LGBTQ news and entertainment
Check out Ricky Martin’s second single – “Disparo El Corazon” [“Shot to the Heart”] – off his latest Spanish-language album A Quien Quiera Escucha.
The music video features reflections of same-sex couples on their wedding day, blended with Martin’s own reflection in the mirror as he sings about a love affair that went sour.
|
| Maria Milagros Charbonier |
Last week, the governor’s office of Puerto Rico announced it would not defend in court the current anti-same-sex marriage law currently on appeal at the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals.
Justice Secretary Cesar Miranda said that the government can no longer continue to discriminate against the gay community. “It’s neither fair nor correct to defend the constitutionality of that law,” he said. “Same-sex couples cannot get married and therefore do not have access to those rights. They should be available to all those who love each other, who take care of each other, who work and contribute to this society like everyone else.”
Now, opponents of equal rights for the LGBT community are angry and threatening to sue the governor.
“This is a slap in the face to Puerto Rican society,” said legislator Maria Milagros Charbonier. “The government should not be playing around with issues as delicate as that of family, which is the cornerstone of our island.”
“We believe it is totally contrary to the law, contrary to the constitution of Puerto Rico and contrary to the democratic foundations of our system of government for our governor to have taken a position on same-sex marriage.”
From the American Foundation for Equal Rights:
It’s been nearly two months since marriage was supposed to start in Alabama, and the state still doesn’t have its act together.
Texas just filed a lawsuit to prevent gays and lesbians from taking family medical leave.
And it’s going to take at least five different bills to overturn Michigan’s marriage ban.
Excellent, in-depth article on the impact of marriage equality on Ohio couple Jim Obergefell and John Arthur by Buzzfeed’s Chris Geidner.
The piece begins:
Jim Obergefell and John Arthur had wanted to marry for a long time. In 2013, after the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, they decided this was the time to do it — even though Arthur was very, very ill. He had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2011, a fatal neurological disease that paralyzes the body. He was confined to his bed.
The couple could not get married in their home state of Ohio. They could, however, get married in one of the handful of states that did allow same-sex couples to marry. So their wedding took place aboard a small, specially equipped medical plane with two pilots, a nurse, and Arthur’s aunt — she performed the ceremony.
“We landed at Baltimore, sat on the tarmac for a little bit, said ‘I do,’ and 10 minutes later were in the air on the way home,” Obergefell said.
The marriage performed there on the tarmac of Baltimore-Washington International Airport has become iconic within the marriage equality movement and beyond, a testament to a couple’s commitment and to the absurd lengths the law required them to undertake for a simple ceremony.
After Arthur died in 2013, Jim sued to have the death certificate show they were married. He initially won in court, then lost in appeals court.
Now it heads to the Supreme Court.
I really encourage you to read the entire piece. All the moving pieces of a story that explain why this issue is so important.
El Nuevo Día reported Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro García Padilla’s administration is “contemplating” a “change of posture and withdraw its support of the Puerto Rican statute that only recognizes marriage as a union between a man and a woman.”
The Governor’s office filed a brief today with the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals which will soon hear a lawsuit against the Puerto Rican marriage ban. In that filing, lawyers for the commonwealth admitted that the issue of marriage equality must be examined via “heightened scrutiny” and as such could not be defended.
From the brief:
“Although the main Defendant, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, has defended the legal definition of marriage as the union between a man and a woman,” recent legal developments “have led the Commonwealth to recognize that Puerto Rico’s marriage ban must be examined through heightened scrutiny, whether it be under the Equal Protection Clause or the Due Process Clause.”
They continued: “Under said heightened standard, the Commonwealth cannot responsibly advance before this Court any interest sufficiently important or compelling to justify the differentiated treatment afforded so far to Plaintiffs.”
Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, a staff attorney for Lambda Legal, issued this statement:
“In declining to further defend the Commonwealth’s discriminatory marriage ban, Puerto Rico’s government finally recognizes that denying marriage to LGBT people is harmful and cannot be justified. The marriage ban’s sole purpose is to perpetuate discrimination, and it is just plain wrong.”
