Mexico!

ABC News:

Mexico's supreme court has ruled it is unconstitutional for Mexican states to bar same-sex marriages.

But the court's ruling is considered a "jurisprudential thesis" and does not invalidate any state laws, meaning gay couples denied the right to wed would have to turn to the courts individually. Given the ruling, judges and courts would have to approve same-sex marriages....

Gay marriage is legal in some parts of Mexico, including Mexico City and the northern state of Coahuila.

The Court wrote,

"As the purpose of matrimony is not procreation, there is no justified reason that the matrimonial union be heterosexual, nor that it be stated as between only a man and only a woman. Such a statement turns out to be discriminatory in its mere expression."
Read more at http://www.bilerico.com/2015/06/mexico.php#TFdTOuxgibw1QPQT.99

Holding our breath for Ireland

The Republic of Ireland will vote on Friday whether to allow marriage equality.  

Although it is polling fantastically well, the numbers have started to slip.

Paradoxically, the high poll numbers are making Yes campaigners even more nervous. Irish voters have a history of abandoning proposed constitutional changes in the final days of the campaign. And the shadow of California’s Proposition 8 — when voters rejected marriage equality in the state in 2008 after a win seemed likely — looms large.

“Look at how Prop 8 happened — Prop 8 was a slam dunk [for LGBT rights supporters] until the result came in and it turned out it wasn’t,” said Brian Sheehan, co-director of Yes Equality, the campaign group created to get out the Yes vote. The fact that pollsters comprehensively failed to predict the outcome of last week’s general election in the United Kingdom hasn’t boosted their confidence either.

Particularly concerning is that our own marriage equality opponents including the masterminds who won Prop 8 are pouring money into this campaign. 

Supporters of a yes vote have accused opponents of a lack of transparency over finances and of accepting funding from rightwing Christian groups in the US.

And while the Roman Catholic bishops are predictably opposed to equality, not all their priests agree:

In at least a few cases, though, Irish Catholics may vote “yes” not in spite of their priests, but alongside them. Standún, O’Donovan and Dolan are among a group of priests who have bucked Church leadership to voice support for the amendment. Speaking to BuzzFeed, The Rev. Tony Flannery, founder of the reform-minded Irish Association of Catholic Priests, estimated that 25 percent of the country’s clergy would vote”yes.”

Let's do this Ireland.  Vote yes!

Colin Farrell on Irish equality (video Sunday)

It's in your hands (video Sunday)

From the Irish marriage equality campaign:

Video Sunday: A story from France

Award winning video:

Congratulations, England and Wales!

Marriages start tonight.

Prime Minister David Cameron writes,

When people’s love is divided by law, it is the law that needs to change. 

 The introduction of same-sex civil marriage says something about the sort of country we are. It says we are a country that will continue to honour its proud traditions of respect, tolerance and equal worth. It also sends a powerful message to young people growing up who are uncertain about their sexuality. It clearly says ‘you are equal’ whether straight or gay. That is so important in trying to create an environment where people are no longer bullied because of their sexuality – and where they can realise their potential, whether as a great mathematician like Alan Turing, a star of stage and screen like Sir Ian McKellen or a wonderful journalist and presenter like Clare Balding. 

 ... I hope we can also be a country that is growing stronger socially because we value love and commitment equally. Let us raise a toast to that – and all those getting married this weekend.

Would we could say the same.

A history of LGBT rights at the UN (video Sunday)

Marriage in Scotland!

The Scotsman reports:

Same-sex marriage legislation has been supported in a final vote at the Scottish Parliament today.

MSPs passed the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill by 105 votes to 18.

Well done, Scots!

If conservatives REALLY believed in preserving marriage....

In France, the "civil union" equivalent or PAC is as popular with straights as with gays.  They like that it isn't so rigid.  Some of our opponents have claimed to be pro-civil union (though usually that's a fig leaf that falls off pretty fast).  But if they were pro-civil union, they might have a problem--if such arrangements were available to straights. From the HuffPO:

Once the marriage monopoly is broken up so that different-sex couples have a choice, the competition is likely to last. Where they are available to all couples, experimental new alternatives to marriage have been resilient to change, even after marriage equality is achieved. This has proven true from Belgium and the Netherlands, to Washington, D.C., Hawaii and Illinois, which all recognize gender-neutral marriage alternatives as well as marriage. Apparently, political majorities are hesitant to surrender their existing choices. 

In the end, all couples could be left to pick-and-choose among a menu of civil unions, domestic partnerships and reciprocal beneficiary relationships, as well as marriage for both same and different-sex couples. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, it certainly cannot appeal to conservatives if they care more about preserving traditional marriage than about showing disapproval of LGBT families. By refusing marriage to same-sex couples, social conservatives are undermining traditional marriage more than lesbian brides and gay grooms ever could.

The Riddle (video Sunday)

Why will it take a year for UK weddings to begin?

Although the Queen has assented, weddings won't happen for a year.  Gay Star News tells us why:

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), who will be implementing the law, explained to Gay Star News why it will take so long. 

They said their priority was to extend marriage to same-sex couples as soon as possible, mentioning the first weddings could take place earlier than summer 2014. 

While the first same-sex marriages may be able to take place next summer, it will take longer for the law to allow civil partnerships to be converted. 

‘Work is already underway and there is a lot to be done across government to ensure that all couples who want to get married; or convert their civil partnership to a marriage; or remain in their existing marriages when they change their legal gender, can do so,’ a spokeswoman said. 

