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A new poll shows us neck-and-neck in Minnesota, with a vote on marriage still a year off.
There's just two weeks left to pass marriage in New York, but a Senate bill still hasn't
even been introduced yet. Illinois launched civil unions this week while Rhode Island
debated doing the same. And a Michigan Republican can't tell the difference between gay couples
and child abusers.
I'm Matt Baume, and welcome to Marriage News Watch for June 6, 2011.
Marriage News Watch is made possible by: Marriage Equality USA, Carbonated: a Creative Agency,
and viewers like you.
This Thursday marked the start of civil unions in Illinois, with long lines at marriage counters
around the state. Only five other states recognize civil unions -- Vermont, New Jersey, New Hampshire,
Hawaii, and Delaware -- and the work in Illinois is still far from over. The next step: getting
full marriage.
But our opponents are already trying to block any further advances in Illinois. Anti-gay
groups have launched a campaign to put a marriage ban in the state constitution. But it's a
long shot: voters can't amend the Illinois constitution, they can only vote on non-binding
advisory questions that are then sent to the General Assembly.
To find out more about the strategy for winning civil unions and the plan for marriage, click
here to watch my interview with Illinois writer and advocate Phil Reese. You can also click
over here watch an interview with some of the couples who got civil unions this week.
Civil unions remain controversial in Rhode Island, with lawmakers holding another hearing
on the subject this week. Pretty much everyone opposes the plan: anti-gay groups want to
block any protection for LGBT couples, and civil rights groups feel that anything less
than marriage just doesn't go far enough.
And marriage is still the goal in New York, even though time's really running out. There's
just two weeks left to pass a marriage bill this year. Meanwhile, a new survey shows higher
public support than ever before, with 58 percent in favor to 36 opposed.
There's even more support for legal recognition in Minnesota, with a new poll showing 72 percent
in favor of civil unions or marriage. But opinion is evenly divided on the anti-gay
marriage ban that voters will face in 2012, with 46 percent in favor of the ban and 47
percent opposed.
To stop that ban, we have just one year to rally support in Minnesota. And to do that,
we'll need to win over new allies. Allies like Jeff Angelo, a former Republican Senator.
He sponsored Iowa's Defense of Marriage Act in 1997, but since then he's learned more
about his LGBT friends, family, and constituents, and this week he launched Iowa Republicans
for Freedom, an organization to rally conservative support for marriage equality.
But overall, Republican support for marriage is weak. In Congress, House Speaker John Boehner
continues to press ahead with his defense of DOMA, despite mounting criticism over his
potentially illegal accounting.
He still refuses to explain how he intends to pay the half-million dollar price tag for
defending the anti-gay law. Boehner insists that he has the money, but he won't say where
it is. If he's committed Congress to paying a bill without appropriating the money first,
he's violated the Anti-Deficiency Act, which would subject him to potential fines and up
to two years in prison.
Let's look at some news in brief. In Connecticut, Representative Chris Murphy wants to lift
a military ban that limits where gay couples are allowed to hold their weddings. Despite
having marriage equality in the Connecticut, Army regulations currently forbid the state's
gay couples from getting married on bases.
In North Carolina, GetEQUAL activists were arrested for disrupting the Assembly with
a protest over an anti-gay constitutional amendment.
And in Michigan, Tea Party-backed Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler compared gay couples to polygamy
and child abuse.
HARTZLER: "Why not allow an uncle to marry his niece? Why not allow a 50 year old man
to marry a 12-year-old girl, if they love each other and they're committed?"
And in international news, two lesbians in France were able to get a marriage license
despite a national ban on marriage equality. The loophole: one of the women is transgender
and still technically classified as male on government paperwork.
Meanwhile, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera promised to advance a bill that would recognize
civil unions. And Australian activists have launched MyMarriageStory.com.au to gather
stories from LGBT couples about why marriage equality matters to them.
Those are the headlines. Click over here to subscribe to weekly updates and over here
to watch some of our previous coverage, including the infighting that could doom Equality Maryland
and more bad news in Minnesota.
Visit MarriageNewsWatch.com for more on all of these stories and more, and head over to
Facebook.com/MarriageNewsWatch and click "Like" to get news alerts and headlines right on
your wall.
We'll see you next week.
Marriage News Watch is made possible by: Marriage Equality USA, Carbonated: a Creative Agency,
and viewers like you.