Thread: In Rhode Island, every Republican state senator backs gay marriage

In Rhode Island, every Republican state senator backs gay marriage

Posted by Rachel Weiner on April 23, 2013 at 10:13 am

In Rhode Island, an entire delegation to the state Senate backs gay marriage — and it’s the Republicans.

Rhode Island Public Radio reports that all five Republican members of the state’s upper chamber will support a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in the state.

The state House voted in favor of gay marriage earlier this year; it’s now before the Senate Judiciary Committee and could see a vote in the full Senate by the end of the week. The regional chapter of the National Organization for Marriage has threatened to unseat Senate Minority Leader Dennis L. Algiere (R) over the vote.

In less liberal states than Rhode Island, Republican supporters of gay marriage are more rare. The Nevada Senate voted Monday to legalize gay marriage in the Silver State; only one Republican backed that legislation. A Republican in Minnesota is co-sponsoring a gay marriage bill; he also faces threats from NOM and resistance from other Republicans. In Delaware, gay marriage has a Republican co-sponsor in the state House; there are also supporters in Illinois, where conservatives have failed to oust the state party chairman for supporting gay marriage.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...-gay-marriage/

Nevada senator's surprise during gay marriage debate: 'I'm gay'

By John M. Glionna
April 23, 2013, 12:28 p.m.

LAS VEGAS -- As Nevada lawmakers took a step toward repealing a state ban on gay marriage, the late-night floor arguments in the Legislature in Carson City were emotional and came with a surprise announcement.

One senator told his stunned colleagues that he's gay.

The Nevada Senate voted 12-9 Monday night to begin the process of repealing the gay marriage ban from the state Constitution, a move to legalize unions between gays and lesbians.

TIMELINE: Gay marriage chronology

Supported by 11 Democrats and one Republican, the bill, Senate Joint Resolution 13, would amend the state Constitution to remove a provision declaring that marriage is only between a man and a woman. The measure also includes wording guaranteeing that religious organizations do not have to perform such unions -- a move to molify two senators who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The night's most surprising moment came when Sen. Kelvin Atkinson, a Democrat from North Las Vegas, told his colleagues that he was gay and proud of it.

“I’m black. I’m gay,” he said in a shaky voice. “I know this is the first time many of you have heard me say that I am a black, gay male.”

Atkinson argued that gay marriage does not threaten any legal or moral definition of the union.

“If this hurts your marriage,” he said, “then your marriage was in trouble in the first place.”

The measue still has a way to to before gay marriage is a reality in Nevada. The idea still must pass the Assembly, where the Democrats have a 27-15 edge. It also must be passed by lawmakers next year and approved by voters in 2016.

A woman who answered the phone in Atkinson’s Carson City office told the Los Angeles Times that the legislator was deluged with interview requests and was trying to accommodate them while tending to his Senate duties.

One legislator might be out of the closet, but another says he’s probably in trouble with his church.

Sen. Ruben Kiheun said his “more progressive” girlfriend nagged him over his resistance to gay marriage, before he voted for the bill Monday.

After the vote, he told fellow legislators: “I don’t know if I’ll be allowed in church on Sunday.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/n...,1370479.story

French lawmakers approve same-sex marriage bill

By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
updated 12:37 PM EDT, Tue April 23, 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
National Assembly approves a same-sex marriage bill by a 331-to-225 vote
Opponents vow to continue their fight against the measure
The issue of same-sex marriage also polarizes the United States and other nations

Lawmakers in New Zealand and Uruguay are the latest to back same-sex marriage

Do you agree with France's move? Send us your thoughts and experiences.

(CNN) -- French lawmakers voted to legalize same-sex marriage Tuesday, despite vocal protests from some conservatives opposed to the step.

The nation's lower house approved a marriage bill, which will also give same-sex couples the right to adopt, in a 331-to-225 final vote.

They cast their votes after impassioned speeches by lawmakers for and against the legislation.

President Francois Hollande, who pledged his support for same-sex marriage on the campaign trail last year, will have to sign the bill before it becomes law.

Opponents, including the Roman Catholic Church, other religious groups and social conservatives, still hope to block the measure by filing a legal challenge with the Constitutional Council.

It would have a month to make its ruling.

The measure was expected to pass Tuesday since the left, which includes Hollande's governing Socialist Party, dominates the National Assembly, or lower house. The legislation was approved in the Senate earlier this month.

Once the measure is enacted, France will be the ninth country in Europe to allow same-sex marriage.

Protesters on Sunday joined the latest in a series of marches through Paris against the measure, and they have vowed to carry on the fight.

One of the groups behind the marchers urged protesters to rally again Tuesday evening and is planning more demonstrations around the country next month.

Policing has been stepped up in the streets around the lower house in case demonstrations by those for and against the bill become heated, CNN affiliate BFM-TV reported.

In France, the contentious debate over the same-sex marriage bill has coincided with a spike in reported incidents of homophobic abuse, the gay rights group SOS Homophobie told BFM-TV last week.

A gay bar in Lille was targeted Wednesday night by four men who appeared to belong to a far-right group, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Thursday, in a statement condemning the attack.

Valls also condemned violence that broke out Thursday evening at a march against same-sex marriage, when "organized groups" refused to disperse and clashed with police.

France is committed to upholding the right of all people to demonstrate peacefully, he said.

International debate

Passage of the divisive bill will admit France to a small but growing club.

Lawmakers in New Zealand last week made it the first country in the Asia Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage. The law is set to be enacted later this year.

Its move came a week after Uruguayan lawmakers approved a measure allowing same-sex marriage. The measure awaits the signature of Uruguay's president, who has indicated he supports it.

