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: Marriage
January 1st, 2013
According to Windy City
The Senate will be in session Wednesday afternoon, and LGBT leaders say that a vote on a bill seeking gay marriage is likely to come sooner rather than later.
Sen. Heather Steans tells Windy City Times that she wants to see a vote on Thursday.
Looks to be a very exciting January.
January 1st, 2013
Legislation allowing gay couples to marry in Rhode Island will be introduced on Thursday, the bill’s longtime sponsor, state Rep. Arthur Handy, said Tuesday, the opening day of the 2013 General Assembly session.
December 28th, 2012
December 29th is the day scheduled for the first same-sex marriage licenses to be issued in Maine. So starting at 12.01 the Portland city Clark’s office will open to allow marriages to begin.
This is a symbolic gesture of support from the city in celebration of a historic moment. It should be a joyous time.
But it also has a very pragmatic aspect. There are but a few days left in this year and it may well be that by marrying in 2012 they can take advantage of tax laws that benefit married couples. This is certain for state returns and I think likely to be the case for federal takes after SCOTUS rules on the Windsor DOMA3 case.
It’s not very romantic, but tax consequences are something that many straight couples must consider when picking a wedding date. So too must Maine’s gay couples (with much delight and a heart full of love) consider the mundane.
As for the rest of us, we will celebrate with Mainers of all stripes who now live in a freer, more equal, state.
December 23rd, 2012
From China Post
The Taipei High Administrative Court (å°åŒ—高ç‰è¡Œæ”¿æ³•é™¢) was expected to rule yesterday on a landmark case of two Taiwanese men, Nelson Chen (陳敬å¸) and Kao Chih-wei (高治瑋), who are seeking a legal marriage.
The High Court announced yesterday that it has not reached a verdict, but that the case could be handed to the Council of Grand Justices, a 15-justice body that serves as Taiwan’s constitutional court.
December 23rd, 2012
In May 2011, Brazil’s Supreme Court determined that the nation’s constitution guaranteed equal rights for Brazilian gay couples. However, they stopped short of marriage, opting for a civil unions structure instead.
In June 2011, a judge in Sao Paulo State, the nation’s largest and wealthies state, ruled that a civil union could be converted into marriage with judicial approval. Since that time, two Brazilian states, Alagoas and Bahia, have allowed couples to convert to marriage without judicial approval.
Now the State of Sao Paulo has changed it’s procedural rules, eliminating the two-step process altogether. (Folha de S.Paulo translated)
The new standard was published in the Electronic Journal of Justice and enters into force in 60 days.
With the measure, the gay couple no longer need to register before ordering stable marriage. Now, just as the couple go to the court and ask the wedding registry.
Also no longer need to go to court to ask for marriage or conversion of a stable union.
December 14th, 2012
Oh what a funny funny state the world is in.
For example, over in the UK, marriage is on the table. And the Anglican Church was wrought up about the sanctity of penis and vagina or some such thing. And how dare, how very dare the government to hint that anything other than penis and vagina could be linked in holy hoohaw.
So the government came of with the perfect solution. They would protect the Anglican Churches with a lock, no a double, scratch that, the government would protect the Anglicans with a “quadruple lock”. They would say that while other churches could opt-in and offer marriage if they so wanted, Anglican churches can’t. Even if William and Kate’s little bundle of joy grows up to be a charming young man who trots off to St. Andrews and falls in love with the Earl of Pudding.
So now they are all in a dither. You see, they didn’t want restrictions on themselves so much. They really just wanted the government to tell the Quakers and Jews what not to do. (Scotsman)
Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan said that the move to outlaw gay marriage in the Church of England and Church in Wales came as a “total shock” when it was announced by equalities minister Maria Miller on Tuesday as part of a “quadruple lock” to protect them from legal challenge.
Dr Morgan said that his church did not want the protection, which has put it in an “enormously difficult position”.
December 13th, 2012
Scotland has introduced marriage legislation: (GayStarNews)
The Scottish government launched the ‘Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill’, which will introduce marriage equality, yesterday (12 December) alongside a 14-week consultation on its implementation.
The draft legislation will allow same-sex marriage in Scotland and give all religious and belief bodies (for example Humanist) the right to conduct same-sex marriages, if they wish to do so.
The timeline suggests that weddings may begin in about a year.
Following the close of the public consultation on 20 March, the Scottish government will make any changes to the bill that are considered necessary, then introduce the bill for a vote into the Scottish parliament.
It generally takes at least 6 months for a bill to go through parliament, so if the bill is introduced by May or June, it might be passed by around the end of 2013.
