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TOP6NEWS - September 22, 2004 1-NEWS: Lambda will ask NJ high court to fast track Lewis 2-NEWS: ID high court upholds ss parents' rights; father loses custody case 3-NEWS: Polls show m amendments likely to pass 4-NEWS: DeLay announces House to vote on FMA next week 5-OP-ED: WA group forms to seek m amendment 6-OP-ED: French PACs now have same tax status as marriage ________________________________________________________ 1-NEWS: Lambda will ask NJ high court to fast track Lewis Reply Brief Same-sex marriage advocates aim for Jersey's top court Lambda Legal officials said yesterday they would file papers that seek a ruling from the state's highest court on a lawsuit brought on behalf of seven same-sex couples, including one from Hudson County. A state Superior Court judge ruled last year against legalizing gay marriage. The move is an attempt to skip hearings at the appeals court level, since both New York City-based Lambda Legal and state Attorney General Peter C. Harvey have said they plan to argue the case all the way to the Supreme Court. Harvey is representing the state and Gov. James E. McGreevey on this issue. McGreevey, who last month said he is gay and will resign Nov. 15, spearheaded passage of domestic partnership legislation in New Jersey earlier this year, but has stated that he is against legalizing same-sex marriage. Harvey supports the motion to have the Supreme Court handle the case. ... ________________________________________________________ 2-NEWS: ID high court upholds ss parents' rights; father loses custody case Idaho justices uphold gay parents' rights The Idaho Supreme Court clearly upheld gay parental rights in a ruling Tuesday that denied Theron McGriff custody of his two young daughters. The state's highest court also upheld a lower court decision made in 2000 to restrict McGriff's visitation with his children, allowing visits only if he does not live with his male partner. The justices wrote that McGriff's hostile behavior, not his sexual orientation, led to his loss of custody. "Idaho's court is now one of the first supreme courts in the nation to acknowledge that sexual orientation, by itself, can't be a factor in modifying custody," said Jack Van Valkenburgh, executive director of the ACLU of Idaho. McGriff declined to take media calls on Tuesday to discuss the decision. Hearn said an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is unlikely because the Idaho Supreme Court had ruled positively on the constitutional issue of gay parental rights, leaving in dispute only its application to a specific custody case. ... ________________________________________________________ 3-NEWS: Polls show m amendments likely to pass Polls: Voters Likely To Approve Gay Marriage Amendments The most recent surveys, released Tuesday, show that in Michigan, Kentucky and Oregon gay lobby groups have had little success in swaying voters. A statewide poll shows 72 percent of likely voters sin Kentucky support the amendment, with 22 percent opposed and six percent undecided. The poll results were reported in today's edition of The Courier-Journal in Louisville. In Oregon, a survey taken for the The Tribune newspaper shows that 57 percent of voters supporting the proposal and 38 percent opposed. Another 5 percent hadn’t undecided. ... The closest race appears to be in Michigan. A poll of 600 voters conducted from Wednesday to Sunday by EPIC/MRA of Lansing found that 54 percent favored the anti-gay proposed amendment which would recognize only a union between a man and woman as a marriage or "similar union for any purpose." Thirty-seven percent opposed the ballot measure. Michigan was the only state to show that support for the amendment was slipping, falling 6 percentage points since an August poll, when 60 percent of voters favored the proposal. ... On Saturday voters in Louisiana approved amending that state's constitution to ban gay marriage and civil unions by an 80 per cent plurality. ...
________________________________________________________ 4-NEWS: DeLay announces House to vote on FMA next week House Set to Vote on Marriage House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) said Tuesday that the chamber would take up a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage next week, setting the stage for a politically sensitive vote six weeks before Election Day. DeLay said the vote would be on an amendment defining marriage in the United States as being between one man and one woman. A similar effort in the Senate was defeated in July on a procedural vote, 48-50. House Republicans openly admit that the measure is unlikely to garner the two-thirds support necessary for passage, but they believe that holding a vote is important in building momentum behind the issue. “I doubt that it will pass, but this is part of a long-term strategy to protect marriage in this country,” DeLay said. ... ________________________________________________________ 5-OP-ED: WA group forms to seek m amendment Gay marriage foes will seek state constitutional ban 09/21/2004 That law, passed in 1998 by the Legislature after overriding Gov. Gary Locke's veto, defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Many states have passed similar laws and state constitutional amendments and President Bush and some congressional allies have suggested an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning gay marriage. The rulings from King and Thurston county judges are on appeal to the state Supreme Court. A state constitutional amendment must originate in the Legislature, with a two-thirds vote in both chambers, followed by a statewide public vote. State Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, said gay marriage will be a hot issue on the campaign trail and that pressure will mount to pass the amendment this winter. But state Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, one of four openly gay men in the House, said the measure is doomed to fail and probably wouldn't even get out of committee. ... ________________________________________________________ 6-OP-ED: French PACs now have same tax status as marriage French gays hail new tax rights for civil unions In its 2005 budget, the conservative government said it would place the fiscal status of gay couples on a par with that of married people and make it easier for gays to give their partners money. "This is very good news," said Alain Piriou, representative of the Inter-LGBT gay rights group, calling it a first, but incomplete, victory. "Changing tax laws is always a political decision, implying ideological values. By improving the fiscal status of gays living in civil unions, the government has raised the status of homosexual couples in general," he said. France allows civil unions – PACS, or civil solidarity pacts – but gays say this puts them at a disadvantage in terms of tax, inheritance, adoption and immigration rights. ... |
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