Gay Marriage Watch

With Washington, D.C.’s same-sex marriage law expected to take effect on March 3, marriage equality opponents have stepped up their efforts to try to halt the law’s implementation by forcing a public referendum. Today, opponents went to court seeking a preliminary injunction, which would have stayed the effective date of the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Act of 2009.

After hearing from both sides, Judge Holeman tentatively denied the motion from the bench, ruling that the court lacked the power “to usurp the legislative process,” that opponents did not establish a substantial likelihood of success on the merits and that they would not suffer irreparable harm if the law were to take effect as scheduled.

Judge Holeman’s ruling is the latest in legal setbacks for opponents of marriage equality in D.C., where for decades the law has presciently prohibited initiatives and referenda that cause discrimination under the Human Rights Act. Three times now the Board of Elections & Ethics has rejected proposed initiatives and referenda that would invalidate legislation overwhelmingly passed by the Council and signed by the mayor recognizing same-sex marriages. The courts have uniformly rejected opponents’ claims that they are being denied a right to vote and have upheld D.C.’s strong anti-discrimination protections.

Full Story from Windy City Media Group
Click here for gay marriage resources.
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On Dec. 19, Washington, D.C. officially legalized same-sex marriage. Mayor Adrian Fenty supported the legislation from the beginning, and it received the overwhelming support of the D.C. Council in an 11-2 vote. Congressional Republicans, however, immediately began calling for a referendum on the issue, suggesting that the majority of D.C. residents were actually against same-sex marriage. However, D.C. LGBT blog GLAA Forum reports that all the money funding Rev. Harry Jackson, who led the anti-marriage equality efforts, came from outside of Washington, D.C.:

It turns out that the $199,530.00 funding for his efforts come from only four main sources, all from outside of D.C. according reports filed with the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance. … Jackson’s largest contributor is his own Maryland church based non-profit group, High Impact Leadership Coalition. [...]

The next largest contributor is the Colorado headquartered national group, Focus on the Family. … [T]hey were able to contribute $40,000 to harming gay families in D.C. … National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the national group dedicated to keeping gay people from marrying contributed $32,138.00. … Family Research Council, the D.C. based national gay bashing group, donated $25,000 through it’s 501(c)(4) lobbying organization, Family Research Council –Action.

Full Story from Think Progress
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
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Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, introduced a bill Wednesday that seeks to overturn a new District of Columbia ordinance allowing gay marriage, but he predicts Democratic leaders will not allow it to come to a vote. “I think they are afraid they will lose,” he told the Deseret News.

“I wish it would come up for a vote, because I think traditional marriage would win. But with the Democrats controlling the House, the Senate and the presidency, I can’t imagine that this would make it through the process.” So, he said, the bill is “more symbolic than it is realistic.”

The district council last month passed, and its mayor signed, an ordinance to allow gay marriage. But because the nation’s capital is a federal district and not a state, all district ordinances must go through a waiting period of 30 days in session by Congress, during which Congress may vote to reject that ordinance.

Full Story from Deseret News
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
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.

Many have been counting down 30 days from the day that Mayor Fenty signed the DC gay marriage bill until Congress could no longer invalidate it Guess what? The countdown really started yesterday, January 11, 2009.

According to the Washington Post, Del. Eleanor Norton announced yesterday that the countdown to legalized same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia began the same day. With everyone paying attention to the Prop 8 trials, I am wondering how many will pick this up.

The good news is that Del. Norton said that she has done her homework, and that the “initial work to close the gates on overturning” the bill has been done. Regarding the bill itself, she said “this bill should not be on the Hill at all. Home rule is all or it is nothing. We can’t pick and choose when it intervene.”

Full Story from GayVantage: http://www.gayvantage.com/gay-agenda/gay-marriage/real-countdown-to-dc-gay-marriage-really-started-yesterday-8573201113/

Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.

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.

Morning all. Hill Republicans have entered the D.C. gay-marriage fray, filing an amicus brief in a Superior Court case seeking a voter referendum of the issue. Thirty-nine have signed on to the brief, including House leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor and Senators James Inhofe and Roger Wicker.

‘The filing asserts that the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics exceeded its authority by ruling twice that a public vote would discriminate against gay men and lesbians,’ Tim Craig reports in WaPo. Also an occasion for a great Kris Baumann quote: ‘The Republican Party I am a member of is dedicated to allowing local rule and respecting the thoughts of individuals….I find it ironic they would come out squarely against the wishes of the local party.’ Also WRC-TV, WTOP, which has the full brief.