If the laws in New Zealand, Uruguay and France are enacted as expected, the count of nations allowing same-sex marriage will rise to 14.

The first same-sex couples walked down the aisle in the Netherlands in 2001, with others following suit in Canada, South Africa, Belgium and Spain. Argentina was the first Latin American nation to legalize such marriages, in 2010.

Legislators in the United Kingdom are also weighing proposals to legalize same-sex marriage.

However, many countries remain split over the issue.

In the United States, the question went before the Supreme Court last month, and justices are now deliberating over the matter.

Nine states and the District of Columbia issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, including three states -- Maryland, Washington, and Maine -- where voters approved it in ballot initiatives last year. Many states have specific laws blocking same-sex couples from legally marrying.

Lawmakers in Australia voted against a bill to legalize same-sex marriage last September. A poll for the advocacy group Australian Marriage Equality indicated that 64% of those surveyed "support marriage equality."

A law legalizing civil unions was introduced in 1999 in France under a previous Socialist government.

Known in France as the PACS, or pacte civil de solidarite, the civil union agreement can be entered into by same-sex or straight couples and confers many but not all of the rights of marriage.

READ MORE: French Senate backs same-sex marriage bill

READ MORE: Same-sex marriage: Who will legalize it next?

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/23/world/...ote/index.html

Will China Legalize Gay Marriage Before the United States?

Andrew Stokols
1 day ago

What if I told you China could legalize same-sex marriage before the U.S. does? You’d probably call me crazy. As of now, you’d probably be right. Shanghai is far from being a gay-paradise on the level of Amsterdam or San Francisco. However, China’s LGBT community has made remarkable strides in recent decades, and being home to the world’s largest population of LGBT individuals, what happens in China matters to the rest of the world’s queer community.

Last week, reported in the state-owned China Daily, a Guangzhou-based NGO representing 100 parents of gays and lesbians, or “comrades,” sent an open letter to China’s National People’s Congress, its formal legislature, urging adoption of same-sex marriage benefits.

Sociologist and activist Li Yinhe has submitted a similar petition to the NPC each year since 2003. Although unsuccessful, she has raised national visibility of homosexuality and gay marriage, a topic that is now openly discussed in official media. And the recent state visit by Iceland’s openly-gay prime minister is giving hope to some in China’s gay community that homosexuality cannot be ignored by state media.

China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, even before the U.S. removed all anti-sodomy laws in certain states. But today, there are no formal laws to prevent discrimination against LGBT Chinese, especially in the workplace. Since China’s ministry removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 2001, government policy and public opinion has also gradually shifted. Public health ministries have been targeting gay bars with public awareness campaigns advocating safe-sex and HIV-testing. But generally, LGBT Chinese now fall into an uncomfortably grey area: no longer directly harassed, but also ignored.

Perhaps the largest barrier to LGBT rights is the family culture that emphasizes having children as a filial duty. And China’s one-child policy exacerbates the pressure only-sons face to extend the family line. But widespread atheism also means there is little of the moral stigma that characterizes the religious right’s opposition to gay marriage in the U.S. Homosexuality has been documented in Chinese history and literature since at least the Han dynasty. A euphemism for homosexuality in Chinese, “cut sleeve,” refers to a legend of an emperor who cut his own sleeve, which his male lover was sleeping upon, as not to wake him.

Chinese gay activists must often use different strategies, however, than their Western counterparts. Gay marriage is discussed less as a universal human right than as an issue that has large implications for social well-being and “harmony,” an oft-used word in Chinese national discourse. Some scholars estimate 16 million wives, called tongqi, are married to gay or bisexual men. And because of China’s gender imbalance, as many as 15% of China’s male population may be unable to find a wife. In this context, gay marriage could make practical sense as social policy.

Because of social and family pressures, 80% of gay men marry straight women, a situation that is often harmful for all involved. A recent change in law is making it easier for women to annul these marriages if they find out their husband is gay afterwards. But many activists complain that this ignores the real solution: offering gay marriage as a viable alternative.

Gay men may also marry lesbian friends in so-called “sham marriages,” an alternative that may be more honest, but not necessarily optimal. Chinese gay friends have told me that marrying a lesbian is “the most practical way to satisfy their obligation to their families,” many of whom come from rural backgrounds and would be unable to even comprehend the idea of being “gay,” let alone learning to accept it.

Gay life in China follows geographic and economic divisions, as it does in the U.S. Large cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and southwestern Chengdu are home to large gay populations, with nightlife scenes increasingly open in the last decade. The popular gay club Destination in Beijing has remained in business for many years, leading many to suspect the owners have some unusually good relationship with local authorities.

Across the Taiwan strait, China's "renegade province" is already host to Asia's largest gay pride parade, in which Taipei's mayor has participated in. The legislature even held its first hearings on the issue last year, leading some to wonder whether Taiwan will be the first Asian country to legalize gay marriage. Since China still regards Taiwan as a province, gay marriage could theoretically become legal in "greater China," serving as both an inspiration and model to activists and policymakers in the mainland.

China’s gay culture may lack the political dimension that often accompanies queer culture in the U.S., but there is a growing number of civil society organizations involved in LGBT rights and health. A recent poll on popular Internet portal Sina.com indicated over 50% of respondents supported gay marriage, though such a poll probably over-represents urban and educated internet users.

As the letter from parents reads, “Everyone knows that when a homosexual and a heterosexual get married, it can lead to serious social problems, and even more people living unhappily. Is our law trying to encourage this?” Despite the tremendous odds against it, this incredibly brave group of parents and children is at the forefront of changing public opinion on LGBT rights in China. Given how far China has come economically and socially in the last three decades, it’s possible to imagine a not so distant future where gay marriage is legal in the middle kingdom.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/36...-united-states