Tag: same-sex marriage

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Indiana GOP Reaffirms Commitment To “Man/Woman” Marriage

The Indiana Republican Party reaffirmed its commitment to "traditional" marriage and will continue to oppose marriage equality despite a 2015 Supreme Court ruling

Choosing to remain stuck in the Dark Ages, the Indiana Republican Party voted overwhelmingly to reaffirm its commitment to marriage being “between a man and a woman” despite the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which made marriage equality the law of the land.

According to NWI.com, Gov. Eric Holdcomb had proposed a revised party plank regarding families that expressed support for all adults raising children.

Instead the 1,494 GOP delegates attending the biennial convention in Evansville reaffirmed the opposite-sex marriage plank first adopted in 2014.

Proposed by Porter County Republican Chairman Michael Simpson, the new language would have declared: “We support traditional families with a mother and father, blended families, grandparents, guardians, single parents and all loving adults who successfully raise and nurture children to reach their full potential every day.”

Speaking to delegates from the floor of the convention, Simpson said a broader understanding of family “is the best platform for our party and the best way for us to grow.”

But Morgan County GOP chairman Daniel Elliott, pushing the issue to the forefront of the convention, told attendees that man-woman marriage “is an important part of who we are as Hoosier Republicans.”

“This language … recognizes the reality on the ground that most families are headed by married couples,” Elliot said.

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European Union’s High Court: Same-Sex Married Couples Have Residency Rights In Member Nations

Clai Hamilton and Adrian Coman

Adrian Coman and his American boyfriend Clai Hamilton married in Belgium in 2010 after dating for 8 years.

Living in New York City at the time, Romanian-born Coman requested residency permits in 2012 for Mr. Hamilton to live and work in Romania. But the request was denied on the basis that the country doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage.

The couple took their case to the Romanian courts which referred the gentlemen to the European Court of Justice to inquire whether EU law applied to the issue of same-sex marriage.

According to the BBC, the EU court ruled on Tuesday that member states must recognize marriages contracted between people of the same sex in member countries.

“Although the member states have the freedom whether or not to authorise marriage between persons of the same sex, they may not obstruct the freedom of residence of an EU citizen by refusing to grant his same-sex spouse, a national of a country that is not an EU Member State, a derived right of residence in their territory,” the court said.

Of the 28 member nations of the European Union, only 14 have moved to legalize same-sex marriage. Six member nations have no legal recognition of same-sex relationships.

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New Tourism Ad Promotes Las Vegas As Same-Sex Wedding Hotspot

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has released a new ad promoting Sin City as “the place” for LGBTs to get married.

The spot is one of four videos encouraging folks to “find your Vegas moment.”

“In Vegas, the improbable doesn’t just exist in your imagination – it flourishes around every corner. You just have to keep your eyes (and your mind) open, as a young couple in love is about to find out. When you’re free to be yourself, anything can happen.”

Visit Las Vegas wants travelers to know, “You have permission to be whoever you want to be in Las Vegas.”

John Tanzella, CEO and president of the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association, praised the ad as “a perfect example of the inclusive environment that awaits all travelers in the destination.”

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Nevada has issued more marriage licenses to same-sex couples than any other state.

In addition to a welcoming environment for weddings, Nevada is one of only 20 states that have comprehensive LGBT protections in place statewide.

Watch the spot below.

(h/t NewNowNext)

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Gallup: 67% Of Americans Support Marriage Equality

(image via Gallup/click to enlarge)

This year’s Values & Morals poll from Gallup shows 67% of Americans support same-sex marriage today.

That’s the highest level of support Gallup has recorded since the polling firm began asking Americans about their views on the issue in 1996. 

Back then, a mere 27% of those polled supported gay marriage.

It will come as no surprise that politically speaking there’s a wide chasm between Democrats and Republicans on the subject.

The recent data shows that 83% of those who identify as Democrats said they support legally recognized same-sex marriage; only 44% of Republican respondents say they support marriage equality.

And those all-important Independent voters? A healthy 71% of independents said they were in favor of legally recognised same-sex marriage.

One reason for the increase in support could be from visibility: according to Gallup, one in 10 LGBTQ+ adults were married to a same-sex partner in 2017.

“This means that Americans are more likely to know someone who has married a same-sex partner, and the visibility of these marriages may be playing a role in overturning some folks’ previously held opposition to their legal status,” Gallup said.

Same-sex marriage became legal in all 50 states in the U.S. in June of 2015 following the historic Obergefell ruling by the Supreme Court.

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6 Years Ago Today…

Six years ago today, Barack Obama became the first sitting president to announce support for same-sex marriage.

In an interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts, the president described his thought process as an “evolution” that led him to this place.

“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors.

“When I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together…

“When I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage…

“At a certain point I’ve just concluded that, for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”

His endorsement came less than a week after Vice President Joe Biden embraced the issue during an appearance on Meet The Press.

And I feel that made a world of difference.

Please note – the sky has not fallen. Just saying…

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Mat Staver: Conservative Haters Are “Literally” A Few Months Away From Overturning Gay Marriage

Mat Staver of the anti-LGBTQ law group Liberty Counsel

Mat Staver, founder of the virulently anti-LGBTQ legal outfit Liberty Counsel, told radio host Jim Schneider of VCY America this week that “we are a few months away” from overturning Supreme Court rulings like the Obergefell decision which made marriage equality the law of the land.

