The Marriage Law Project at The Catholic University of America

TOP6NEWS - September 14, 2004

1-NEWS: Ontario court grants ss divorce

2-NEWS: CA now requires insurance companies to cover partners

3-NEWS: Court rules TG Central American can apply for asylum

4-NEWS: Scholarships abound for GLBT students

5-OP-ED: DC schools plan mentor program for gay teens

6-OP-ED: Actor Michael Gross: 'As m role models, straight folks need work'

Radio Report
NPR, All Things Considered, September 13, 2004
Audio Link
Massachusetts Schools Weigh Gay Topics
As school begins in Massachusetts, teachers and parents are debating what to teach about homosexuality now that gay marriage is legal. Some say teachers must talk more openly about gay relationships, while others say they'd rather quit than assign books such as Heather Has Two Mommies. NPR's Tovia Smith reports.

________________________________________________________

1-NEWS: Ontario court grants ss divorce

Spouse ruling allows first gay divorce
Court strikes down definition
Women separated days after wedding
TRACEY TYLER
LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1095113409183&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154

The honeymoon's over and the era of same-sex divorce in Canada has begun.
Two lesbians who married last year soon after the Ontario Court of Appeal legalized their right to wed have become the first same-sex couple in the country — and possibly the world — to get divorced.

In granting the women a divorce yesterday, Madam Justice Ruth Mesbur of the Superior Court of Justice declared the definition of "spouse" in the federal Divorce Act to be "unconstitutional, inoperative and of no force and effect."

The legislation defined "spouse" as "either of a man or a woman who are married to each other."
And that presented a problem for the women, known only as M.M. and J.H., who separated after just five days of marriage and, like some 3,000 other same-sex couples in Canada to tie the knot, had no legal mechanism for ending their union.

...

Gail Sinclair, a lawyer representing the federal attorney-general, argued that while the definition of spouse in the Divorce Act should be struck down, Mesbur should not go further, instead leaving it up to Parliament to rewrite the legislation.

Until then, courts faced with applications from same-sex couples wanting a divorce can define spouse by turning to the common-law definition of marriage, reformulated by the Ontario Court of Appeal last year, Sinclair suggested.

It defines marriage as "the voluntary union for life of two persons to the exclusion of all others."
But lawyers McCarthy and Julie Hannaford, representing M.M. and J.H. respectively, argued the law should not be left ambiguous and urged Mesbur to "read in" a new definition of spouse.

The words "two persons" or "two individuals" could be substituted for "man" and "woman," they told the court.
Superficially, much of yesterday seemed to be taken up with tinkering over language. But below the surface, more fundamental power struggles were at play.

From the federal government's perspective, it was about ensuring Parliament, not the courts, writes legislation.
But from the perspective of gays and lesbians, it was about protecting hard-won rights.
Same-sex couples and some supporters of their right to equality are quick to point out that nearly every gain they've made has come from the courts, not Parliament, which has left many gays and lesbians distrustful that politicians will protect their interests.

"It's very consistent with gay and lesbian equality claims in this country that the courts do all the heavy lifting," McCarthy said outside court.

"Every step along the way for gays and lesbians in this country has been hard fought," Hannaford added, and ambiguity in the law raises concerns the government has a way to backtrack.

...

________________________________________________________

2-NEWS: CA now requires insurance companies to cover partners

Governator's First Gay Law
by by Mark Worrall
365Gay.com Newscenter
San Francisco Bureau
Posted: September 14, 2004 10:55 am ET
http://www.365gay.com/newscon04/09/091404CalPart.htm
(Sacramento, California) California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Monday signed the first of three major gay rights bills passed by the legislature last month.

Schwarzenegger put his pen to the California Insurance Equality Act. The legislation amends the Insurance and the Health & Safety Codes to prohibit insurance providers from issuing policies or plans that discriminate against domestic partners.

The bill was signed with no advance notice, an indication Schwarzenegger wanted to draw little attention to his support for the measure and possibly alienate the extreme right of the Republican Party immediately after a GOP national convention that saw the approval of a conservative platform.

...

Two other bills concerning same-sex couples passed by the legislature remain on the governor's desk awaiting either his signature or a veto.

The Omnibus Labor and Employment Non-Discrimination Act amends existing labor and employment non-discrimination provisions in California law to be consistent with the non-discrimination provisions in the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA).

And, the Omnibus Hate Crimes Act will standardize Penal Code sections relating to hate crimes. It would also change policies and procedures related to the treatment of victims, plus the training of law enforcement.

________________________________________________________

3-NEWS: Court rules TG Central American can apply for asylum

SAN FRANCISCO
Court says transgender man can apply again for asylum
El Salvadoran must prove he'd likely face torture if deported
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/14/BAGBO8OGEN1.DTL
A transgender man who fled El Salvador at age 17 after being kidnapped and raped, and then lived in California for more than two decades as an illegal immigrant, was given a chance to avoid deportation Monday by a federal appeals court.