FROM THE BRIEF—’As members of the District’s ultimate legislative body, amici are concerned about the extent of the District’s delegated legislative authority, the preservation of Congress’s constitutional authority, and the interpretation of home rule.’

Full Story from the Washington City Paper: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2010/01/07/the-ultimate-legislative-body-speaks-loose-lips-daily/

Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.

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.

Only a month after Washington’s “Everything but Marriage Law” has gone into effect, Washington’s domestic partnership registrations have jumped in numbers.

The domestic partnership system in Washington has gone through some major transformations during the past few years. About three years ago gay and lesbian couples had around 24 rights similar to married couples, since then, it’s grown to 250 protections added and with the conclusion of the domestic partnership expansion bill, the Washington State registry has seen a significant increase in couples wanting to recognize their partnership on paper.

According to the Secretary of State’s web-site more than 6,000 couples in Washington have registered as of today; moreover, since voters upheld the bill in November, The amount of people registering has doubled each week.

Full Story from KNDO: http://www.kndo.com/Global/story.asp?S=11762613

Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington State.

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.

On Thursday, it will be 30 days since Election Day. Big deal, you say? It is a big deal. As John Marsh, Bob Teichman, Dee Peterson and others planning to celebrate outside the Snohomish County Courthouse know, the state’s new domestic partnership law takes effect Thursday.

Voters approved it last month by deciding the fate of Referendum 71, which was placed on the ballot by those opposed to expanded rights for state-registered domestic partners.

Seen as a direct vote on gay rights, R-71 bucked a national trend. Maine voters on Nov. 3 repealed a same-sex marriage law. In 2008, voters in California, Arizona and Florida eliminated the right of gay couples to marry or approved marriage-protection measures.

Full Story from Herald.net: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20091202/NEWS01/712029857

Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington State.

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.

The D.C. City Council voted 11-2 in favor of same-sex marriage Tuesday morning. It was the first of two votes on the issue allowing same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital.

The bill sponsored by openly gay Councilman David Catania had been expected to pass for some time, as 10 of the 13 council members supported its introduction. Only Councilman Marion Barry and Councilwoman Yvette Alexander voted against it Tuesday.

The final vote is expected later this month, and Mayor Adrian Fenty has said he will sign the bill.

Full Story from NBC Washington: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/politics/DC-Council-Votes-11-2-in-Favor-of-Same-Sex-Marriage-78231227.html

Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.

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.

Two states are expected to decide on whether to grant gay couples the right to marry before the end of the year, but gay marriage proponents are thoroughly sanguine about the District of Columbia, where passage of Council member David Catania’s gay marriage bill is expected to win approval on December 1.

Enthusiasm for gay marriage appears to be on the wane in New York and New Jersey after Mainers repealed a gay marriage law approved by lawmakers in the spring. Numerous New Jersey Democratic senators have expressed concern that now is not the time, while the New York Senate continues to delay action on a bill.

But the political consensus driving gay marriage in the District endures despite numerous attacks. City leaders have remained united on the bill, which is expected to win approval along a 10 to 2 vote at Tuesday’s meeting.

Full Story from On Top Magazine: http://www.ontopmag.com/article.aspx?id=4929&MediaType=1&Category=26

Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.

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.

Maine — Question 1. Maine votes Yes on Question 1 — which means no on gay marriage — by a margin of about 52-48. Turnout was extremely high and should eventually surpass 500,000 voters, about where it was during the 2006 midterms. This fact was initially thought to favor the pro-gay marriage side — but, obviously, it didn’t. The results showed a very strong urban-rural divide, with the initiative being rejected by a margin of about 2:1 in Portland but racking up big margins in smaller towns and rural areas, especially in the north of the state.

We had given Question 1 about a 70 percent chance of being defeated based on a combination of an analysis of the polling and a statistical model. I don’t know how much time I’m supposed to spend defending being on the wrong side of a 70:30 bet — we build in a hedge for a reason — but here comes a little self-reflection. As for the polling, I think we have to seriously consider whether there is some sort of a Bradley Effect in the polling on gay rights issues, although one of the pollsters (PPP, which had a very bad night in NY-23) got it exactly right.

As for the model, I think I’ll need to look whether the urban-rural divide is a significant factor in a state in addition to its religiosity: Maine is secular, but rural. At the end of the day, it may have been too much to ask of a state to vote to approve gay marriage in an election where gay marriage itself was the headline issue on the ballot. Although the enthusiasm gap is very probably narrowing, feelings about gay marriage have traditionally been much stronger on the right than the left, and that’s what gets people up off the couch in off-year elections.

Full Story from Five Thirty Eight: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/11/what-happened-and-why.html

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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.