Marriage ceremonies between same-sex couples began today in Germany after a June vote of 393-226 in Parliament legalized same-sex marriage.
German’s had allowed civil unions since 2001, but the change in marriage laws now gives same-sex couples full and equal rights as Germany becomes the 15th European country to embrace marriage equality.
Cheers rang out in the City Hall of Berlin’s Schöneberg district on Sunday as two men, who met 38 years ago, when the German capital was a divided city, became the country’s first same-sex couple to legally marry.
The couple, Bodo Mende, 60, and Karl Kreile, 59, were wed in a civil ceremony, surrounded by a crush of photographers and television cameras eager to capture the historic moment.
“This is an emotional moment with great symbolism,” Mr. Kreile told reporters before the event. “The transition to the term ‘marriage’ shows that the German state recognizes us as real equals.”
Across the country, city halls that are normally closed on the weekend opened their doors to allow marriages on the first day the law took effect. Dozens of couples were expected to exchange vows in Berlin, as well as in Cologne, Hamburg, Hanover and Kiel on Sunday and the days beyond.
Among those exchanging vows on Sunday was Volker Beck, a member of the Greens party and a former lawmaker who fought for decades for marriage equality.
Months after he was showered with confetti on the floor of Parliament as the law passed, he celebrated his marriage to Adrian Petkov under shiny gold balloons spelling out “Love.”
“We snuck in. We were in your living room every week and, ‘Isn’t that one so funny?’ and ‘I like him.’ Old women that had never met a gay man in their life were like, ‘I hope Will finds a nice boy.’
“It permeated American culture slowly but surely, and all the more reason that we have to come back and remind people that that’s why we got where we got — that’s why we got to a place where gay marriage was passed, that marriage equality was passed as a right in 50 states.”
• I’m calling for #TouchTuesdays. Do you ever think about how much you touch (or don’t touch) your spouse/significant other/family/friends? If not, give that a ponder. Human contact literally connects us. I was holding hot hubby Michael’s hand through the streets of NYC this week and remembered how much I like it 🙂
• Have you heard the one about the gay Republican who has spent time on Twitter asking why he should pay for health insurance since he’s young and in perfect shape? The same guy who was in a car accident and realized his hospital bill could be enormous? The same guy who, opposing “free healthcare” set up a GoFundMe campaign so others could pay his bills? I kid you not. #Karma
• Frances Abbott, daughter of former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, has made a video for the “Vote Yes” campaign regarding the current vote-by-mail survey on same-sex marriage down under. Her father has famously opposed legalizing marriage equality even though his own sister is openly lesbian.
• Virulently anti-gay Alabama state Rep. Micky Hammon pleads guilty to mail fraud after cashing campaign donation checks and then moving the money into his personal account to pay his bills.
• In Cairo, Egyptian police arrested 7 people for waving an LGBT rainbow flag during a concert by Lebanese indie rock band Mashrou’ Leila, whose lead singer is openly gay.
• Trump voters share why they began to have doubts about voting for Donald Trump:
From cabinet picks to the debate over inaugural crowd size, Trump voters share when they started having regrets https://t.co/qtWJZnqZ6n
Jim Parsons stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to chat on the upcoming seasons of The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon. But before chatting into “sitcom land,” Colbert asked about Parsons’ recent marriage to longtime bf, Todd, and why – other than legal reasons – they waited so long to marry.
Parsons was quite thoughtful in his reply.
“I didn’t really think we cared about the act of it that much, to be honest with you. And that sounds cold in a way, but I finally thought…well, let’s have a party then for the celebration of, and we’ll go ahead and legalize this thing. And I really thought it would kind of end at that, a party feel but it was so much more meaningful in the moment to me than I predicted. And it’s been resonantly more meaningful to me afterward than I ever saw coming. I’d been an adult gay person for so long at a time when that wasn’t possible that life was ‘fine,’ you know what I mean?”
I can honestly say I had very similar feelings about getting married before hot hubby Michael and I tied the knot.
When I was actually saying marriage vows to Michael was a moment the depth and gravity of our relationship took yet another step forward that was deeply emotional – in every good way possible.
Watch Parsons talk on marriage (and sitcoms) below.
A Minnesota couple wants to go into the wedding video business, but don’t want anything to do with gay or lesbian weddings due to their deeply held religious beliefs.
In fact, they took the extraordinary pre-emptive step of suing the state over Minnesota’s Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, saying the law was “unconstitutional.”
Mind you, the couple didn’t even have any gay or lesbian customers.
In a 63-page ruling, Chief U.S. District Judge John Tunheim wrote that a provision of the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) prohibiting discrimination by businesses was not unconstitutional. Tunheim rejected the couple’s argument that the law amounted to “a state effort to stamp out expression opposing same-sex marriage.”
Carl and Angel Larsen sued the state’s commissioner of human rights and attorney general in December in an pre-emptive effort to avoid penalties for turning away same-sex customers.
The Larsens, who use their Telescope Media Group to promote their Christian beliefs, want to go into the wedding film business, but serve only heterosexual couples.
