Court cases

Court cases / Families and Parents / North America / South America — 1 Comment
19
May 11

‘We came very close to having our marriage destroyed’

Josh Vandiver and Henry Velandia

Great insights here from Josh Vandiver and Henry Velandia, the couple a US judge ruled should be allowed to stay together, despite the immigration department using the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as a reason to separate them.

“I’m from Colorado and he’s from Venezuela.  In both our cultures, marriage is the ceremony in which you commit to your spouse before family and friends.  And that’s what we wanted, too.

Our marriage certificate is exactly the same as every other marriage certificate in the United States”

Thanks to CNN and Gay Marriage Watch for drawing attention to this.

 

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7
May 11

BRAZIL – BIGGEST COUNTRY TO LEGALIZE

 

Pride parade held at Paulista Avenue, in Sao Paulo

Pride parade held at Paulista Avenue, in Sao Paulo

OK, so it is only civil unions and not full marriage equality – but this is pretty big. Brazil’s Supreme Court voted 10 to 0 on Friday to recognize the rights of gay couples here to share in each other’s inheritances, pensions, and health plans, and a legal route to divide belongings after a separation.

“Those who opt for a homosexual union cannot be treated less than equally as citizens,” Justice Camen Lucia said. The change is backed by Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff

With 200 million people, this economic power is also the world’s largest largely Catholic nation – continuing the tradition of centres of Catholicism being among the most enthusiastic gay rights supporters (think Spain, think Argentina, think Portugal).

Here is how Brazil compares globally

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Conservatives / Court cases / North America / Republican / Surprising Marriage Equality Supporters — No Comments
5
May 11

THANK YOU, NEW YORK TIMES

Judge Vaughn Walker

Thank heavens a really serious publication has had the guts to take this up.

The idea that Judge Vaughn Walker (republican, experienced etc) was not able to rule on the flimsy Prop 8 case (by that I mean the very strong appeal), on the basis of being gay and in a relationship is absurd.  As the Times says, what next? Women can’t judge rape cases?

These people are fools who insult the notion of justice.

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20
Apr 11

HANDY FACTS IN BOSTON REVIEW

two male wedding rings resting on each other

Here’s an interesting piece from this month’s Boston Review magazine by Stanford Professor Pamela S. Karlan, a constitutional expert.

(There’s a handy list of relevant US court cases from one of the commenters at the end of the piece)

Karlan notes hopefully that she “cannot think of a contentious social issue on which public opinion has shifted more rapidly.”, which she says is essential if equality is to be achieved because the US Supreme Court tends to be a reflection rather than a cause of progressive social change.

“We have moved in roughly a generation from a nation in which no state provided legal recognition to same-sex couples to one in which two in five Americans live in states that do: eight states and the District of Columbia now either issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples or recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. Without that change, the Supreme Court would not even consider legal protections for same-sex couples.”

 

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Civil Union / Court cases / Democrat / North America / Politicians — 1 Comment
27
Feb 11

THE WEEK THAT WAS IN U.S. GAY MARRIAGE

Will Lady Liberty shine on the gays and their marriages?

I often find a big reaction to a string of gay marriage new events in the US – a reaction that often generates more heat than light. And while the US is by far the most organised gay marriage movement, it also the most self-obsessed. So, I try not to report everything in up to the minute dramatic style. To be useful to my global audience, it helps to rest up for a couple of days and then reflect on what has really changed!

This week quite a lot did happen, as this Village Voice summary by Steven Thrasher explains. You need to get up to date with progress in
in Washington DC, Maryland, Hawaii, New York, California and more.  The predictions about what it all means for the 2012 Presidential election are also coming in thick and fast and full of contradiction.

Tomorrow, I will give my thoughts on what difference the Obama Administration intervention will really make and why/

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Civil Union / Court cases / Europe / Lesbian / Politicians — No Comments
28
Jan 11

FRENCH COURTS PUSHES MARRIAGE BACK INTO THE HANDS OF PARLIAMENT

France will maintain its ban on gay marriage after the constitutional court ruled that a lesbian couple with four children do not have the right to marry.

The ruling comes on the same day that a TNS Sofres opinion poll found 58 percent of French people questioned were in favour of gay marriage.

Essentially the court said that parliament should decide if the ban should be overturned, and not the constitutional authority.

“Marriage is the only solution in terms of protecting our children, sharing parental authority, settling inheritance problems and eventual custody if one of us were to die,“  Corinne Cestino and Sophie Hasslauer told AFP before the ruling.

President Nicolas Sarkozy opposed gay marriage, while the opposition Socialists support it. The couple already have a low-level civil union known as a ‘PACS’ in France. w

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30
Nov 10

TIL COURT DO US PART …

Mark and Dante

Mark and Dante - no longer married, or were they ever?

