Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyPosts Tagged As: Civil Unions
December 18th, 2007
It’s a good day for same-sex couples. Following up on Hungary, Reuters reports that Uruguay is also now offering its gay couples protection under the law.
Uruguay’s Congress legalized civil unions for homosexual couples on Tuesday in the first nationwide law of its kind in Latin America.
Under the new law, gay and straight couples will be eligible to form civil unions after living together for five years. They will have rights similar to those granted to married couples on such matters as inheritance, pensions and child custody.
Uruguay’s Senate passed the bill unanimously after the lower house approved it last month, a congressional spokesman said. The country’s center-left president is expected to sign it into law.
Although this was expected, its nice to se unanimous Senate support.
See also:
Civil Union In Uruguay
Uruguay Approves Civil Unions
Uruguay To Offer Civil Unions
December 5th, 2007
UPDATED: See Below
The Australian Capital Territory is that area in which the federal Austrailian government is conducted. Like the District of Columbia, it has self-governance but its decisions can be overruled by federal authority.
In 2006 the ACT legislated for civil unions for gay couples. This action was overturned by the federal government. Overturning ACT decisions is not a common practice.
A new government has been voted into power, and part of their campaign was on providing some form of recognition to same-sex couples. However, the Rudd government is not in favor of marriage or of civil unions. They propose that states offer registration of couples and provide benefits similar to de-facto relationships.
The ACT government does not view relationship registers as an adequate response to either the commitment or the needs of same-sex couples. They are proposing a slightly watered down version of their previous efforts of enacting civil unions. From ABC News (not the US one)
The ACT’s Attorney-General, Simon Corbell, plans to re-introduce a Civil Partnerships Bill, which would grant legal recognition to same-sex unions. He will push the case at a meeting with the new federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, on Friday.
“I think that’s an important courtesy to extend to the Federal Government, given there has been a change of government, and the opportunity now to progress an important piece of law reform for people in the ACT,” he said.
Anti-gay factions have already voiced threats over the action. It will be interesting to see if quashing gay recognition is a priority of the new government.
UPDATE
The Age is reporting that the federal government will not override the ACT’s decision to provide civil unions.
November 29th, 2007
Reuters is reporting that Civil Unions are coming to tiny South American country Uruguay.
Uruguay will legalize civil unions for homosexuals and heterosexuals next month, making it the first Latin American nation to treat gay and straight couples alike, a lawmaker said Thursday.
Deputies in the early hours of Thursday passed legislation allowing gay and straight couples to form civil unions after living together for at least five years.
The law must return to the Senate for revisions but is expected to be in place by mid-December.
See also:
Civil Union In Uruguay
Uruguay Approves Civil Unions
Uruguay To Offer Civil Unions
November 8th, 2007
A new ABC poll shows broad support for recognition of same-sex relationships by means of civil unions.
A random telephone survey of 1,131 American adults asked (among other questions)
Do you think homosexual couples should or should not be allowed to form legally recognized civil unions, giving them the legal rights of married couples in areas such as health insurance, inheritance and pension coverage?
ABC tells us:
Overall, 55 percent favor allowing homosexual couples to form legally recognized civil unions, giving them the same rights as married couples in areas such as health insurance, inheritance and pension coverage. That’s up from 45 percent in an ABC/Post poll in 2006; the previous high was 51 percent in 2004.
While this is an encouraging result, there are specific subsets of the population that suggest that over time equality for gay persons will be readily accepted by the citizenry at large. Saying yes to civil unions were:
In addition to Democrats (66%), civil unions are supported by independants (58%) and even a healthy showing of Republicans (39%). Even those identifying as “Conservatives” and “Conservative Republicans” were about a third supportive (35% and 31%, respectively). Politicians who seek to stir up “the base” of conservative Republicans with an anti-gay attack may want to note that a third of their audience will not be receptive to such a call.
While only 44% of those over 65 were supportive, those 18-29 were two-thirds in favor. This speaks well for future benefits in the private sector as these individuals become the CEOs and small-businessmen of tomorrow.
October 25th, 2007
Many of Austria’s neighboring states have some form of recognition for the rights of same-sex couples. German has Life Partnerships, Switzerland, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic have Registered Partnerships, and Hungary has limited inheritance rights recognition. Only Slovakia and Italy have no recognition and most observers believe that Italy will soon join the rest of Western Europe.
Austria will now consider providing recognition for same-sex couples.
SPÖ Justice minister Maria Berger’s proposed new partnerships law will be considered by a bipartisan working group.
The People’s Party announced earlier this month that it would support civil unions similar to those in Switzerland.
It is too early to make predictions but it is encouraging that there is support from within both of the coaltion ruling parties.
September 26th, 2007
Oregon has a provision whereby a vote of the legislature can be put to a vote of the people if adequate signatures can be obtained. Oregon has 2.1 million registered voters and requires 55,179 voters to sign a petition in order for the issue to reach the ballot.
Anti-gay activists in Oregon are collecting signatures to put SB2 – an anti-discrimination law – and HB2007 – a civil unions bill – up to the vote of the people.
Today at 3:00 pm is the deadline for turning in these signatures and placing the legislative action on the 2008 ballot. Otherwise they become law.
According to the Statesman Journal, as of Tuesday the group seeking to keep discrimination legal and civil unions absent had about 55,000 signatures. However, they are still seeking a buffer of about 8,000 signatures as there are always signatures that are not valid on every petition. If they do not get their buffer, they will not file.
UPDATE
Per Oregon Live,
Marylin Shannon, a former state senator and spokeswoman for Defense of Marriage Again, said the groups had delivered nearly 63,000 signatures to overturn each of the two laws.
Now the verification process begins (probably by sampling). If the Secretary of State determines that there are adequate signatures, the two bills go to the voters for confirmation in November 2008.
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