Luis Reyes-Reyes, now 42, can remain in this country if he can prove to immigration judges that, if deported, he would be likely to face abuse amounting to torture at the hands of anti-gay bullies, with the acquiescence of the Salvadoran government, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

In a 3-0 ruling, the court said the immigration judges who approved Reyes' deportation had wrongly required him to prove that he would be tortured by someone working for the Salvadoran government. U.S. law also bars deportation if the foreign government turns a blind eye to privately inflicted torture, the court said.

...

________________________________________________________

4-NEWS: Scholarships abound for GLBT students

Gay students offered special scholarships
By Lisa Leff, Associated Press Writer | September 14, 2004
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2004/09/14/gay_students_offered_special_scholarships/
BERKELEY, Calif. -- Alyn Libman won a $15,000-a-year scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley with a resume that showed more than just Libman's athletic achievement and academic potential.

It also showed years of ridicule, beatings and threats, along with Libman's decision to become a boy in 11th grade.
"It felt amazing to actually be embraced by someone who didn't just dismiss me for being different," said Libman, a 19-year-old aspiring civil rights lawyer and the first transgendered person to win a scholarship from The Point Foundation, a Chicago nonprofit organization that has awarded more than $1 million to college-bound gays since 2002.

For those seeking financial aid to attend college, it doesn't necessarily hurt to be gay or transgender. An increasing number of charities, professional groups and universities offer scholarships on the basis of sexual orientation.

More than 50 such scholarships are available nationwide -- from the $1,000 scholarships that Zami, an advocacy group in Atlanta, is giving to 21 black gays this year, to the $2,000 awards the United Church of Christ distributed to gay seminarians, and the $3,000 fellowships George Washington University administers so gays can spend a semester studying politics in the nation's capital.

...

On the Net:
www.thepointfoundation.org
http://www.pflag.org/advocacy/scholarship.html

________________________________________________________

5-OP-ED: DC schools plan mentor program for gay teens

Mentoring Program for Homosexual Teenagers
Cal Thomas
Syndicated Columnist
September 13, 2004
http://www.crosswalk.com/news/1284431.html
The District of Columbia government plans to match foster care teenagers who say they're homosexual in a mentoring program with homosexual adults.

Wanda Alston, acting director of the newly-created mayor's office of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender affairs, says the family court will pair children as young as 15 with homosexual mentors, who would act as "good role models".

Officials will recruit and screen potential mentors and the children to prevent the young people from being victimized.
Whatever could she mean?
Would the D.C. Government ever think of recruiting heterosexual adults with sexual disorders to mentor children of the opposite sex?

But, of course, all of the experts tell us homosexuality and these other behaviors are not disorders at all, but normal and good.

...

________________________________________________________

6-OP-ED: Actor Michael Gross: 'As m role models, straight folks need work'

As Marriage Role Models, Straight Folks Need Work
By Michael Gross, Michael Gross is an actor. His roles include that of the father on the television series "Family Ties."

in Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-gross14sep14,1,4938.story
Affixed to our refrigerator door is a photo of my wife and several of her friends: five attractive, intelligent suburban women, some professionals, some housewives, many of them friends for more than 20 years. Among the many things they have in common is the fact that their marriages were all put to the torch by husbands who once publicly avowed to stand by their spouses until death did them part.

One of the husbands decided that his marriage and family interfered with his time at the gym. Another went searching for a "new and improved" woman, while another had already found one. One nurtured his personality disorder like a hothouse flower, and — my personal favorite — one walked out on his toddler and pregnant wife during Christmas week. Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.

Unfortunately, stories like these are all too common, even in good, solid, conservative communities like my own. But in our zeal to defend the institution of marriage, I can't help wondering if a constitutional ban on gay marriage may just be shifting the blame.

I admit that blame-shifting does have its rewards. Nothing could be more satisfying than to think that gay men and lesbians — not we — are responsible for the shameful rate of failed marriages in this country. If, as the Rev. Jerry Falwell claimed, they were indirectly responsible for the attacks of 9/11, they might be capable of anything! How very gratifying to conclude that my adversary is the embodiment of evil, while I am the embodiment of good.

But the first casualty of shifting the blame is often common sense: the rapist blaming his crime on the immodest dress of his victim; a defense lawyer assigning his client's murder spree to a Twinkies diet; or a Talib concluding that his obsession with a woman's bare ankle is best addressed by blowing up a pair of 1,500-year-old Buddhas.

...

I understand the moral outrage of those who invoke the biblical injunctions against homosexuality, but if we're not going to observe its equally no-nonsense penalties for adultery (i.e., stoning to death), maybe the fairest thing to do would be to leave the homosexuals to themselves while we put our own houses in order. I can't imagine they'd botch the job any more than some of us have.