So the now famous Texan Skype e-Marriage is a bust.  So says  the Superior Court for the District of Columbia, home of the America’s capital city.

It’s a digital world and well as an unequal one – there is no way this will be the end of the e-Marriage court wars, I assure you.

Stay tuned for more test cases and more thwarted happiness.

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29
Nov 10

PROP 8 RETURNS TO THE COURTROOM; UNITED STATES ROUND-UP

 

1. Prop 8
2. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
3. New Hampshire drama on the horizon

PROP 8 NEWS

A pro-equality Governor (Jerry Brown) and a pro-equality Attorney-General (Kamala Harris) were elected in November in California. So far, so good. The Californian Government will not be defeding Prop 8 in court.

That doesn’t mean the court appeal will go away: it’s before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco from December 6.

This is an appeal against U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s Aug. 4 2010 ruling that Prop 8 is constitutional. In the first hour, the parties will address the question of whether any entity has legal standing to appeal Walker’s ruling, seeing as the Californian govt and country clerks refuse to do so.

If the random appellants do not achieve ‘standing’ the case is over and Walker’s ruling will take effect. Or the parties could appeal the standing issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The hearing will be aired live by C-SPAN and other TV stations. More background information on the case from Rex Wockner here.

2. DON’T ASK DON’T TELL
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal, round 2, starts Dec. 2 in the U.S. Senate when Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee. They will discuss the Pentagon’s massive survey of troops, which is to be released tomorrow, Nov. 30.

3. NEW HAMPSHIRE

Are you about to go back to inequality in New Hampshire just a year after the leap forward? Yes - if some Republican legislators get their way. Republicans now control both state Houses of Parliament.  Bills already have been filed to repeal the marriage-equality law and to amend the state constitution to prohibit same-sex couples from marrying.

“Republicans now have a veto-proof majority in the Legislature, and the newly elected House speaker, state Rep. Bill O’Brien, is a staunch opponent of marriage equality,” said Lee Swislow, executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders. “But we know there are many New Hampshire Republicans who support marriage equality and we’re looking forward to working with them.” Thanks to Rex Wockner for pointing me to this info.

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3
Nov 10

AFTER MID-TERMS: STATE OF THE STATES

So … inevitably today is about news from the United States given the many equality-related electoral races in yesterday’s Congress, Senate, Gubnertorial and court elections.

Some of the key results:

THE GOOD:

Jerry Brown (Governor) and Barbara Boxer (Senator), both anti Prop 8 and pro-equality, beat the evil twins Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina in California. With Brown’s election the court appeals seeking to re-instate Prop 8 might finally flop.

New York elects Andrew Cuomo as an equality-supporting Governor, Rhode Island elects Lincoln Chaffee likewise.  According to Americablog Gay, “Abercrombie has won the Governor’s race in Hawaii. He’ll sign the civil unions bill, which the current Governor, Linda Lingle, vetoed.” No clear winners yet in other states that could legalise marriage equality next: Maine, Minnesota and Illinois.

The Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, a Democrat called Ike Skelton, lost his seat. Not going to mean much though given that he’ll be replaced by someone else equally bad

In Massachusetts both the Republican and Democrat candidates for Governor support equality. No surprises then, equality won.

Kentucky’s second-largest city has elected an openly gay man as its next mayor. Vice-Mayor Jim Gray

THE BAD:

Speaking of which, Barack Obama is finally replaced in an election – by a Republican, Mark Kirk, who opposed equality and supports Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Equality supporting Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold lost – to a man who is proud that he can’t even spot Washington on a map.

THE UGLY:

All three Iowa Supreme Court Justices lost their bids for re-election, following a vicious campaign by the Christian Right to have them tossed out.

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Civil Union / Court cases / Europe / Marriage / Video — No Comments
16
Oct 10

FRANCE: NO MARRIAGE = NO PRIVACY

Napoleon and his famous code

A French lesbian couple is seeking to force a change to France’s famed ‘civil code’ (known sometimes as the ‘other little red book’ or the Napoleonic code) on the basis that because their family does not have access to basic elements of privacy. (Think of all the intrusive questions, begrudged rights, lack of access in emergencies etc), so they conclude that the law must allow them to marry in order to guarantee them and their three children their constitutional right to privacy.

The couple have the watered-down French version of a civil union – the PACS, and clearly separate is not equal for them.

See a TV news story about their campaign here (in French)

I don’t know enough about the French Conseil d’Etat (constitutional court) to say what the chance of success is. But it is certainly an inventive argument that could be of interest globally.

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