Gay Marriage Watch

Congress is preparing to vote on a bill that would extend benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees after passage in committees from both houses. Wisconsin Representative Tammy Baldwin’s Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009 (DPBO) is quickly wending its way through Capitol Hill. The legislation would make the spouses of gay and lesbian federal employees eligible for certain benefits previously denied because the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a law that prohibits the federal government from recognizing gay unions, bars such benefits. DPBO would carve out an exception to the law.

The proposed law received a boost Wednesday with passage out of a key Senate committee. Members OK’d the bill with an 8 to 1 vote. Senator Robert F. Bennett, a Republican, was the lone dissenter.

That is, Bennett was the lone in-person “nay” vote; five additional Republicans voted against the bill by proxy: Republican Senators Tom Coburn, John McCain, George V. Voinovich and Lindsey Graham. Those members, along with Senator John Ensign, who did not take a position on the bill, score low on the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Congressional Scorecard, an annual report that measures a lawmaker’s support for gay rights. (Proxy votes are not included in a final tally.)

Full Story from On Top Magazine: http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=5016&MediaType=1&Category=26

Click here for gay marriage resources.

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People in the United States are almost evenly divided on whether same-sex marriage should be allowed in their country, according to a poll by Angus Reid Public Opinion. 43 per cent of respondents favour allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, while 46 per cent are opposed.

In 2004, marriage certificates were issued to same-sex couples by local governments in the states of California, Oregon, New Mexico and New York. In May 2004, the state of Massachusetts allowed gay and lesbian partners to apply for marriage licenses. Same-sex marriage is also legal in Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont, and will become legal next year in New Hampshire.

In May 2008, California’s Supreme Court overturned a ban on same-sex marriage in a 4-3 decision, effectively allowing full marriage rights to homosexual partners. In November 2008, 52.5 per cent of voters in California endorsed Proposition 8, which seeks to amend the state Constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman.

Full Story from Angus-Reid: http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/34691/americans_split_on_same_sex_marriage/

Click here for gay marriage resources.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

Last year on election day, California voted “yes” on Proposition 8 which revoked the state law that made same-sex marriage legal. This year, Maine became the forefront of this year’s election with Question 1, which also gave residents the option to revoke the same sex marriage law that was passed earlier this year on May 6.

Maine’s same-sex marriage law was also revoked when decided by the public. Now, the only states that perform same-sex marriage are Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont and starting in January 2010, New Hampshire. Which states could be next to legalize gay marriage?

“Oregon is well-known for Portland, which is a melting pot of cultures, subcultures, and lifestyles all it’s own,” said Bethany Duerr, “I think that if Portland becomes pro-gay marriage, it would definitely influence the rest of the state. I think it is also possible that random mid-west states could legalize gay marriage – we don’t give those states a lot of attention or credit.”

Full Story from Examiner.com: http://www.examiner.com/x-30744-Albany-Civil-Rights-Examiner~y2009m11d21-The-Future-of-SameSex-Marriage

Planning to marry your partner? Click here for gay marriage resources.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

Much of the debate over legalizing gay marriage has focused on God and Scripture, the Constitution and equal protection.

But we see the world through the prism of money. And for years, we’ve heard from gay couples about all the extra health, legal and other costs they bear. So we set out to determine what they were and to come up with a round number — a couple’s lifetime cost of being gay.

It was much more complicated than we initially imagined, and that’s probably why we’ve never seen similar efforts. We looked at benefits that routinely go to married heterosexual couples but not to gay couples, like certain Social Security payments. We plotted out the cost of health insurance for couples whose employers don’t offer it to domestic partners. Even tax preparation can cost more, since gay couples have to file two sets of returns. Still, many couples may come out ahead in one area: they owe less in income taxes because they’re not hit with the so-called marriage penalty.

Full Story from the SF Sentinel: http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=44644

Planning to marry your partner? Click here for gay marriage resources.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com with “subscribe blog” as the subject. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.