The changes the DCMS will be implementing include the court rules, IT systems, the processes for civil registrations, religious buildings registration, religious consents (when a marriage of a gay couple is conducted with religious rites but does not take place in a registered building - such as in a house-band, deathbed or a prison) as well as guidance for registrars, religious organizations and the public. 

The spokeswoman added: ‘Parliament will also need to scrutinize a number of statutory instruments setting out how the new arrangements will apply to other legislation; on the detail of certain processes; and to ensure that marriages of same sex couples in England and Wales are treated in Scotland and Northern Ireland as civil partnerships. 

‘This all takes time.’

Queen assents to equal marriage

The Houses of Parliament (Commons, and Lords) have approved the Equal Marriage Bill.  The Queen has given Royal Assent.  Marriages in England and Wales will begin in 2014. Scotland has considerable independence, and will be considering the issue shortly.  Northern Ireland said "no".  

Well done, UK!

From Australia: Family values (video Sunday)

Marriage bill passes Lords: there WILL be equality in the UK!

Voices of Faith: Bishop compares anti-equality to supporting apartheid or slavery

Click image for more
Voices of Faith

The UK currently offers civil partnerships but the Parliament is debating full marriage equality (the House of Lords should vote on Tuesday; the House of Commons already approved it.) On the eve of the Lords' debate, the Bishop of Salisbury (Church of England) has come out with this letter:

 Bishop Holtam told peers that allowing gay couples to wed would be a “very strong endorsement” of the institution of marriage....

In a letter sent to Lord Alli, a gay Muslim peer, and published in The Daily Telegraph, Bishop Holtam distanced himself from the Church of England’s official opposition to same-sex marriage, saying: “Christian morality comes from the mix of Bible, Christian tradition and our reasoned experience. 

“Sometimes Christians have had to rethink the priorities of the Gospel in the light of experience.

“For example, before Wilberforce, Christians saw slavery as Biblical and part of the God-given ordering of creation. Similarly in South Africa the Dutch Reformed Church supported Apartheid because it was Biblical and part of the God-given order of creation. No one now supports either slavery or apartheid. The Biblical texts have not changed; our interpretation has.”....

“Indeed the development of marriage for same sex couples is a very strong endorsement of the institution of marriage.”

The Church of England is more conservative than its American cousin, the Episopcal Church. Officially, the CofE is opposed to marriage equality but more and more members are speaking out in favor.  (It also has its cassock in a twist over allowing women priests to become Bishops). Bp Holtam is the first "Diocesan" Bishop to break ranks with the official view although a couple of lower ranking ("suffragen") Bishops are also outspoken supporters (including the Bp of Buckingham, Alan Wilson, whom we have featured before.)

It is widely rumored that several of the CofE bishops are deeply closeted.  We know how that story ends.

Mocking the opposition

Sometimes the best defense is a sense of humor.  From the Independent (newspaper) in the UK, in the aftermath of the House of Commons approving marriage equality:

According to opponents of the new law, once gays can get married, that cheapens the marriages of everyone who isn’t gay. This shows how powerful a gay wedding is, because no other marriages have been able to ruin everyone else’s like this. No one suggested that marriage was cheapened because Fred and Rose West were married, because, while their marriage was unconventional in certain respects, at least it was a union between man and woman, and that’s the main thing..... 

This is the latest of a long line of things we can no longer enjoy because gays are allowed to do them as well. Since homosexuality was legalised in 1967, hardly anyone has bothered to have heterosexual sex, as it’s been cheapened. And these days why should a married couple bother buying toothpaste, or food, when lesbians can legally buy them as well?...

John Stanley, MP for Tonbridge, said gay marriage will be “unhelpful to young people being attracted to others of the same sex before arriving at being heterosexual”. Because it’s been such a help, over the years, to young people attracted to others of the same sex, to know they can’t marry the person they’re attracted to. Many people, in an even more dedicated effort to help, have called these young people perverts and spat at them and insisted they’ll go to hell, so that they can arrive at being heterosexual, enjoying a proper wedding with someone of the opposite sex who they’re not really attracted to, which always ensures a long, healthy and uncheapened marriage....

In France: Oui pour l'egalité

THe vote is in, at 331-225 for marriage. Vive la France!

Expect the violence to continue. I bet the protests are highjacked by ultra-right nationalists and skinheads, who like nothing better than to gay bash.

In France, protests and death threats

In striking contrast to the "eh" of marriage in New Zealand, we now turn to France. The pro-equality bill is close to passing its final vote. But the anti-equality forces in France have taken to the streets. There are scenes of violent clashes between protesters and the police. And now there are death threats sent to Parliament:

The head of the French parliament has received a letter containing gunpowder, ordering him to put off tomorrow’s vote on marriage equality.... 

The one-page letter warns: ‘You wanted war, and you’ve got it.’ 

According to French magazine L’Express, and as reported by The Local, the politician was told ‘our methods are more radical and more swift than protests.’

A French Cardinal also warned of violence.   And of course there have been attacks on gays.

Remember, the leader of the anti-equality movement said [pro-equality French President]"Hollande wants blood and he will get it."

I find this shocking.

From New Zealand (video Sunday)

This fabulous testimony from a NZ representative to Parliament is priceless.

Thank you, sir!

And now New Zealand

New Zealand's parliament has voted to legalize same sex marriage, becoming the 13th nation to do so.

There was a spontaneous celebration and a traditional Maori love song, Pokarekare Ana, from the gallery.

Well done, Kiwis!