California still has an anti-gay marriage law on the books. Voters uld remove next year | AP News

Contents:

• GAY MARRIAGE
• EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE PLEBISCE
• ATRALIA IS HAVG A PLEBISCE ON GAY MARRIAGE -- HERE'S WHAT THAT MEANS
• CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR
• CALIFORNIA VOTERS WILL BE ASKED TO REAFFIRM GAY MARRIAGE PROTECTNS ON 2024 BALLOT
• I WAS PART OF 303 CREATIVE'S CASE. I BACK GAY MARRIAGE—BUT SCOTUS IS RIGHT

GAY MARRIAGE

Whout the Nick Xenophon Team's support for the legislatn, the Government nnot rely on the crossbench, leavg the stg vote up to Labor the is holdg off on a fal cisn but has been raisg ser ncerns about a plebisce through the Opposn Lear Bill Shorten and other senr MPs and party has also been privately briefg reporters that will eventually block the there is a polil hch bee once a plebisce is off the table, the Labor Party is unlikely to be able to force a ee vote of both ho s are fears that uld punt the issue off to the next term of parliament, ensurg there is no prospect of gay people beg able to marry before the next do mean for voters?

EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE PLEBISCE

Early Years: Same-Sex Marriage Bans In 1970, jt one year after the historic Stonewall Rts that galvanized the gay rights movement, law stunt Richard Baker and librarian Jam McConnell applied for a marriage license Gerald Nelson rejected their applitn bee they were a same-sex uple, and a trial urt upheld his cisn. ” This lg effectively blocked feral urts om lg on same-sex marriage for s, leavg the cisn solely the hands of stat, which alt blow after blow to those hopg to see gay marriage beg 1973, for stance, Maryland beme the first state to create a law that explicly f marriage as a unn between a man and woman, a belief held by many nservative relig groups. Though the gay rights movement saw some advancements the 1970s and 1980s—such as Harvey Milk beg the first openly gay man elected to public office the untry 1977—the fight for gay marriage ma ltle headway for many years.

In 1989, the San Francis Board of Supervisors passed an ordance that allowed homosexual upl and unmarried heterosexual upl to register for domtic partnerships, which granted hospal visatn rights and other years later, the District of Columbia siarly passed a new law that allowed same-sex upl to register as domtic partners. C., 1993, the hight urt Hawaii led that a ban on same-sex marriage may vlate that state nstutn’s Equal Protectn Clse—the first time a state urt has ever ched toward makg gay marriage Hawaii Supreme Court sent the se—brought by a gay male uple and two lbian upl who were nied marriage licens 1990—back for further review to the lower First Circu Court, which 1991 origally dismissed the the state tried to prove that there was “pellg state tert” jtifyg the ban, the se would be tied up ligatn for the next three Defense of Marriage Act Opponents of gay marriage, however, did not s on their hnch. Congrs 1996 passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which Print Bill Clton signed to didn’t ban gay marriage outright but specified that only heterosexual upl uld be granted feral marriage benefs.

That is, even if a state ma gay marriage legal, same-sex upl still wouldn’t be able to file e tax jotly, sponsor spo for immigratn benefs or receive spoal Social Secury payments, among many other act was a huge setback for the marriage equaly movement, but transient good news arose three months later: Hawaii Judge Kev S. Phg for Change: Civil Unns The next saw a whirlwd of activy on the gay marriage ont, begng wh the year 2000 when Vermont beme the first state to legalize civil unns, a legal stat that provis most of the state-level benefs of years later, Massachetts beme the first state to legalize gay marriage when the Massachetts Supreme Court led that same-sex upl had the right to marry Goodridge v. The state fally troduced the untry to gay marriage (m the feral benefs) when began issug same-sex marriage licens on May 17, that year, the U.

ATRALIA IS HAVG A PLEBISCE ON GAY MARRIAGE -- HERE'S WHAT THAT MEANS

Bh—that would outlaw gay marriage across the untry. 2004 was notable for upl many other stat as well, though for the oppose reason: Ten typilly nservative stat, along wh Oregon, enacted state-level bans on gay marriage. Kansas and Texas were next 2005, and 2006 saw seven more stat passg Constutnal amendments agast gay towards the end of the , gay marriage beme legal var stat, cludg Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont (the first state to approve by legislative means) and New Hampshire.

