LGBTQ news and entertainment
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| State lawmakers Brian Sims and Steve McCarter introduce marriage equality legislation for Pennsylvania |
A new Franklin & Marshall College poll shows that 54 percent of Pennsylvania residents support marriage equality, up 2 points from a similar poll in February.
The results come the same day that state lawmakers Brian Sims and Steve McCarter introduced marriage equality legislation.
Looks like a winning situation for me, kids…
Forward.
Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett said that marriage for gay and lesbian couples could be compared to marriages between brothers and sisters on Friday.
Corbett made the remark on Harrisburg’s CBS News affiliate, after the reporter brought up a statement made in August by one of his attorneys, who said allowing same-sex couples to marry was legally similar to allowing 12-year-olds get married.
“It was an inappropriate analogy, you know,” Corbett said. “I think a much better analogy would have been brother and sister, don’t you?” You can see the comment below. Note that the governor smiles and then laughs at his own comment. Note the reporter’s uncomfortable pause.
According to USA Today, the Republican has one of the lowest approval ratings for a sitting governor. He is up for re-election for 2014.
UPDATE: The governor, in backtrack mode, has issued an “apology” to anyone who might have been offended.
(via Advocate)
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| PA state Rep. Brian Sims introduces Pennsylvania Marriage Equality Act |
Out gay state representative Brian Sims and fellow representative Steve McCarter today announced the introduction of H.B. 1686, the Pennsylvania Marriage Equality Act. The announcement was made at Love Park in Philadelphia:
“The majority of Pennsylvanians now support marriage equality, and that support continues to grow,” Sims said. “Neighboring states, including New York, Maryland and Delaware, have all decided to be on the right side of history and have granted equal rights to their LGBT citizens. The time has come for Pennsylvania’s legislature to stand up and let our citizens know we see them as truly equal members of society and they have the right to choose whom they marry.
“With the Supreme Court ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act, it became apparent that Pennsylvania cannot continue to be stuck in the past. This is a civil rights issue facing our LGBT community. Furthermore, this issue is holding back Pennsylvania’s economy. People and businesses are seeing states that have true marriage equality as more attractive to them, and they’re spending their money in those states. This lack of equality is holding us back. Where are we at in our government where you lose rights by crossing a border?”
Read the full transcript of statements by McCarter and Sims at Towleroad .
And watch video coverage below:
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said on Thursday he has not given his views on the constitutionality of gay marriage itself.
“I haven’t expressed my view about gay marriage,” Scalia, a noted conservative said, adding that the decision itself only applied to a narrow piece of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act.
“The issue in the DOMA case was not whether the Constitution requires states to allow gay marriage. That was not the question at all,” Scalia said at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, outside Boston. “The question is whether Congress can define marriage in all of the statues that Congress enacted to mean only marriage between a man and a woman.”
In his dissenting opinion on that ruling, Scalia, who was appointed to the court by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, wrote that the majority ignored procedural obstacles he said should have prevented the court from taking up the matter in the first place.
Scalia does expect to see the issue back before SCOTUS.
“I’m waiting for the second shoe to drop,” said Scalia, the longest-serving member of the U.S. Supreme Court
(via Reuters)
Mercer County Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson has ruled that same-sex couples must be allowed to marry in order to obtain equal protection under the state constitution and ordered them to begin on October 21st.
AP: “In a summary judgment issued Friday, Judge Mary Jacobson says now that the federal government recognizes gay marriages, not doing so in New Jersey would violate the state constitution.”
From NBC New York: Judge Mary Jacobson granted a summary judgment requested by Garden State Equality, which had claimed that the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of the federal Defense of Marriage Act meant that same-sex couples in civil unions in New Jersey were being denied equal protection.
From NJ.com : The gay rights groups Garden State Equality and Lambda Legal had argued that after the U.S. Supreme Court extended more than 1,000 tax and inheritance benefits to same-sex couples in June, New Jersey was left behind with second-class civil unions.
Jacobson, the head judge in Mercer County, agreed:
“The ineligibility of same-sex couples for federal benefits is currently harming same-sex couples in New Jersey in a wide range of contexts,” she wrote. (Emphasis is mine).
For example, the judge said, “civil union partners who are federal employees living in New Jersey are ineligible for marital rights with regard to the federal pension system, all civil union partners who are employees working for businesses to which the Family and Medical Leave Act applies may not rely on its statutory protections for spouses, and civil union couples may not access the federal tax benefits that married couples enjoy.”
Jacobson was asked to square the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June striking down the Defense of Marriage Act with New Jersey’s own legal precedents.
New Jersey would become the 14th state to recognize same-sex marriage.
The decision is expected to be appealed, first to an intermediate court, and then to the state Supreme Court.
