The proponents of Prop 8 usurped the role of the Legislature by putting the right for same-sex couples to marry directly on the ballot. Two Equality California-sponsored resolutions will make it official state policy, when they are approved by the Legislature, that Prop 8 should be overturned. Write your legislators now to urge them to support the invalidation of Prop 8 and vote for SR 7 (Leno) and AR 5 (Ammiano). Prop 8 eliminates the fundamental right to marry and allows a slim majority to take away the equal protections of a minority, which violates one of the founding ...

The proponents of Prop 8 usurped the role of the Legislature by putting the right for same-sex couples to marry directly on the ballot.Two Equality California-sponsored resolutions introduced today will make it official state policy, when they are approved by the Legislature, that Prop 8 should be overturned.Write your legislators now to urge them to support the invalidation of Prop 8 and vote for Leno's Senate Resolution 7 and Ammiano's Assembly Resolution (number to be assigned).Prop 8 eliminates the fundamental right to marry and allows a slim majority to take away the equal protections of a minority, which ...

Mikaela Sutherland Dunitz In 1961, less than 50 years ago, President-elect Barack Obama's parents could not have married in half of the United States of America. If the Supreme Court had not redefined marriage, they would not be granted that right today. In 1967, Loving v. Virginia ended all race-based legal restriction on marriage in the U.S. However, in 2008, 48 of the 50 states still uphold marriage discrimination laws that deny same-sex couples the inalienable right to marry. Last May, California was the second state, after Massachusetts, to recognize same-sex marriages, ruling that California's ban on such unions ...

Gary McFarlane, a solicitor and former church elder, will take the Bristol branch of relationship charity Relate to employment tribunal on Monday. The 47-year-old, from Hanham, Bristol, will claim unfair dismissal on grounds of religious discrimination and accuse his former supervisors of refusing to accommodate his beliefs. Father-of-two Mr McFarlane started training with Relate in May 2003 and said he enjoyed good relationships with clients and colleagues. He was suspended after meetings with his manager in October 2007, in which he claims he was asked to state his views regarding same-sex couples. Mr McFarlane claims he was harassed and ...

Nearly a decade after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that same-sex common law partners must be given the same rights and priveleges as opposite-sex partners, New Brunswick has introduced a bill called the modernization of benefits and obligations act. If passed, the act will update more than 30 other acts and regulations to extend equal status to same-sex common law relationships. While same-sex marriage has been legal in Canada for some time now, unmarried, same-sex, common-law partners are still, formally, on unequal ground compared to their heterosexual counterparts in New Brunswick. Bizarrely enough, even though New Brunswick’s bill is the result ...

Openly gay Rep. Jim Splaine, a Portsmouth Democrat, who successfully lead lawmakers in 2006 to defeat a proposal to amend the state's Constitution limiting the definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman and then pushed through New Hampshire's civil union bill in 2007, will now work next year to bring same-sex marriage to the state.Civil unions in New Hampshire give same-sex couples about 90 percent of the benefits and obligations that heterosexual couples get through marriage and about 600 couples have so far entered into civil unions in that state.That law also allows people ...

The more we learn about the "No on Prop 8" campaign the clearer the picture gets: The people running "No on 8" were almost criminally negligent—utterly clueless, thoroughly useless, and a full purge is in order. We need to hold them responsible for what they did and did not do; at the very least none of these people should never work in positions of authority in queer politics ever again—they're barely fit to work phone banks. We'll never know if the outcome would have been different if campaign had bothered to do real outreach to the African American community—to ...

Could this be a view of the future for Gay Marriage Rights in the United States?Seems gay and lesbian families in Australia’s have sort of won their rights thanks to changes in the law that now includes same-sex couples under the same legal provisions as unmarried heterosexual couples.The change includes such rights and protections as tax status for same-sex couples, health care rights, and social security.The law, which was approved Nov. 24 by the Australian Senate, is scheduled be taken up by its House of Representatives and there are no major hurdles anticipated.One definition that has not changed, however, ...

MIAMI — A Florida law that has banned adoptions by gay men and lesbians for over three decades is unconstitutional, a judge here ruled on Tuesday. “The best interests of children are not preserved by prohibiting homosexual adoption,” the judge, Cindy S. Lederman of Miami-Dade Circuit Court, said in a 53-page decision. She said the law violated equal protection rights for children and their prospective parents. A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office said the state would appeal, and the case is likely to end up before the State Supreme Court. Florida is the only state with a ...

The Australian senate has passed legislation giving same-sex couples the same rights as straight heterosexual couples. The legislation which redefines the definition of a ‘de facto’ relationship to include gay and lesbian couples, extends equal rights in nearly 100 areas including tax, social security, health, aged care, employment and superannuation entitlements, thereby giving same-sex couples the exact same rights as opposite-sex couples living together in common-law relationships. See Australia Expands Rights for Gay and Lesbian Couples Gay Wired, CA ...

of legal recognition for same-sex couples. The Big Ten Battleground Poll finds that about 28 percent support gay marriage and 30 percent oppose gay marriage but favor civil unions. About 32 percent oppose giving same-sex couples the right to marriage or unions. See Poll: Iowans back recognition for same-sex couples Chicago Tribune - United States ...

