TOP6NEWS - Date 12.21.04

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1-NEWS:  Social Security Reverses on Marriages
2-NEWS:  Arkansas Gay Foster Trial Ends

3-NEWS: Vermont Marks 5 Years Of Civil Unions

4-NEWS:  Thousands of ss couples register as partners in NJ

5-OP-ED: Pro-marriage effort renews

6-OP-ED: Right-to-marry battle continues

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1-NEWS: Social Security Reverses on Marriages

NY Times
The Social Security Administration reversed course Monday and said it will accept marriage licenses issued for heterosexual couples in communities in New York and Oregon that briefly performed weddings for gay couples earlier this year.
Effective immediately, the agency will accept legally issued marriage documents from Multnomah County, Ore., and New Paltz, N.Y., as evidence of identification on applications for new Social Security cards or to prove marriage for benefits purposes.

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2-NEWS: Arkansas Gay Foster Trial Ends
A trial challenging Arkansas' ban on gay fostering wound up Monday with the judge reserving judgment in the case.  Arkansas law prevents lesbians, gays and anyone living in a household with a gay adult from being foster parents.
The suit was brought by four prospective foster parents. Among them is William Wagner who has been married for 31 years and has a 27-year-old daughter and a 23-year-old son.  Although Wagner is a married heterosexual, he is disqualified from serving as a foster parent because his gay son sometimes lives at home.

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3-NEWS: Vermont Marks 5 Years Of Civil Unions

Newscenter Staff

Monday marked the fifth anniversary of the landmark ruling by the Vermont Supreme Court ordering the legislature "to assign to same-sex couples the common benefits and protections that flow from marriage under Vermont law."
The ruling led to the creation of "civil unions", making Vermont the first state in the country to formally recognize same-sex relationships. Since then some 7,000 gay and lesbian couples from around the country have affirmed their commitments in Vermont.

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4-NEWS: Thousands of ss couples register as partners in NJ
BY TOM HESTER
Star-Ledger Staff
Nearly 2,700 couples have registered as domestic partners in the first five months of a New Jersey law that gives added rights and benefits to same-sex couples, the state Health Department reported yesterday.
Through Dec. 15, 2,640 gay couples signed up under New Jersey's Domestic Partnership Act. Another 42 unmarried heterosexual senior citizen couples also registered.
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5-OP-ED: Pro-marriage effort renews
By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune
The Marriage Movement is seeking a second wind.  An ambitious agenda released last week is aimed at fostering a
"marriage renaissance" that backers say is crucial to create strong, stable families in the United States even as the institution is embroiled in debate over who else deserves the rights and protections matrimony brings.

The 28-page document titled "What Next for the Marriage Movement?" calls for expanding marriage education programs, reforming divorce laws, building a stronger grass-roots base and creating a task force to help develop marriage-friendly public policies nationwide.

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6-OP-ED: Right-to-marry battle continues
The issue of same-sex marriage has not gone away -- nor should it. Neither the legal ruling against the marriage licenses issued in San Francisco in February, nor the conservative wave in the November elections -- which some analysts attribute in part to a backlash against same-sex marriage -- has dissuaded Assemblyman Mark Leno from pushing forward with the issue.
Leno, a San Francisco Democrat, has reintroduced his measure to allow the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. He titled his bill, AB19, the "Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act."

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