MEXICO CITY -- Mexico City's assembly on Thursday voted for the first time in the country's history to legally recognize gay civil unions, a measure that will provide same-sex couples with benefits similar to those of married couples. The mayor was expected to sign the measure into law.

The bill, which does not approve gay marriage, allows same-sex couples to register their union with civil authorities, granting them inheritance and pension rights, as well as other social benefits. Lawmakers were still finalizing the details.

Heterosexual couples who are not legally married can also be registered under the legislation.

CAPE TOWN — In a major about turn, the African National Congress (ANC) in Parliament’s home affairs committee yesterday swept aside opposition objections to the same-sex marriages bill and used its 70% majority to force the use of the terms “civil union” and “marriage” equally.

The approved version of the bill makes the term “civil union” the same as a “marriage” and wherever the one appears, so too does the other. This approval is a direct rejection of the masses of submissions from religious groups objecting to giving homosexual couples the choice of using the term marriage. It is also a direct rejection of traditional leaders who wanted the constitution to be changed rather than the bill approved.

ANY two people who live together and present themselves as a couple will be covered under South Australia's proposed changes to partnership laws, state Attorney-General Michael Atkinson has said.

Mr Atkinson introduced the Domestic Partners Bill to parliament today and said he expected support from the majority of MPs.

Most importantly he has secured backing for the legislation from the Family First party, the Greens and the Australian Democrats, virtually ensuring its passage in the upper house, after redrafting the bill which stalled in parliament last year.

The new legislation will allow same-sex couples to share property and financial affairs and take carer's leave to look after each other during periods of illness.

The laws will dispense with the term "de facto'' and categorise couples as domestic partners.

As such they will also apply to any two people living together as a couple, such as two sisters, even though they have a non-sexual relationship.

MEXICO CITY: Mexico's ruling conservative party is considering filing a legal challenge to Mexico City's new law recognizing gay civil unions, saying it violates a clause in the country's constitution protecting the family, legislators said Friday.

...

Article 4 of Mexico's Constitution covers the rights of spouses, children and the family, and states that "men and women are equal before the law. This will protect the organization and development of the family." Errasti said the new Mexico City law is unconstitutional because the article mentions only men and women in relation to marriage.

City legal counsel Maria Estela Rios, however, called the argument "absurd" because the law guarantees legal rights for same-sex couples, but does not legalize gay marriage.

"There is no attack against the concept of the family," Rios said. The law "just involves recognizing that there are other forms of unions that have existed for many years."

Errasti did not say when his party would decide on whether to file the constitutional challenge — the only legal avenue to overturn the law.

The Irish Parliament has voted down a bill that would have given gay and lesbian couples all of the rights of marriage. The private members bill was introduced by Labor Party justice critic Brendan Howlin was modeled after Britain's civil unions law.

In voting against the measure the government of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said it went too far.

The government is preparing its own legislation which it said would be brought in later this year. The bill is expected to provide some recognition of same-sex relationships in property and inheritance rights but deny gay couples adoption rights.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell said the Howlin bill would be unconstitutional because it equated civil partnerships with marriage. The constitution says the government is obligated to defend the institution of marriage, but it does not define it.

Howlin's bill was defeated by a wide margin among government and opposition backbenchers.

Hawaii lawmakers decided Tuesday night not to vote on a bill that would have created civil unions for same-sex couples, effectively killing the measure.

After five hours of testimony, the House Judiciary Committee wouldn't vote on the proposal -- a sign that it didn't have enough support to pass into law.

Civil unions were suggested as a way for the state to sidestep a controversy over gay marriage, but they proved to be nearly as contentious.

"This is essentially a re-examination of the same-sex marriage issue except with a different title," said Kelly Rosati, a spokeswoman for the Hawaii Catholic Church and executive director for the Hawaii Family Forum.

[...]

Representatives offered little explanation to the public as to why they didn't vote on the matter.

"There will be no vote tonight," said committee Chairman Tommy Waters, D-Lanikai-Waimanalo. "It's the chair's decision to defer this matter. Thank you."

Hawaii nearly legalized gay marriages more than a decade ago before stiff public opposition came from family advocacy groups, the Catholic Church and the Mormon Church.

[...]

Virginia Domligan, pastor for the Prayer Center of the Pacific in Pearl City, told lawmakers her community doesn't believe gay couples should receive the same rights.

"Full benefits are for traditional marriage between male and female," she said. "The heart of the majority has not changed, even though times have changed."

