GLBT MARRIAGE UPDATES
UNITED
STATES:
Majority
Of Americans Support Rights For Gay Couples
by Paul Johnson 365Gay.com Washington Bureau Chief
Posted: August 3, 2005 5:00 pm ET
365Gay.com
(Washington) Support among American voters for same-sex marriage
has rebounded to its highest point since July 2003 and for the
first time, a majority favors giving gay and lesbian couples many
of the same rights as married couples.
While 53% of those polled by the Pew Research Center for the People
& the Press oppose gay marriage, 35 percent said they favor
gay marriage. That is the highest number of people supporting
same-sex marriage since the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
took up the marriage issue in 2003, ultimately ruling in November
that year that gay couples could wed.
Following the ruling support for gay unions plummeted and in last
year's election 11 states banned same-sex unions in their constitutions.
But, as the pollsters note, the bigger news is the growing support
for civil unions and legal protections for gay couples.
Fifty-three percent, the same number as oppose gay marriage, would
permit gays and lesbians to enter into legal arrangements that
would give them many of the same rights as married couples.
|
CANADA:
Canada
4th Nation to Legalize Gay Marriage
By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press Writer
Posted: July 20, 2005 6:53 pm ET
TORONTO -- Canada legalized gay marriage Wednesday, becoming the
world's fourth nation to grant full legal rights to same-sex couples.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin signed the legislation
making it law, hours after it was approved by the Senate
late Tuesday night despite strong opposition from Conservatives
and religious leaders.
The bill gives
homosexual couples the same rights as those in traditional unions
between a man and a woman, something already legal in eight of Canada's
10 provinces and in two of its three territories. The legislation
drafted by Prime Minister Paul Martin's minority Liberal Party government
easily passed the Senate, which essentially rubber stamps any bill
already passed by the House of Commons, which passed it late last
month.
The Netherlands,
Belgium and Spain are the only other nations that allow gay marriage
nationwide. The law comes after years of court battles and debate
that divided families, religious groups and even political allies.
The Roman Catholic Church, the predominant Christian denomination
in Canada, has vigorously opposed the legislation.
But Martin,
a Roman Catholic, has said that despite anyone's personal beliefs,
all Canadians should be granted the same rights to marriage. Alex
Munter, national spokesman for Canadians for Equal Marriage, which
has led the debate in favor of the law, was triumphant Wednesday:
"It is a signal to the world that Canada is an open and inclusive
society that believes in the notion of full citizenship for all."
Churches have
expressed concern that their clergy would be compelled to perform
same sex ceremonies. The legislation, however, states that the bill
only covers civil unions, not religious ones, and no clergy would
be forced to perform same-sex ceremonies unless they choose to do
so.
Charles McVety,
a spokesman for Defend Marriage Canada and president of Canada Christian
College, said he was "very sad that the state has invaded the
church, breached separation of church and state and redefined a
religious word."
McVety vowed his group would work to vote out lawmakers who supported
the legislation in the next general elections. "A new Parliament
is going to readdress this issue and common sense ultimately will
prevail," McVety said.
In the United
States, Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay marriages;
Vermont and Connecticut have approved same-sex civil unions. Though
hundreds of foreigners have come to Canada to seek civil ceremonies
since gay marriages were first allowed in Ontario and British Columbia
in 2003, not all countries or states recognize the unions.
The U.S. government
does not recognize same-sex marriage, and most states refuse to
acknowledge marriage certificates from gay and lesbian couples,
regardless of where they wed.
|
SPAIN:
SPANISH
PREMIER ZAPATERO'S
AMAZING GAY MARRIAGE SPEECH
When
the Spanish parliament yesterday took its historic vote legalizing
both gay marriage and adoption of children by gay couples, Socialist
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (right) -- who put
the full prestige of his office and party behind passage of the
gay human rights legislation -- made probably the most remarkable
speech in favor of full equality for those with same-sex hearts
ever delivered by a head of government anywhere in the world.
Here are excerpts from Zapatero's speech:
|
|
Spain´s
Prime Minister
José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
|
"We are
not legislating, honorable members, for people far away and not
known by us. We are enlarging the opportunity for happiness
to our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends and, our families:
at the same time we are making a more decent society, because
a decent society is one that does not humiliate its members.
"In the poem 'The Family,' our [gay] poet Luis Cernuda was
sorry because, 'How does man live in denial in vain by giving
rules that prohibit and condemn?'
"Today, the Spanish society answers to a group of people
who, during many years have, been humiliated, whose rights
have been ignored, whose dignity has been offended, their identity
denied, and their liberty oppressed. Today the Spanish society
grants them the respect they deserve, recognizes their rights,
restores their dignity, affirms their identity, and restores their
liberty.
"It is true that they are only a minority, but their triumph
is everyone's triumph. It is also the triumph of those
who oppose this law, even though they do not know this yet: because
it is the triumph of Liberty. Their victory makes all of
us (even those who oppose the law) better people, it makes our
society better. Honorable members, There is no damage to marriage
or to the concept of family in allowing two people of the same
sex to get married. To the contrary, what happens is this class
of Spanish citizens get the potential to organize their lives
with the rights and privileges of marriage and family. There is
no danger to the institution of marriage, but precisely the opposite:
this law enhances and respects marriage.
"Today, conscious that some people and institutions are in
a profound disagreement with this change in our civil law, I wish
to express that, like other reforms to the marriage code
that preceded this one, this law will generate no evil, that its
only consequence will be the avoiding of senseless suffering of
decent human beings. A society that avoids senseless suffering
of decent human beings is a better society.
"With the approval of this Bill, our country takes another
step in the path of liberty and tolerance that was begun by the
democratic change of government. Our children will look
at us incredulously if we tell them that many years ago, our mothers
had less rights than our fathers, or if we tell them that people
had to stay married against their will even though they were unable
to share their lives. Today we can offer them a beautiful lesson:
every right gained, each access to liberty has been the result
of the struggle and sacrifice of many people that deserve our
recognition and praise.
"Today we demonstrate with this Bill that societies can better
themselves and can cross barriers and create tolerance by putting
a stop to the unhappiness and humiliation of some of our citizens.
Today, for many of our countrymen, comes the day predicted by
Kavafis the great Greek gay poet, one century ago:
'Later 'twas said of the most perfect society/someone else, made
like me/certainly will come out and act freely.' "
Thanks
to gay journalist Rex Wockner for providing this translation.
UPDATE,
JULY 9:
"I just watched on C-SPAN a tape of the vote in the Cortes
(the Spanish parliament on the gay marriage and adoption bill,
including part of the debate, Zapatero's speech, and the approval
of the bill by a 40-vote majority. Just before the vote, the chamber's
president asked the gallery -- crammed with gays and lesbians
-- to refrain from cheering or hissing when the vote was announced
(depending on which way it went, although the result was not in
doubt). Naturally, when the bill passed, the queers in the gallery
couldn't restrain their joy at this extraordinary event, and the
chamber's president, as he'd warned he'd do, ordered them out
of the gallery. Then, a remarkable thing happened -- Zapatero
and the Socialist deputies rose and gave a sustained standing
ovation to the gays and lesbians as they left. It was a stunning
tribute to the homosexuals' sacrifice, courage, and refusal to
accept less than full equality before the law -- a recognition
that this was their victory. I've seen many parliaments in operation
in many parts of the world at times of crucial debate -- but I've
never, ever seen the parliamentarians applaud the gallery. I'm
a tough-minded old cynic, but to see the Spanish parliamentarians
give lesbians and gays the standing ovation we so richly deserved
actually made my eyes rather moist."
|
|
|
|
|
|