Maryland, Mae, Washgton approve gay marriage | Rters

Contents:

• MAE ENACTS LAW ALLOWG GAY MARRIAG
• GAY MARRIAGE ADVANC MAE
• MARYLAND, MAE, WASHGTON APPROVE GAY MARRIAGE
• GAY MARRIAGE
• GAY MARRIAGE TIMELE

MAE ENACTS LAW ALLOWG GAY MARRIAG

New England stat have acted quickly sce gay marriag beme law Massachetts 2004 bee 's a small regn wh poro borrs, shared media markets and a largely shared culture, said Carisa Cunngham of the gay fenrs group. Baldacci will have California, where the State Supreme Court may le this week on whether a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage is nstutnal, gay-rights advot are optimistic even though many expect the lg to uphold the next state to bate same-sex marriage will probably be New York. “We are closer than we thought we would be, although not closer than we hoped we would be, ” said Lee Swislow, executive director of Gay and Lbian Advot and Defenrs, the group leadg the New England mpaign.

GAY MARRIAGE ADVANC MAE

Legislatur approved the change Vermont, New York and New this year, ballot iativ banng the legal regnn of same-sex marriage had succeed 31 stat, and no state had ever approved same-sex marriage by popular voters rejected gay marriage a referendum 2009 by 53 to 47 percent. 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. 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.

MARYLAND, MAE, WASHGTON APPROVE GAY MARRIAGE

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. 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. 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. 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.

John Baldacci of Mae signed a same-sex marriage bill on Wednday mut after the Legislature sent to his sk, sayg he had reversed his posn bee gay upl were entled to the state Constutn’s equal rights protectns.

GAY MARRIAGE

Baldacci, who nnot seek re-electn bee of term lims, said he had spent nsirable time rearchg the legal ramifitns of nyg gay men and lbians the right to Baldacci earlier supported civil unns for gay upl, which are legally regnized and provi many of the state rights and privileg that marriage do.

GAY MARRIAGE TIMELE

Reporters wrote about what Fortunato and Schwandt lled a holy unn, which was ntroversial not bee there was talk of legalizg gay marriage but bee the two men publicly ask for -- and were nied -- the blsg of the Epispal Church. "The New York State Court of Appeals clar that a lbian or gay uple livg together for a least ten years n be nsired a fay for purpos of rent ntrol protectn, the first time a state's hight urt l that a gay uple n be lled a fay... The California Bar Associatn urg that lbian and gay marriage be legally regnized and Seattle, San Francis and other ci, 'partners' regulatns extendg certa protectns and rights to unmarried upl, straight and gay, are adopted.

"Jt as Hawaii's high urt seemed poised to allow same-sex marriag, gay activists have seen their visns of legal weddgs on the beach of Mi disappear as voters approved Constutnal Amendment 2, givg the legislature power to 'rerve marriage to oppose-sex upl.

"Rabbis belongg to the biggt and most liberal branch of Judaism the Uned Stat have voted to regnise the partnerships of gay and lbian Central Conference of Amerin Rabbis, which is part of the Jewish Reform movement, has agreed to sanctn relig ceremoni for same-sex Print of the Conference, Rabbi Charl Kroloff, said that gay and lbian people served the regnn and rpect due to people created the image of God.