Thread consolidation time...

That's it. I've had it with these effing papists and that gawddamn Mormon cult, and all these precious little "family" groups. I say we start up a group called "The North American Coalition for the Family" -- open only to those who support, and advocate for equal marriage. And other ones, with a similar sort of membership, called stuff like "Focus on the Faith" (open only to pagans), "Mavens of Motherhood; Devotees of Dadhood" (advocating for adoption rights for queers), "Traditional Values Voters" (lobbying for the return of traditional roles such as burdaches, and the removal of churches from wedding rituals, which ought to be performed with pagan rites)... and even one called "The Alliance for Apple Pie" (open only to queers who advocate fervently for cherry pie) -- just to be whimsical and confusing.

And then we *flood* every damn elected official at every jurisdictional level, from Mexico to Ellesmere Island with letters, e-mails, postcards, petitions, phone calls, faxes... call all the papers, alert all the networks -- make it so that terms like "traditional" and "family" and "values" are seen as gayer than a picnic in the park in June... that ought to shut the bastards up (for awhile).

Done

that was a lotta work

Legislation will be presented in Argentina's Parliament this fall that would give same-sex couples all of the rights of marriage.  

Currently the law limits marriage to opposite-sex couples. However the country does afford gay and lesbian couples some rights including inheritance, adoption and survivor pensions.

Two regions of the country permit civil unions - the province of Río Negro and the federal district of Buenos Aires. 

In 2003 Rio Negro became the first area in South America to permit civil unions.

A poll released this week shows that three-quarters of those surveyed in the capital believe gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry. Only 25 percent disagreed.

The national civil unions bill would give same-sex couples all of the rights of marriage without the name. It was written with the support of the country's largest LGBT civil rights group, the Argentinean Homosexual Community.

There ARE a few such 'coalitions' out there. Perhaps they will grow.

(New Rochelle, NY) A planned protest rally became a lunch of thanksgiving yesterday at a local Cosi sandwich shop, where advocates of same-sex marriage were allowed to keep their photos on display after all.

The fashionable chain restaurant had welcomed an exhibit of family snapshots collected by the Empire State Pride Agenda in lobbying for same-sex marriage rights. A day later, the group was asked to take the photos down. The local manager cited complaints from the public, and the corporate office blamed a glitch in company procedures.

That discrepancy didn't seem to matter yesterday as the photos -- a collection of smiling portraits matted on 35 rainbow-colored pages -- were being arranged on the walls again. Activists, clergy members and local residents held a news conference outside to explain their argument for giving gays and lesbians the right to legally marry in New York. When everyone had spoken, they went inside and had lunch.

"Marriage, to my family, means everything," said Carolina Cordero Dyer of White Plains, whose twin 2-year-old children were at her side in a stroller. "Just like everyone else, I worry about paying the bills, I worry about my kids' education, I worry about health care. Without marriage, all of those things that we all worry about are harder."

Dyer said she married Claudia Glaser in Canada and completed a second-parent adoption of their children, whom Glaser gave birth to. An entry in the photo display had pictures of the four of them with the words, "Marriage, Love, Commitment, Family."

[...]

Diana Wilkins of the Empire State Pride Agenda signed a liability and insurance agreement with Cosi to display the artwork from Feb. 24 to March 26. But Regional Vice President Robert Speirs said the approval did not go through the right channels, and that triggered the removal request. He said the company's aim is not to judge the artwork but to present it appropriately - in frames, for example. The photos were professionally matted but not framed.

[...]

At least one local customer said she'll be giving up Cosi's salads and other offerings until the exhibit comes down. "What offends me is that they're fighting for normalcy, they're fighting for approval, they're fighting for acceptance, and those of us who disagree with this issue of homosexuality -- that's never going to happen," Jeanne Sparks said.

"It's a political agenda. It may be legal, but I think it's not appropriate," she said. "It could be offensive and disrespectful to the people who are raising their children to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman."

"What offends me is that they're fighting for normalcy, they're fighting for approval, they're fighting for acceptance, and those of us who disagree with this issue of homosexuality -- that's never going to happen,"

"It's a political agenda. It may be legal, but I think it's not appropriate"

Two women have been charged with election fraud in connection with the collection last year of signatures on a referendum to repeal Cincinnati's LGBT rights ordinance.

