their hard work and their vote today for human dignity. All children deserve the opportunity to live in a loving, caring, committed, and stable home, protected equally under the law. The common thread running through our efforts together in Maryland is the thread of human dignity; the dignity of work, the dignity of faith, the dignity of family, the dignity of every individual. Thanks to our elected leaders, clergy and faith-based leaders, community leaders, civic organizations, civil rights groups, and citizens from across our state, Maryland will now be able to protect individual civil marriage rights and religious freedom equally.”

Reactions from LGBT rights organizations:

Human Rights Campaign
“We could not be more grateful to the senators who today voted to make all Maryland families stronger,” said Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign. “Today, we took another giant step toward marriage equality becoming law – and we are in this position due to the unwavering leadership and resolve of Governor O’Malley and our legislative allies, particularly Sens. Rich Madaleno, Jamie Raskin, Rob Garagiola, and Brian Frosh.” Virtually any piece of legislation, according to Maryland law, can be subject to a referendum where voters cast a ballot supporting or opposing the legislation. Opponents of marriage equality are expected to begin obtaining the requisite signatures necessary to refer the Civil Marriage Protection Act to the general election ballot.

National Gay & Lesbian Task Force
Maryland and marriage equality will certainly make a lovely couple. Maryland is the Free State, after all. To be able to share and celebrate one’s love and commitment both publicly and legally is a lifelong dream for thousands of same-sex couples and their families. It’s thrilling that Maryland is poised to make this a reality by becoming the latest state to treat its families fairly. This has been a long journey of changing hearts and minds, of breaking down walls, of shining a spotlight on our common humanity. Congratulations to Equality Maryland, Marylanders for Marriage Equality and all those who have been part of the journey leading to this victory.

AFER
Today’s vote by the Maryland General Assembly shows that the momentum toward marriage equality is unstoppable. Generations of Americans will applaud Governor Martin O’Malley and the bipartisan coalition of Maryland lawmakers for joining the courts and legislatures nationwide in defending the fundamental freedom to marry for all.”

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Federal Court rules Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional

U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White has ruled the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denies same-sex married couples federal rights, unconstitutional for violating the Constitution’s guarantee of equality:

Politico’s Josh Gerstein: 
U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White, who sits in San Francisco and was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, issued the ruling Wednesday afternoon in a case involving federal judicial law clerk Karen Golinski’s request for benefits for her female spouse. White said the stated goals of DOMA, passed in 1996 and signed by President Bill Clinton, could not pass muster under a so-called “heightened scrutiny” test or even a lower “rational basis” threshhold.

“The imposition of subjective moral beliefs of a majority upon a minority cannot provide a justification for the legislation. The obligation of the Court is ‘to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code,'” White wrote. “Tradition alone, however, cannot form an adequate justification for a law….The ‘ancient lineage” of a classification does not render it legitimate….Instead, the government must have an interest separate and apart from the fact of tradition itself.”

Reuters’ Dan Levine adds:
“White, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, a Republican, issued a permanent injunction preventing the government from further interfering with Golinski’s ability to enroll her wife in the insurance program.”

You can read the ruling here.

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Governor of Hawaii will not defend same-sex marriage ban

In a news release today, the Attorney General’s office of Hawaii said it has filed separate court responses for the governor and Health Department director Loretta Fuddy to a lawsuit that challenges the state constitutional ban of same-sex marriages.

A new law passed last year permits same-sex couples to enter into state-sanctioned “civil unions” but the constitutional ban of marriages remains.

“Under current law, a heterosexual couple can choose to enter into a marriage or a civil union. A same-sex couple, however, may only elect a civil union. My obligation as Governor is to support equality under law. This is inequality, and I will not defend it,” Abercrombie said.

Fuddy said it is her job to administer the law now on the books and that is what she must do.

“The Department of Health is charged with implementing the law as passed by the Legislature.,” said Fuddy.

“Absent any ruling to the contrary by competent judicial authority regarding constitutionality, the law will be enforced. Because I am being sued for administering the law, I will also defend it,” said Fuddy.

The lawsuit was filed in November by same-sex couple Natasha Jackson and Janin Kleid after they were denied a marriage license by the Health Department.

Another plaintiff, Gary Bradley, said that he and his partner were the first couple to enter into a civil union in Hawaii but didn’t apply for a marriage license as it would have been “futile.”

Attorney General David Louie said his office will represent both Abercrombie and Fuddy in the lawsuit, despite their divergent positions.