“Same-sex couples, LGBT people, and their families are part of Puerto Rico’s rich social and cultural fabric. Today’s actions fulfill the constitutional promises of justice and fairness for LGBT people in Puerto Rico. Simply put, discrimination is never in Puerto Rico’s best interests.”
Read the brief herehttps://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1690461/pr-1stcir.pdf.
Montgomery County Probate Judge Steven Reed was one of the first judges to issue marriage licenses in Alabama when a federal judge ruled the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.
Since then, on March 3rd, the state Supreme Court ordered all probate judges to stop issuance of licenses to same-sex couples claiming jurisdiction over the matter of marriage in the state.
Judge Reed has now asked the state Supreme Court to amend their order to acknowledge that the U.S. Supreme Court will have the final say when the high court rules on gay marriage this June.
Reed said it’s important the state not engage in “foot dragging” regarding constitutional rights.
From the New York Times:
After three decades of debate over its stance on homosexuality, members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted on Tuesday to change the definition of marriage in the church’s constitution to include same-sex marriage.
The final approval by a majority of the church’s 171 regional bodies, known as presbyteries, enshrines a change recommended last year by the church’s General Assembly. The vote amends the church’s constitution to broaden marriage from being between “a man and a woman” to “two people, traditionally a man and a woman.”
“Finally, the church in its constitutional documents fully recognizes that the love of gays and lesbian couples is worth celebrating in the faith community,” said the Rev. Brian D. Ellison, executive director of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, which advocates gay inclusion in the church. “There is still disagreement, and I don’t mean to minimize that, but I think we are learning that we can disagree and still be church together.”
Read more here.
Via the American Foundation for Equal Rights:
Texas is pushing a proposed law that would let the state overrule the Supreme Court. There’s just one problem: they can’t actually do that.
“Alabama judges have decided that they don’t have to obey federal courts either, except that in reality, they do.
“And Oklahoma politician wants to switch from marriage licenses to marriage certificates, which would accomplish … not very much.”
David Mack Henderson, president and co-founder of the LGBT advocacy group Fairness Fort Worth, shares the news that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has published it’s FIRST same-sex marriage announcement!
Congratulations to Joshua Rogers and David Hernandez!
I was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, and pleasantly surprised at the progress being made in my hometown.
After weeks of discussions with the Star-Telegram, Fairness Forth Worth shared that the paper would begin accepting same-sex announcements beginning March 8th. “To qualify for publication in our Sunday Life section, under the Wedding heading, same-sex wedding ceremonies must be performed in states where same-sex marriages are legally recognized.”
In related news out of Fort Worth, the county clerk there recently announced that should the 5th Circuit Court rule the ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional, the office will comply with the ruling and begin issuing marriage licenses should there not be a stay on the ruling.
Quite a different response from what’s happening in Alabama, no?
It’s fascinating to read this email from Brian Brown of the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage, where he begs for money to keep funding his losing fight against same-sex marriage.
It’s honestly like he’s become an out of touch idiot. From today’s email:
“Support for same-sex marriage has dropped over the past year by six percentage points, while opposition has increased. In fact, more voters are opposed to same-sex ‘marriage’ (44%) than are in favor of it (42%).
“This dramatic change in public opinion comes as activist judges throughout the country have been working overtime to redefine marriage in direct opposition to the decision of over fifty million voters.
“While the media seems utterly baffled by these findings — unable to process them and therefore report on them — we are not surprised in the least.
“Please make plans for joining us for the March for Marriage this year as we make the case for marriage. Three days after the justices of the Supreme Court see the outpouring of support for marriage, they will hear oral argument in the case that could shape the legal definition of marriage in America for years to come.
“In the mean time, please consider making a generous donation to support our efforts to organize and promote this critical event. We have a great deal of work to do and nobody to turn to for help except for loyal supporters like you.”
As the rest of the world knows – support for marriage equality has seen a sharp increase over the past few years. That is a fact.
A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll (not some fly-by-night outfit) showed support rising to 59% for same-sex marriage. A fact Brian Brown simply chooses to ignore.