Following a seven-month investigation indictments were handed down against Lois Mingo, 47 and Precilla Ward, 32. Both women had been hired by Equal Rights Not Special Rights, an organization formed to repeal the ordinance.

But the grand jury did not return indictments against two other people that local LGBT civil rights groups also accused of irregularities, including -- Rep. Tom Brinkman (R).

Citizens To Restore Fairness, a group formed to fight the referendum, and Equality Cincinnati, said they believed the alleged fraud was widespread. In a statement to the media Equality Cincinnati said investigators "ignored the real extent of the changes made while the petitions were in state Rep. Tom Brinkman's control."

[...]

Among the phony signatures were "Fidel Castro" and Cincinnati Reds owner "Bob Castellini."

Restore Fairness alleged that Equal Rights Not Special Rights was systematic in its use of fraud and tampering of petitions to push the issue onto the fall ballot. A probe was launched by the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office.

Mingo and Ward worked for a temp agency - Labor Ready - that had been hired by the Equal Rights Not Special Rights campaign. They were paid by the hour and by the signature, and received bonuses based on the number of signatures collected. If convicted Mingo and Ward could be sentenced up to one year in prison for each phony name collected.

AMSTERDAM – The COC demonstration at the monument for homosexuals drew about 300 people on Amsterdam, a spokesperson for the COC said on Sunday.

The COC organised the demonstration in protest against the civil servants who refuse to conduct marriages for same-sex couples. It was exactly six years ago that same-sex marriages were legalised.

Seven Dutch municipalities continued to hire officials who refuse to perform same-sex marriages, even after gay marriage was legalised on 1 April 2001.

Gay rights organisation COC Nederland says their survey of 443 Dutch municipalities came to this conclusion. The results were presented at the gathering in Amsterdam on Sunday.

One in eight Dutch municipalities has officials in service who refuse to marry gay couples. Twenty municipalities said that they might continue in future to hire officials who object to performing such marriages.

Australia's opposition Labor Party on the weekend approved a campaign plank for the upcoming election calling for a national domestic partner registry for same-sex couples.

The policy was endorsed by the party at its national convention following a lengthy and divisive debate. It would allow same-sex couples to register and receive limited rights in areas such as inheritance, property and pensions. The scheme would be modeled on one already in existence in Tasmania.

[...]

Labor's legal critic, Sen. Joe Ludwig, was pummeled with accusations by party delegates to the convention that he was trying to undermine traditional marriage. Trade union leader, Joe de Bruyn, a delegate to the convention argued that the plan would destroy marriage as an institution. "It robs marriage of its unique and privileged status and it puts it on the same level as a radically different type of union," he said.

But Ludwig said: "The [proposal] specifically says no to gay marriage."

[...]

Howard's Liberals are expected to campaign on "family values." The governing party has a long history of opposing any recognition for same-sex relationships. It thwarted two attempts by the Australian Capital Territory to enact civil partnership legislation.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the poster child for gay marriage? How about Sen. Mel Martinez, the Florida Republican who once accused an opponent of playing to the "radical homosexual lobby''?

A coalition of civil rights groups that back gay marriage is using photos of prominent couples like the former Republican governor and his Mexican-born wife, Columba, along with the Cuban-born Martinez and his American-born wife, Kitty, in an advertising campaign marking the 40th anniversary of Loving vs. Virginia, a U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave interracial couples the right to marry.

Neither of the politicians responded to requests for comment, but the groups say they hope to use the couples and the court case to bolster their contention that marriage is a civil right that should know no bounds -- even for those of the same sex.

''We're honoring and celebrating something that just over 40 years ago some Americans said was immoral and wrong and could not happen,'' said Jimmy Creech, executive director of Faith in America, a gay rights advocacy group that is bankrolling the ad campaign. ``We're celebrating the wisdom that prejudice and bigotry was removed from the law books and Americans were given the right to marry the person they loved, regardless of race.''

[...]

The ads note that 16 states still banned interracial marriages until the Supreme Court struck down a Virginia law in 1967, finding "the freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.

''Jeb and Columba Bush couldn't marry today if discrimination were still the law of the land,'' the ad that features the former Florida First Couple reads.

(New York City) A report released Tuesday by New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. says that if the state legalized same-sex marriage it would boost the economy by $184 million statewide with $142 million going into the city.

The report, Love Counts: The Economic Benefits of Marriage Equality for New York, looked specifically at the economic impact over the first three years if the legislature approved Gov. Elliott Spitzer's same-sex marriage bill.