Source: Des Moines Register , Iowa Independent Nearly 60 percent of Iowans support some form of legal recognition for same-sex couples, poll results released Tuesday indicate. The statewide survey of 586 Iowa voters conducted by University of Iowa political scientists found that 28 percent of Iowans support same-sex marriage. Another 30 percent support civil unions. Thirty-two percent of respondents opposed both marriage and civil unions for same-sex couples. Nearly 10 percent said they didn't know or refused to answer, the U of I reported, according to Des Moines Register . "Iowans are...(read more) ...

Join us in Shelton, CT for theSame Love, Same Rights®Wedding & Family Expo!Held at the beautiful Courtyard by Marriott , in Shelton, CT.780 Bridgeport AveShelton, CT 06484Celebrate, Connecticut!!RainbowWeddingNetwork.com has added a new GLBTQ Expoto it's 2008 Event Calendar, in honor of the recent CT Supreme Court landmark decision.RainbowWeddingNetwork.com & the Same Love, Same Rights® team proudly join in the excitement regarding the CT Supreme Court decision to transform civil unions into full marriage rights for same-sex couples! This historic moment deserves an ongoing, jubilant celebration!Join Us Sunday December 7, 2008 at our upcoming GLBTQ Wedding Expo hosted ...

I know I am supposed to be on vacation from blogging but I had to share this New York Times editorial with y'all:California's Legal TangleThe approval of Proposition 8 in California, a constitutional change designed to prohibit marriage between couples of the same sex, was not just a defeat for fairness. It raised serious legal questions about the validity of using the Election Day initiative process to obliterate an existing right for a targeted minority.These deeper questions were largely lost during the expensive campaign by proponents of Proposition 8. Essentially, in their rush to enshrine bigotry in the State ...

Obama's civil rights agenda is ambitious. For the past 8 years, LGBT people have endured a president who, when he bothered to mention us at all, did so mostly when he was seeking to deny us equal rights for his own political gain. Come January, however, we will have an African-American president who includes LGBT rights as part of his administration's civil rights agenda. That's big. And, it could go a long way towards helping the general population recognize LGBT rights as a bona fide civil rights issue.Obama's agenda specifics include expanding hate crimes legislation, fighting workplace discrimination, supporting ...

We told you in April about efforts by the Australian government to enact some protections for same-sex couples. It now appears that it has done so. Today the Senate passed changes to a number of laws that would allow same-sex couples the same rights as de-facto couples. Additionally, they revised superannuation laws which allow couples to leave entitlements their partner or children. “Today is an historic day,” said NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby spokesperson Peter Johnson yesterday. “The Australian Senate has finally and firmly given its nod to equality for our relationships and families. Our partners and our children ...

Prop 8 boycotts continue to abound including a controversial boycott against Alan Stock, CEO of Cinemark Theaters, that some are taking the wrong way.  The “No MILK For Cinemark” boycott is well underway and has surpassed it’s initial goal of 1000 members.  There have been some misguided press in regards to the main logo Green designed for the boycott.  Most noteworthy is Variety, in an article that alluded to its readers the boycott was against the Milk, the movie about Harvey Milk.  The fallout of this misrepresentation can be found on this Variety blog post.  When ...

Source: ABC News (Australia) , Sydney Star Observer Australia's Senate has passed changes to around 100 federal laws to remove discrimination against same-sex couples, ABC News (Australia) reports. The changes cover areas like superannuation (pensions), health, employment entitlements, and aged care but do not provide for marriage equality. They were proposed in April by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Labor Party, which is marking its first anniversary in power this week. "While this is a very important reform in itself and it'll certainly remove many of the more severe disadvantages...(read more) ...

The Rev. Edward Horstmann has officiated at hundreds of weddings over the years, but the one he presided over Thursday afternoon will remain in his memory perhaps longer than any other. It was the marriage of Angela Fischer, 40, and Tami Schmidt, 41 — who came to Hartford because their plans for a California wedding fell through when voters there outlawed gay marriage on Nov. 4. The two women, who live in Arizona, know their marriage won't be recognized in their home state, but that didn't really factor into their plans — or their joy. As they knelt on ...

When we saw that the eHarmony matchmaking service was, due to court action, planning to open up their site to same-sex couples, we figured there would be some push back from those anti-gays who prefer eDiscord. We did not, however, expect them to go completely batpoop crazy over a matter that, to us, seems pretty middle road for a business. Well, we were wrong. Cue flying rodent caca: First up: Tony Perkins is actually suggesting that a better option would've been for the company to stop offering its services to an entire state: What's worse, there were ...