Depending on unforeseen changes to the timetable the first same-sex marriages in Scotland should take place in 2014.
In a month jam packed with international (and local) marriage news, this story uniquely appeals to me in an emotional way.
In gradeschool, there was a class – weekly, I believe – on music; kids played recorders and other instruments (poorly, probably) and sang songs. The song I recall as being the most interesting to me was about a bonnie prince fleeing for his life to an island called Skye.
Scotland seemed such a mythical place. The men wore plaid skirts and played bagpipes and there were craggy cliffs and deep lakes and even a sea monster. Where else would a pretty prince sail off into the sky?
In college, a class on immigration and emigration sparked an interest in knowing my family background. Over time I discovered that the romance of the bonnie boat had a reality that played it’s role in the game of chance and genetic continuation that led to me.
Kincaid House – the oldest portions date to 1690.
In 1745 and 1746, the Highland Scots fought their last effort to remove George II, a German Hanoverian, from the throne of England and Scotland and restore the Scottish house of Stuart. The Kincaids were a Lowland family, but near the Highland border and with a long history of political intrigue and loyalty to the Stuarts. So although his father had political connections to King George, Samuel Kincaid and three of his brothers served in the rear guard supporting Charles Stuart (bonnie Prince Charlie) until their capture/surrender in April or May of that year.
Perhaps not surprising, they promptly “escaped” and fled to Glasgow where they boarded the ship where their wives and children were waiting and sailed off to America. And eight generations of Kincaids later, me.
So while I’m no more “Scottish” than I am the ethnic product of any of the other 254 people who contributed their genes eight generations back, I share the surname of that ancestor. And to the extent that any non-American place can be (my roots go far far further back here), Scotland is the land of my ancestors.
December 12th, 2012
BBC:
Uruguay has moved closer to legalising gay marriage after the lower house of Congress approved a law making all marriages equal.
The measure, which was passed by a wide margin, now goes to the Senate where it is expected to be approved.
It would make Uruguay the second Latin American country after Argentina to allow gay marriages.
Well, maybe it would. The bill goes to the Senate some time next year and will wind its way through the process by the end of 2013. Mexico may or may not rocket-propel its constitutional marriage process and have nation-wide marriage rights sooner.
Or, as History has a whimsical streak, the courts in, say, Paraguay or the legislators in Chile may just unexpectedly – as a matter of simple quiet justice – step ahead of both of them.
December 11th, 2012
In an article in the Guardian about the proposed marriage bill in Britain, I see the inevitable here. Give it a decade and this will be common:
Richard and Mary Smith, an elderly couple wrapped up tightly against the bitter wind, were happy to pause on their way to have coffee to bemoan the state of school discipline, and speak of their fears about crime and poor parenting. But “as far as gay couples living together and getting married, that’s their choice”, Richard said.
Which will be followed by “but those lesbians don’t raise their kids right anymore! They used to be polite, but now they run all over my lawn!”
December 11th, 2012
The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Uruguay’s legislature, is slated to vote on marriage equality today. The bill is expected to pass and we’ll notify you when we know more.
December 10th, 2012
The French legislature is scheduled to vote on the marriage bill on January 29th. Of course they’ve had previous schedules so we’ll see how that goes. But, in any case, let’s keep this date as a possible day of interest.
December 6th, 2012
Larry Duncan, 56, and Randy Shepherd, 48, have been together for eleven years. Photographer Meryl Schenker took this photo as they applied for a marriage license in the King County Administration Building at about 1:30 a.m. More of Schenker’s photos here.
December 6th, 2012
Sometimes two sentences is all it takes to make you cry.
The couple who received the very first marriage license, though, was Jane Abbott Lighty, 77, and Pete-e Peterson, 85, who have been together over 35 years. They met on a blind date in 1977 and believed they would die before they could legally wed.
December 6th, 2012
From GayStarNews
A bill legalizing gay marriage past the first of four votes amid criticism from conservative groups.
The bill was was approved on Tuesday (4 November) by 10 votes against five senators of the first committee of the Senate responsible for constitutional matters
Passage is not exactly optional. The country’s Supreme Court has ruled that if Congress does not pass by mid-year 2013, then same-sex couples earn the right to civil marriage automatically (which, if there is no companion law change, would likely to an administrative nightmare).
December 6th, 2012
The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Uruguay’s legislature, is slated to vote on marriage equality on Tuesday, December 11. Activists report that the vote count predicts a clear victory. The Senate (upper house) is expected to take up the matter next summer.
Uruguay currently offers civil unions to same-sex couples.
Featured Reports
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In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.
On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
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Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
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The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.
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