The Marriage Law Project at The Catholic University of America

TOP6NEWS - October 1, 2004

1-NEWS: FMA didn't pass House

2-NEWS: SSM advocates caravan across the country

3-NEWS: Spain's cabinet approves ssm, ss adoption

4-NEWS: GA ruling appealed to state Supreme Court

5-NEWS: Court-ordered affirmative action for gays?

6-OP-ED: SSM advocate: Don't surrender the state amendments

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1-NEWS: FMA didn't pass House

House Rejects Same-Sex Marriage Ban
By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 1, 2004; Page A27
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63122-2004Sep30.html
The House joined the Senate yesterday in refusing to approve a constitutional amendment to bar same-sex marriage, described by Republican supporters as a vital protection for traditional families but denounced by Democratic foes as a divisive pre-election ploy to inflame prejudice.

The vote by the GOP-controlled House was 227 to 186 in favor of writing the same-sex marriage ban into the Constitution, 49 short of the two-thirds majority needed to approve an amendment and send it to the states for ratification.

The Senate, also controlled by Republicans, voted 50 to 48 in July against taking up the amendment.
The House and Senate votes amounted to a double-barreled loss for President Bush, who strongly supported the amendment. But many Republicans, while conceding in advance that the amendment would be defeated, saw the issue as a political winner and wanted to put opponents on record before the Nov. 2 elections.

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2-NEWS: SSM advocates caravan across the country

Gay marriage advocates take stories on road
By Associated Press
Friday, October 1, 2004
http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=46959
SAN FRANCISCO - As the U.S. House rejected an amendment banning gay marriage Thursday, gay rights advocates in California prepared for a seven-day, cross-country trip they hope will remind Americans that same-sex couples still have no access to hundreds of federal and state rights afforded married couples.

The vote was 227-186, 49 votes shy of the two-thirds needed for approval of an amendment.
But organizers of the coast-to-coast caravan said they worry that election-year rhetoric, along with gains made in states like Massachusetts, has caused voters to become either complacent or misinformed on the issue.

``It feels like we are in this time when we are watching the civil liberties of gay people being eroded right and left and nobody is really up in arms about it,'' said Davina Kotulski of Marriage Equality California, the event's main sponsor. ``People do not truly understand what's at stake here.''

A retired Army staff sergeant who plans to publicly challenge the military's ban on gay service, a couple married for 40 years who have a lesbian daughter, and more than a dozen couples who got married in San Francisco this year are among those participating in the National Marriage Equality Express.

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3-NEWS: Spain's cabinet approves ssm, ss adoption

Spain moves closer on gay marriage
By CNN Madrid Bureau Chief Al Goodman
Friday, October 1, 2004 Posted: 1243 GMT (2043 HKT)
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/10/01/spain.gays/
MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Spain has moved a big step closer to permitting gay marriage after the Cabinet approved a bill authorizing homosexuals to marry and adopt children.

"The Cabinet has approved a bill to revise the Civil Code to permit homosexual matrimony," Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega announced Friday after the weekly Cabinet meeting.

The bill now goes to Parliament, where the Socialist government says it has enough support to pass the law, which could make gay marriage possible by next year.

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4-NEWS: GA ruling appealed to state Supreme Court

Review of Gay Marriage Ruling Sought
Provided By: The Associated Press
Last Modified: 9/30/2004 4:45:46 PM
http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=52613
ATLANTA (AP) -- Lawyers hoping to block a Georgia vote on a gay marriage ban took the first step today to appeal a judge's ruling against them.

Yesterday, Judge Constance Russell rejected a petition to remove the proposed constitutional amendment from the November Second ballot.

Lawyers today notified the judge they will seek a speedy review of her ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court.
If the court doesn't intervene, Georgia voters will decide on Election Day whether to approve an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as only the union of a man and a woman.

State law already says that -- but supporters say a constitutional amendment would better protect the law from court challenges.

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5-NEWS: Court-ordered affirmative action for gays?

Court-ordered affirmative action for gays?
Peter A. Brown
Orlando Sentinel, FL, October 1, 2004
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-edpbrown01100104oct01,1,4261094.column?coll=orl-opinion-headlines
Gay-rights proponents, who see their concerns as the next step in a civil-rights agenda that has empowered blacks, Hispanics and women, may be closer to their goal than many realize.

In Oregon and Washington state, courts have bought that argument in rulings with potentially sweeping implications. Judges have ruled that homosexuals are members of a "suspect," or protected, class.

That is the classification given to racial minorities and others eligible for special public and private-sector programs.

As nutty as the idea may seem to many, if the Oregon and Washington Supreme Courts endorse those lower-court rulings, that could lead to affirmative action for gays in those states, and perhaps provide precedent for similar efforts elsewhere.

Fear of judicial social engineering has been behind the movement for a constitutional ban on gay marriage so that the courts can't stop voters or lawmakers from banning it.

The idea of special programs for homosexuals has not entered that public debate, but state officials concede that the lower-court rulings make the issue more than theoretical.

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6-OP-ED: SSM advocate: Don't surrender the state amendments

No Surrender on the Marriage Amendments
By PAUL SCHINDLER
Gay City News
http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_340/letterfromtheeditor.html
On the very same day that The New York Times reported on 11 state constitutional amendment ballot battles on November 2 over the issue of gay marriage and concluded that gay advocates are “pour[ing] money and resources into a last stand in Oregon,” Gay City News reporter Andrew Miller joined a tele-press conference hosted by Michigan activists fighting the ballot measure there who pointed to a Gallup poll showing their side in the lead.

It suddenly occurred to us that there might be a serious gap between the national discussion about the marriage amendments and what local advocates are seeing and hearing on the ground.

It’s not exactly clear how this came to pass.
The Times article quotes both David Fleischer from the National Gay and Lesbian Task (NGLTF) and Seth Kilbourn from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), individuals responsible for field organizing at the nation’s two largest queer organizations. Neither man specifically made the statement that was the central premise of The Times story—that Oregon presented the only opportunity for a victory by advocates of same-sex marriage on November 2, but apparently each came very close.

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