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TOP6NEWS - September 13, 2004 1-NEWS: VT CUs aren't enough 2-NEWS: How much influence a sperm donor can have is in Canadian court 3-NEWS: Pope denounces marriage variations 4-NEWS: Polyamorists pleased GLBTs laying groundwork for them 5-OP-ED: Econ prof: SSM will be good for the economy 6-OP-ED: D. Price saying that no ssm hurts kids ________________________________________________________ 1-NEWS: VT CUs aren't enough Vermont activists say civil unions fall short At the daylong meeting Thursday, titled ''Got Marriage?," lawyers, activists, legislators, and legal scholars said the state's 2000 civil unions law doesn't go far enough. ''We've got work left to do," said Beth Robinson, a Middlebury lawyer who represented the plaintiffs in Baker v. Vermont, the case that led to the Vermont Supreme Court ruling setting the stage for civil unions. ... ________________________________________________________ 2-NEWS: How much influence a sperm donor can have is in Canadian court Two women, a man, and their baby That's the emotionally and legally loaded question Quebec Superior Court will grapple with this week. He claims he always expected to be more than a genetic donor. The outcome of the case could have profound consequences for an untold number of modern-day couples who have relied on sperm and egg donors or surrogate mothers to have children. The case will also be a first test of new laws enacted in Quebec in 2002 that grant same-sex couples full parental rights. ... ________________________________________________________ 3-NEWS: Pope denounces marriage variations Pope denounces variations of 'marriage' New Zealand's parliament has been debating proposed legislation that would grant "civil union" status to couples -- both same-sex and heterosexual -- who live together, giving them many of the same rights as married couples. Conservative critics have labeled it the "Gay Marriage Bill," although it doesn't formally recognize gay marriages and differentiates between civil unions and marriage. "Spouses rightly deserve specific and categorical legal recognition by the state," the pope said, "while any attempt to equate marriage with other forms of cohabitation violates its unique role in God's plan for humanity." The pope spoke of the "challenges currently confronting" the bishops, and urged them to "defend the sanctity and uniqueness of marriage" -- though he did not directly mention the civil union legislation. ... ________________________________________________________ 4-NEWS: Polyamorists pleased GLBTs laying groundwork for them Whole lotta love: 'Polyamorists' go beyond monogamy With the fight over gay marriage and civil unions at full tilt in Wisconsin and across the country, the 60 polyamorists who gathered this weekend at an Easter Seals campsite near Wisconsin Dells discussed how to strengthen their relationships while establishing a place in mainstream America. "They're out doing the heavy lifting for us," Wise, an New Jersey attorney and father of two teenage children, said of the gay rights movement. "They're bringing us the equal protection that we're entitled to." ... "We're queerer than queer," said Wise's wife, Nan, a psychotherapist who is writing a book she hopes will normalize the idea of three or four adults living in a committed sexual relationship. "We're the new gay," she said, referring less to the sexual orientation of polyamorists - most whom are neither gay nor bisexual - than to the way society perceives them. The polyamorists described traditional - they call them "dyadic" - relationships as steeped in pain and jealousy. By contrast, they say, polyamory is about honesty and trust. Unlike the swingers community, polyamorists aren't in it for the sex, they say, they're in it for the love. "The more love that you send out, the more you get back," said Darrell Casey, who travels the country preaching the polyamory gospel with Nancy Casey, his wife of 35 years. Social conservatives have long pointed to polyamorists and other groups as a reason for prohibiting gay marriages and civil unions. If same-sex couples are legally recognized, the next step would be to provide legal standing for multiple-partner arrangements, according to Julaine Appling, the executive director of the Family Research Institute of Wisconsin. "There is no logical stopping point," she said Sunday. "There are groups all around this country saying we should have acceptance of our lifestyle and legalization of what we believe should be an OK arrangement." ... Richard Whitnable, 56, a retired computer programmer who lives alone in Madison, considers his "intimate friends circle" to include 15 people. He divorced his wife in 1982 and became polyamorous shortly thereafter. He recently launched the Madison Area Polyamory Society, an organization of about 60 people who do community service work and have a regular jogging group. Like many of those at this conference, Whitnable said the polyamory movement is where gays and lesbians were in the 1950s and '60s - a community lacking mainstream cultural acceptance, let alone legal standing. "Polys are following the same path," he said. "At the moment it's just about awareness." ________________________________________________________ 5-OP-ED: Econ prof: SSM will be good for the economy C. Ford Runge: Economics of same-sex marriage I answered that I was a Stillwater resident who strongly opposed Sen. Michele Bachmann's obsession with the issue, and that I thought it distracted from the real problems facing the state: education, health care, environment and jobs. He explained that his group thought that gays who married would claim spousal benefits such as family health coverage for which they'd previously been ineligible, thus drawing down state funds. Although skeptical, I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations. I had asked how many same-sex households he estimated there were in Minnesota (he said 200,000). The actual number, based on estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, is about 10,300. If these men and women married, they might then claim spousal benefits for which, as singles, they'd be ineligible. How much is hard to guess, but it might usefully be contrasted to major cuts to Minnesota higher education in 2004-05 (highest of the 50 states as a proportion of state budget) or cuts to special education of nearly 50 percent. They might also be compared to estimated losses to the state treasury thanks to abuses of the Foreign Overseas Corporation law of as much as $100 million per year. There appear to be substantial economic benefits to gay marriage. Forbes magazine estimated that legalizing gay marriage would result in $16.8 billion in extra revenues due to weddings nationally. Using Census Bureau data showing 594,000 U.S. same-sex couples living together in 2000, Forbes assumed that only 85 percent would have formal weddings. If Minnesota's share of gay marriages were proportional to its population of 5.1 million, the weddings benefit would be $247 million. In May, a UCLA Law School study found that same-sex marriages would result in gains to California's state budget of $22.3 to $25.2 million a year. Savings would come mainly by causing the income of a person's married partner to be included when determining eligibility for means-tested state benefit programs. ... In addition to its bigoted intolerance, the argument has little economic foundation. But I'm glad someone asked me the question. The answer, it turns out, is that gay marriage may be good for the economy, and for state budgets. C. Ford Runge is McKnight professor of applied economics and law at the University of Minnesota ________________________________________________________ 6-OP-ED: D. Price saying that no ssm hurts kids Monday, September 13, 2004 A couple for 14 years, they were traveling with their 22-month-old son, Elijah, conceived with the help of a surrogate mother. Until Davis’ legal parenthood becomes final through what’s called second-parent adoption, Busch is listed as Elijah’s sole parent on the toddler’s passport. “Who are you?,” a Canadian immigration official asked Davis brusquely. Davis was mortified. The border guard eventually let them pass — with a lecture — but not until after trying to confiscate the baby’s milk. “She’d never have treated us like that if we were married. It really scared us,” says Busch, an administrative law judge, noting that marriage would have made Davis their son’s legal second parent from birth, protecting the family in countless legal and financial ways. The border incident underscored to the couple how their efforts to cobble together safeguards through legal documents will always fall short of the protections — fine-tuned over the centuries to meet the evolving needs of families — that accompany civil marriage. ... |
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