Domtic Partnerships Throughout the and the begng of the next, California equently ma headl for seawg on the gay marriage state was the first to pass a domtic partnership statute 1999, and legislators tried to pass a same-sex marriage bill 2005 and 2007. Perry legalized same-sex marriage early 2010s ntued the state-level battl over gay marriage that fed the precedg , wh at least one notable event. For the first time the untry’s history, voters (rather than judg or legislators) Mae, Maryland, and Washgton approved Constutnal amendments permtg same-sex marriage marriage also beme a feral issue 2010, Massachetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage, found Sectn 3 of DOMA—the part of the 1996 law that fed marriage as a unn between one man and one woman—to be unnstutnal.

CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR

Wdsor, nservative Jtice Anthony Kennedy sid wh Jtic Ruth Bar Gsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan favor of same-sex marriage rights, ultimately makg gay marriage legal across the natn June this time, was still outlawed only 13 stat, and more than 20 other untri had already legalized gay marriage, startg wh the Netherlands December 2000.

”But, 2013, the High Court found that marriage the Constutn clus “a marriage between persons of the same sex” and that “unr the Constutn and feral law as now stands, whether same sex marriage should be provid for by law is a matter for the feral Parliament” ma clear the feral ernment had the power to enact marriage more and more untri began legalisg gay marriage, Atralia was left behd. ”Mr Turnbull has prevly been an advote on the issue (his electorate of Wentworth Sydney’s eastern suburbs has a high ncentratn of homosexual rints), nfirmg both he and wife Lucy are favour of same-sex due to a number of nservative aln MPs strongly held views, a plebisce is seen as an alternative PLEBISCITEAfter the failure last year to ph the plebisce through parliament, yterday's party room meetg sentially voted favour of a back up plan - a postal plebisce. “The ernment is absolutely mted to keep fah wh the mment that we ma to the Atralian people and that is to give Atralian people a say on whether or not the fn of marriage should be changed, ” Senator Cormann more: Ele Catholic schools fend gay marriageWHAT WOULD BE NEEDED FOR THE PLEBISCITE TO 'PASS'?

It also provis a platform for those opposed to misrm the public and air anti-gay views.

CALIFORNIA VOTERS WILL BE ASKED TO REAFFIRM GAY MARRIAGE PROTECTNS ON 2024 BALLOT

A prehensive “no” vote uld ph the issue back s, siar to what happened wh the Atralian republic bate after the 1999 only circu-breaker would be a swch om the Coaln to a Labor ernment, which would likely have the numbers to get gay marriage over the le. CONSEQUENCESA plebisce would give anti-gay mpaigners the biggt stage they have ever had, acrdg to quot US rearch, which has shown that the mental health of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and tersex (LGBTI) people suffered signifintly durg referendum bat on marriage LGBTI people who experienced a US state referendum on marriage equaly there was a 37 per cent crease mood disorrs, a 42 per cent crease alhol-e disorrs, and a 248 per cent generalised anxiety disorrs.

I WAS PART OF 303 CREATIVE'S CASE. I BACK GAY MARRIAGE—BUT SCOTUS IS RIGHT

We only need to look at the mpaigns that were n opposn to the screeng of the Gayby Baby documentary NSW, and the Safe Schools Coaln, to know there are signifint portns of the Atralian populatn who are not ready to have mature and rpectful bat on any issu to do wh the rights of LGBTI people. More on Forb: The Asian Countri Are The Most Likely To Adopt A Gay Marriage Law.

However, spe this, Prime Mister Turnbull has exprsed that he would not support a bill relatg to gay marriage until there is a vote of the Atralian people. Marriage equaly activists fear this uld equate to ceptive and hateful material aimed at Atralia’s gay muny. Whether that was accurate or not, that is how many the gay muny felt.