The Larsens had wanted to post a notice on their website saying that they serve heterosexual couples only but the judge was not having it and kicked the lawsuit to the curb.
Judge Tunheim said that was “akin to a ‘White Applicants Only’ sign.”
“Posting language on a website telling potential customers that a business will discriminate based on sexual orientation is part of the act of sexual orientation discrimination itself,” Tunheim wrote. “As conduct carried out through language, this act is not protected by the First Amendment.”
Judge Tunheim suggested that the plaintiffs post language on their site expressing opposition to same-sex marriage, but not say they wouldn’t serve gays.
Expect these folks to appeal the ruling to the 8th Circuit. Bet on it.
Good news from The National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) regarding McLaughlin v. McLaughlin where the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that a woman was the legal parent of the child she and her same-sex spouse conceived through assisted reproduction during their marriage.
Via press release:
As the Arizona Supreme Court recognized, the U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Obergefell v. Hodges and Pavan v. Smith require states to treat married same-sex parents and married different-sex parents equally under the law. The Arizona Supreme Court explained, “It would be inconsistent with Obergefell to conclude that same-sex couples can legally marry but states can then deny them the same benefits of marriage afforded opposite-sex couples.”
Suzan McLaughlin and Kimberly McLaughlin were a married lesbian couple who had a child in 2011 using an anonymous sperm donor. After separating in 2013, Kimberly stopped allowing Suzan to see their child, and Suzan filed a legal action to be recognized as a parent.
Both the Arizona Court of Appeals and the trial court held that Suzan should indeed be recognized as a legal parent to her child. NCLR and Arizona attorney Claudia Work represented Suzan.
Since the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court marriage equality decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, numerous cases have recognized that married same-sex parents and married different-sex parents must be treated equally under the law.
In June 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Pavan v. Smith, another National Center for Lesbian Rights case, that Obergefell required states to treat married same-sex parents and married different-sex parents equally.
Arizona law assumes the man in a marriage is the father of any child born within 10 months of a marriage. But current laws don’t offer any protective rights to a non-biological same-sex parent in a married relationship where artificial insemination is used.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Scott Bales noted that the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling states that same-sex couples are entitled to civil marriage “on the same terms and conditions as opposite-sex couples.”
• Check out grown up Michael Angarano (above) who played Sean Hayes’ son “Elliott” on Will & Grace during the show’s initial run. Like other W&G alumni like Bobby Cannavale, Minnie Driver and Harry Connick Jr., Angarano will return for an appearance during the show’s revival.
• Admiral Mike Mullen, former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has filed a Declaration in support of transgender military servicemembers.
• The Late Show host Stephen Colbert, while chatting with Hillary Clinton about her new memoir What Happened, presented the former Democratic presidential candidate with a packet of “victory jokes” he never got to use on election night that included a Katy Perry video and naked male butts. Watch below.
Earlier this summer the Texas Supreme Court ruled in Pidgeon v. Parker that the Obergefell decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, which legally recognized same-sex marriages, did not determine whether gay couples are entitled to the same spousal benefits of opposite-sex married couples.
The city of Houston, however, says the 2015 landmark decision in Obergefell v. Hodges did conclude that any rights/benefits attached to marriage must be equally provided to all married couples, straight or gay.
So, Houston has filed a petition asking SCOTUS to review the state court’s ruling and determine once and for all the constitutional rights guaranteed under Obergefell.
For now, the city of Houston will continue to provide spousal benefits to all married city employees.
Hillary Clinton speaks at memorial for LGBT civil rights hero Edie Windsor
Hillary Clinton was among the many who showed up today to honor and eulogize LGBT civil rights hero, Edie Windsor.
From Hillary’s eulogy:
The day Edie won, much of America cheered with her. Not with the style or the pink scarf. That was uniquely hers. But with a recognition that a wrong had been righted. Through it all, her strength never wavered. Though she did confess to one moment of panic. The day she saw her name in print as United States v. Windsor. It is fitting that she will be immortalized in history books in that landmark decision – synonymous with equal rights and dignity under the law. But she didn’t stop there. She continued to support the needs and the rights of the LGBT community. She helped change hearts and minds, including mine. And we are forever grateful to her for that.
[snip]
How she experienced loss, grief, and injustice made her only more generous, more open-hearted, and more fearless in her fight. She refused to give up on the promise of America. There wasn’t a cynical, defeatist bone in her body. That’s especially important for us to remember now. Through her determination and sheer force of will, she brought us another step closer to that more perfect union. Now, in this moment when so much hard-fought progress is hanging in the balance, it is up to all of us to pick up where she left off.
Hillary closed with this quote from poet Mary Oliver: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
“Let us continue to be inspired by Edie’s wild and precious life,” Clinton said. “And let us make her proud every day of how we answer that question for ourselves. Thank you, Edie.”
Really – stop and watch. Really quite wonderful.
For the record – not even a tweet from Donald “Better for the gays” Trump about Edie’s passing.
Hillary said she would be there for us. And there she was today. No votes to be had. Just support.