From Right Wing Watch:

“The nice thing about what President Trump has done, different from other Republican presidents, is that he is appointing, he’s nominating, so far, judges who are what I would call constitutionalists, originalists, dedicated to the original understanding and interpretation of the Constitution and the statutes,” he said. “On the other hand, Republican presidents in the past, they’ve been hit or miss. President Trump so far has been hitting this on the nail.”

Staver added that social conservatives are “one midterm election away from eventually overturning the Roe v. Wade decision” because “there will be at least one, maybe two more” Supreme Court vacancies during Trump’s first term in office.

But in order for that to happen, he said, Republicans must maintain control of the Senate or Trump will be forced to nominate “somebody who’s palatable to the judicial activist crowd in the Senate.”

If Trump is able to replace any liberal or moderate justice “with someone like Gorsuch,” he said, “that means the abortion decision, the same-sex marriage decision, all of those things that went the wrong way will ultimately be in the balance to be reversed. So literally we are a few months away.”

Listen to Staver boast about overturning our marriage rights below.

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Survey: 44 States Now Have Majority Support For Marriage Equality

As we approach the three year mark since same-sex marriage became the law of the land thanks to the June 2015 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) shared the results of a survey of over 40,000 Americans during the last half of 2017 on the acceptance of marriage equality.

The poll shows, as a country, 61% of Americans support gay and lesbian couples right to marriage, while only 30% are opposed.

When you break it down state-by-state, same-sex marriage has majority support in 44 states.

Only 6 states fail to show at least 50% support. Those six states are: Alabama (41%), Mississippi (42%), Tennessee (46%), West Virginia (48%), Louisiana (48%), and North Carolina (49%).

Of those, only Alabama has a majority of residents who oppose same-sex marriage.

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Costa Rica Elects Pro-Same-Sex Marriage President

Carlos Alvarado Quesada
Image by Luis Madrigal Mena (CC BY S.A. 4.0)

Carlos Alvarado Quesada has won Costa Rica’s presidential election besting evangelical conservative Fabricio Alvarado Muñoz in an election that found same-sex marriage front and center.

With 95% of the vote in, it is Alvarado Quesada with a landslide victory of 61 percent.

From The New York Times:

Mr. Alvarado Quesada will be sworn into office on May 8 for a four-year term leading a nation of about five million people that is celebrated as a popular tourist destination and recognized for its stewardship of the environment.

The complexion of the contest changed dramatically in January when the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled that its signatory nations, including Costa Rica, must legalize same-sex marriage. The court was established by the Organization of American States.

The judges’ decision came in response to a petition brought by Mr. Solís, the Costa Rican president.

The court, which is based in the Costa Rican capital, San José, also ruled that Costa Rica was obliged to extend property rights to same-sex couples.

Some countries in the region — including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay — have legalized same-sex marriage, though many others have not.

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Report: Where Do Same-Sex Married Couples Live?

A new report from The Tax Policy Center gives us some clues about married same-sex couples in the U.S.

For instance, the average adjusted gross income of married male couples in 2015 was about $165,960, versus $118,415 for female couples and $115,210 for different-sex couples.

But catch this: male same-sex couples with dependent children had an average income of $264,000, more than double that of female couples and straight couples with dependent children.

When you crunch the numbers by state (plus the District of Columbia), D.C. wins hands-down with same-sex couples making up 4.17% of all married couples.

Massachusetts and Vermont tied in second place at 0.99%.

Sad trombone sound – North Dakota brings up the rear with 0.13%.

But what about city by city?

Here’s the report’s top 10 cities for married same-sex couples:

1. San Francisco, CA – 13,220 married same-sex couples (1.52 percent)

2. Santa Rosa, CA – 1,416 married same-sex couples (1.25 percent)

3. Seattle, WA – 9,281 married same-sex couples (1.09 percent)

4. Boston, MA – 9,458 married same-sex couples (1.04 percent)

5. Portland, OR – 4,006 married same-sex couples (0.97 percent)

6. Miami, FL – 5,131 married same-sex couples (0.92 percent)

7. Albuquerque, NM – 1,248 married same-sex couples (0.90 percent)

8. San Diego, CA – 845 married same-sex couples (0.88 percent)

9. New York, NY – 13,892 married same-sex couples (0.84 percent)

10. Portland, ME – 1,111 married same-sex couples (0.83 percent)

Did any of that surprise you? I’d have thought NYC would have been higher on the list, but the population of the city is 8 million, so…

Loving that Albuquerque is in there. New Mexico is a beautiful state that doesn’t get enough attention in my opinion 🙂

(source)

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Cher Apologizes For Selfie With Aussie Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull

Cher with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull

As I recently reported, international superstar Cher thrilled the crowd of over 300,000 at the annual Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras this past weekend.

Not only did she dazzle the audience with a 20 minute set at the huge after-party event, she showed up at the Parade as well.

The only hitch in the whole magilla was a selfie she took with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during the parade.

It appears Cher was not up to speed on Australian politics and didn’t realize that it was Turnbull who put the entire country through the recent mail-in survey on marriage equality before he would allow legislators to take up the issue.

As we all know know, same-sex marriages happily began ‘down under’ in January.

But folks took the iconic Oscar winner to task for honoring Turnbull with a selfie.

In the end, Cher offered a sincere mea culpa adding “Guess that’s why I have FEW Friends Who Are Politicians.”

Check out the tweets below.

(h/t JoeMyGod)