Tag Archives: marriage equality

Ireland’s same-sex marriage vote has been signed into law and weddings will commence by mid-November. “The Presidential Commission today signed the ‘Marriage Bill 2015’ into law,” the president’s office said in a statement, paving the way for the first weddings within a month. Ireland voted 62.1 percent in favour of allowing marriage between two people “without distinction as to their …

Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has won a battle before Italy’s highest administrative court which will force mayors to remove foreign same-sex marriages from city registries. Last year Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino defied Italian law by registering 16 marriages conducted abroad and his action was followed by several other mayors. The Gazzetta del Sud reports: “Last year my circular banning …

Last night Bernie Sanders was interviewed by Rachel Maddow about the continuing DOMA flap and his own history on LGBT rights. Lucas Grindley recaps at The Advocate: In Monday’s interview, Sanders explained why it’s important to get the history right, saying, “We live in a tough world and leadership counts.” As one of only 67 people in the House to …

Anti-gay television personality Jimmy Morales has been elected president of Guatemala in a landslide win against a former first lady. And according to Breitbart, that means television personality Donald Trump will probably beat a former first lady too. They write: Because worldwide political trends are often contagious, the outcome of Guatemala’s presidential election could have a serious effect on the …

The Associated Press reports: April Miller and Karen Roberts stood before a minister Saturday night, hand-in-hand, and said the two words they fought for months to exchange. “I will.” The people packed into the room around them jumped into a standing ovation. They all wore matching rainbow buttons that read #LoveWins. The couple, the first denied a license by Kentucky …

The haters in Slovenia have convinced the Constitutional Court that despite a recently-adopted ban on voting on human rights, there will be a national referendum to repeal same-sex marriage. Via Agence France-Presse: The court’s decision comes after parliament in March adopted a bill giving same-sex couples the same marriage rights as heterosexual couples. A conservative group close to the centre-right …

In a statement that will surely incite evangelical outrage, the head of the Mormon Church has denounced Kim Davis. The Salt Lake Tribune reports: Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky, cannot use her Christian faith as a justification for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gays, a high-ranking Mormon authority said Tuesday. Public officials “are not free to apply …

Now that marriage equality is the law of the nation, the State Department has announced that it will phase out domestic partners benefits. Via the Washington Blade: Diplomatic and consular posts on Oct. 14 notified Foreign Service personnel that the State Department will begin to phase out the Same-Sex Domestic Partner program on Dec. 14. The SSDP will officially end …

Back in 2013, Montgomery County Register of Deeds D. Bruce Hanes became a hero to the LGBT movement when he briefly issued same-sex marriage licenses until a court ordered him to stop. Hanes is running for reelection and his GOP opponent, Sharon Valentine-Hanes, has declared that if elected she will obey God and defy SCOTUS on Obergefell. Via the Norristown …

You might recall this case from 2013 when Todd Starnes and Tony Perkins were first wailing about it. Religion Clause reports: In Wilson v. James, the D.C. federal district court dismissed RFRA, 1st and 5th Amendment and various other challenges by an enlisted member of the Utah Air National Guard to letters of reprimand he received for his opposition to …

The International Business Times reports: A federal judge has ordered Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear to decide whether gay marriage licenses issued by Rowan County clerk Kim Davis’ office were valid, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. A lawyer of one of Davis’ deputies said in a September court filing that Davis changed the forms by dropping her name as well as …

Via the Associated Press: A Nevada board has approved a $615,000 payment to lawyers who successfully challenged the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The Nevada Board of Examiners voted Tuesday to pay attorney fees and costs to Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which said it spent about 2,000 hours working on the case. The group originally sought more …

Pastor Randy Smith [photo] and the Family Foundation of Kentucky will today attempt to meet with Gov. Steve Beshear to present their demand on behalf of Kim Davis and other anti-gay county clerks. They claim that a 10AM meeting is scheduled but the governor’s office says no such meeting is planned. Beshear has refused to call a special session of …

Over the objections of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, last week a Travis County judge ruled that a lesbian and her late partner were in a common law marriage prior to the Obergfell ruling. The Austin American-Statesman reports: Travis County Probate Judge Guy Herman signed a judgment acknowledging that Stella Powell and Sonemaly Phrasavath met the legal requirements to be …

The ACLU wants to make the Kim Davis case a class action lawsuit and the Liberty Counsel is VERY unhappy about that, telling the court that the ACLU is just trying to pump up their legal fees. Via World Net Daily: “Unsatisfied with the status quo, plaintiffs are apparently looking to stir up controversy where it does not exist, perhaps …

In one of his best clips yet, Matt Baume takes us back to a night in television and gay history that happened 38 years ago today. He writes: “When did gay partners become a part of the family on TV? October 9, 1977. That’s the night CBS aired an All in the Family episode entitled “Cousin Liz,” which in just …

The American Principles Project, a right wing think tank co-founded by former NOM chairman Robert George, has issued a call for “all federal and state officeholders in the United States” to defy the Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling. They write: If Obergefell is accepted as binding law, the consequences will be grave. Of the results that can be predicted with confidence, …

Northern Ireland’s Rainbow Project this morning announced on Facebook that their clients’ same-sex marriage ban challenge will be heard on December 3rd. According to a poll released in July, 68% of the Northern Irish public now supports same-sex marriage, an even greater number than the 62% that voted “yes” in Ireland’s national referendum. The highest support comes from Catholics, 75% …

Back in March, the Slovenian national legislature approved a same-sex marriage bill by a 51-28 vote. The law has not yet gone into effect as anti-gay factions call for a repeal referendum despite a 2013 constitutional amendment which bans any public votes on human rights issues. Slovenia’s Constitutional Court has heard the case but has yet to rule on whether …

The website MuckRock has launched a crowd-funding campaign to obtain the emails of Kim Davis. Under the Kentucky Open Records Act, Davis is required to hand over her emails upon request, but she tells MuckRock that each email must be printed and physically mailed because she’s “old school.” And she wants $1200 for that. They write: A couple days before …