Today’s ruling below:
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(Courtesy of Helen Thorgalsen and Bonnie Clement)
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The Washington Post is reporting that former President George HW Bush was an official witness at a same-sex marriage this past weekend:
Another prominent Republican has come out in support of same-sex marriage — or at least, in support of one particular same-sex marriage. Former President George H.W. Bush served as an official witness this past weekend at the Maine wedding of Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen, co-owners of a Kennebunk general store. Thorgalsen posted a photo of the 41st commander-in-chief signing a set of documents for them at an outdoor celebration: “Getting our marriage license witnessed!”
No big statement from the ex-prez’s office. His rep Jim McGrath confirmed his and wife Barbara’s presence at the wedding: “They were private citizens attending a private ceremony for two friends.”
This is sure to drive the conservative blogosphere insane…
(via JMG)
From the editorial board of the Trenton Times:
It’s only a matter of time before same-sex marriage is legal in New Jersey.
If history is any guide, individual states are achingly slow in catching up with the individuals who have embraced their civil rights as the personal liberties guaranteed by the by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It took nearly a century after the Civil War for Congress to pass a law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
Still, in this evolved age, when science holds that sexual identity is no more a choice than eye color or race, it’s hard to believe that laws forbidding the marriage of same-sex couples remain.
Gay and lesbian couples in New Jersey are not being treated equally under the law. As Times columnist George Amick wrote in his recent analysis, the court “ended any pretense that New Jersey’s law authorizing civil unions affords the equal rights and privileges to same-sex couples to which the New Jersey Supreme Court has said they’re entitled.”
State legislators will have the opportunity to recognize those rights in a vote — promised by Democrats after the November election — attempting to override Gov. Chris Christie’s veto of a measure legalizing same-sex marriage. To succeed, lawmakers will have to muster a super-majority of support. Advocates are busy lobbying about a dozen Republicans and reluctant Democrats to stand up for the majority of New Jerseyans who approve of same-sex marriages.
We hope their consciences recognize that liberty and justice for all must include allowing same-sex couples to marry.
A recent July Quinnipiac poll finds that 60 percent of New Jersey voters support marriage equality, while only 31 percent are opposed.
I should note that my husband, Michael, is from New Jersey. While we look forward to the day when marriage equality is legal everywhere, New Jersey is definitely on our “short list” of states we’d like to see pass this important legislation sooner than later.
Nationally prominent performers with Illinois roots will kick off the “March on Springfield for Marriage Equality” on Tuesday, Oct. 22 with a free one-hour concert live near the steps of the Illinois State Capitol. The diverse entertainment bill includes reality TV stars from “The Voice,” “American Idol,” and “America’s Got Talent;” a national poetry slam winner; a world champion & MVP quarterback who is also a pre-Grammy nominee; and a 2013 Trans 100 honoree fighting violence against transgender people.
In addition to LGBT Choral groups, headlining performers will be:
* Sandra Antongiorgi – World, Latin, neo-soul singer, songwriter & painter
* C.C. Carter – author, activist, teacher and performance poet
* De’Borah – singer, song-writer and star of “The Voice”
* Steve Grand – “All American Boy” singer, song-writer and YouTube sensation
* Sami Grisafe – all-star MVP quarterback and award-winning singer-songwriter
* Kokumo – African-American transgender woman, singer, writer & performer
* Stephen Leonard – Out rock powerhouse singer & song-writer
* Marcus Terell & the Serenades – singer, performer and star of “American Idol”, “America’s Got Talent” & “Making The Band”
The concert will begin at noon on October 22, 2013, at the March on Springfield stage in front of the Illinois State Capitol on 2nd Street.
The marriage equality rally will immediately follow the concert, with a march around the State Capitol starting at 2:30 pm. There is no cost to attend and members of the public are welcome.
For more information, visit www.marchonspringfield.org
Via press release
By a margin of 2-1, folks in Indiana are not down with writing anti-gay discrimination into their state constitution.
From the Journal Gazette:
By 64 percent to 36 percent, voters say amending the Indiana Constitution is not the right way to deal with same sex marriage. A slight plurality – 46 percent to 43 percent – oppose the amendment.
For comparison, an April 2013 statewide survey by the same polling company showed voters were similarly divided, but with 46 percent in support.
“The message from these results is clear: Hoosiers overwhelmingly support some legal recognition for same-sex couples, and they oppose amending the Indiana Constitution to address the issue of same-sex marriage and rights,” said Freedom Indiana campaign manager Megan Robertson.
The proposed ban must be approved for a second time in the current legislative session before going before the voters in 2014.
The statewide survey of 800 registered voters in Indiana was conducted by Bellwether Research for Freedom Indiana. Bellwether is run by Republican pollster Christine Matthews.