Equality On Trial

A conservative party is challenging a judicial ruling that requires all of Brazil’s notary publics to register same-sex civil unions as marriages if couples request it.

Last week, the National Council of Justice that oversees the country’s judiciary said notary publics cannot refuse to marry gay couples or convert a same-sex civil union into a marriage if that’s what the pair wants.

The Social Christian Party filed its appeal Tuesday with the Supreme Court arguing that the council’s ruling was unconstitutional because Congress has not approved it.

Reports the Brainerd Dispatch:

[Gildea] dismissed proposed recall petitions against Rep. Joe Radinovich, DFL-Crosby, and Rep. John Ward, DFL-Baxter, for “failure to allege specific facts that, if proven would constitute grounds for recall.”

Under the state Constitution, elected officials are subject to recall for serious malfeasance or nonfeasance, but the two legislators’ actions were not “unlawful or wrongful” conduct, she wrote in the ruling.

Hope SCOTUS is paying attention…  this path for Bi-National couples has ended  : (

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In a dramatic move before the vote, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, withdrew an amendment to give people the right to sponsor same-sex partners who are foreigners for permanent legal status.

Leahy’s colleagues on the committee – Republicans and Democrats – warned that the amendment would kill the legislation in Congress. Democrats generally favor providing equal treatment for heterosexual and homosexual couples, while many Republicans oppose doing so.

“I’m committed to ending that discrimination,” Leahy said before withdrawing the amendment.

“Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for not defending LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) families against the scapegoating of their Republican colleagues,” said Rachel Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality, a gay rights group.

Via the Windy City Times:

With the end of the Illinois’ spring legislation session just days away, LGBT leaders say that equal marriage legislation has the support needed to pass by month’s end.

Sponsors have until May 31 to pass the “Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act,” which would allow all couples, regardless of their gender, to marry. Failing that deadline, the bill’s passage would be delayed for months.

LGBT groups pushing for the bill say they are ready to see it come up for a vote.

“I have absolutely no doubt we’re going to be done with this by May 31,” said Jim Bennett, Midwest regional director for Lambda Legal. “I believe that this bill is going to pass.”

Bennett declined to give a specific vote count, but said that he expected the bill could be called and passed any day.

Rick Garcia, policy advisor for The Civil Rights Agenda, said he thinks the bill has the 60 votes needed for passage in the House.

“I believe we’re there,” said Garcia. “The cake is baked. We’re waiting for the icing.”

Thoughtful article, going to share with my Dad who is still not 100% on my side

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As the country awaits two important Supreme Court decisions involving state laws on same-sex marriage, a small but consistent body of research suggests that laws that ban gay marriage — or approve it — can affect the mental health of gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans. When several states passed laws to prohibit same-sex marriage, for example, the mental health of gay residents seemed to suffer, while stress-related disorders dropped in at least one state after gay marriage was legalized.

France, a predominantly Catholic country, follows 13 others including Canada, Denmark, Sweden and most recently Uruguay and New Zealand in allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed. In the United States, Washington D.C. and 12 states have legalized same-sex marriage.

Lisa Keen aggregates the response to comments by Justice Ginsburg that the Roe v Wade decision 40 years ago may have been ‘too far too fast’… and what that might mean for the pending Prop 8 and DOMA decisions.

The LGBT community sees U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a likely vote for equal protection in the two pending major cases involving marriage for same-sex couples.

But various mainstream media outlets recently jostled that confidence by noting that she continues to express the view that the landmark abortion rights decision, Roe v. Wade, went “too far too fast.” If the court’s most veteran supporter of equal rights for women believes Roe moved “too far too fast,” could she be urging an incremental approach to another controversial issue – marriage for same-sex couples?

[Retired Judge Vaughn Walker will deliver] the keynote address at the second annual Coachella Valley Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast….

The breakfast, held on Thursday, May 23, at 9:30 a.m. at the Hilton Palm Springs, 400 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, honors the memory of gay rights leader Harvey Milk.

 

Innovative marriage equality campaign from the ACLU.

Great graphic.  22% of same sex couples (18% of population) live in states with marriage equality.  With Illinois and California, that would be 41% of same sex couples (34% of population).