Tag: same-sex marriage

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Former President Carter: Jesus Would Approve Of Gay Marriage

Former President Jimmy Carter
(photo credit: Commonwealth Club / CC license)

In a recent interview with HuffPost Live, former President Jimmy Carter shared he believes that Jesus would approve of same-sex marriage.

Promoting his book Faith: A Journey For All, Carter was asked by journalist Marc Lamont how his religious background aligns with the concept of marriage equality.

“That’s no problem with me,” he said. “I think everyone should have a right to get married regardless of their sex.”

The only conflict Carter says he holds regarding the issue would be if a church were forced to perform same-sex marriages which conflicted with that church’s teachings. This, of course, has never happened.

“But those two partners should be able to go to the local courthouse, or to a different church, and get married,” he added.

The 39th president did say abortion was a moral “problem” for him.

“I have a hard time believing that Jesus, for instance, would approve of abortions unless it was because of rape or incest or if the mother’s life was in danger.”

Carter admitted that while he has long held a conflict on the issue he ‘went along with that” because his “oath of office was to obey the Constitution and the laws of this country, as interpreted by the Supreme Court.”

Lamont pivoted back to the topic of marriage asking point-blank, “Would Jesus have approved of gay marriage?”

The 93-year-old didn’t hesitate in answering. “I believe he would,” Carter said. “I believe Jesus would. I don’t have any verse and scripture.”

“Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere, and was not damaging to anyone else,” he added. “And I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else.”

A longtime ally, Carter campaigned on the idea that “homosexuals should not be singled out for discrimination.”

After winning election, in 1977 Carter became the first sitting president to invite LGBTQ advocates to the White House.

He also shared in 2010 that he feels the United States is ready for an openly gay president.

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Podcast: Jury Awards $18.4 Million Over Cancelled HIV Test; Web Series Imagines A World Where AIDS Never Happened

In this week’s podcast:

• A gay man is awarded $18.4 million over a cancelled HIV test

• New web series Fathers wonders “Who would we be if AIDS hadn’t happened?”

• Tan France, fashion guru for Queer Eye, says his family thought the ‘make better’ series converted straight men to gay

• There’s new music from out indie recording artist Aiden James “Colorblind”

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report

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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.