WASHINGTON (ABP) — As the battle over same-sex marriage and other gay-rights issues rages across the country, both supporters and opponents of gay rights have logged several important victories in recent weeks.
Since late April, gays and their allies have logged legislative victories in Maine and California, while anti-gay-rights legislation passed in Oklahoma and Virginia.
On April 20 — the same day a judge in Oregon issued a mixed ruling halting gay marriages that one county had been performing but ordering the state to recognize the marriages already performed — a California legislative committee gave initial approval to a bill that would legalize same-sex marriages in that state. The California State Assembly's Judiciary Committee voted 8-3 to pass the Marriage License Non-Discrimination Act.
That bill would change language in state law back to define marriage as a contract between “two people” rather than “a man and a woman.” The change would return the law to its pre-1977 formulation, when it was changed to specify heterosexual unions. If approved by the legislature's Appropriations Committee and then the whole legislature, it would mark the first legislative legalization of gay marriage in the nation.
However, the next day, Virginia legislators passed a bill that the gay-rights group Human Rights Campaign called “one of the most discriminatory and restrictive anti-family and anti-marriage bills in the country.” Over Democratic Gov. Mark Warner's objections, the assembly gave approval — with a veto-proof majority — to a bill that would outlaw any marriage-like relationship or legal contract between same-sex partners in the commonwealth. Virginia law already explicitly bans same-sex marriages.
The law, which will take effect July 1, means that any legal agreement between same-sex couples — such as privately-arranged contracts guaranteeing inheritance or hospital-visitation rights — resembling the rights given to married couples would be banned.
In a statement on the bill, Warner said he harbored “grave doubts about the constitutionality of this broad wording,” and noted it could have “unintended consequences,” including nullifying business-partnership arrangements between people of the same sex regardless of their sexual orientation. “I believe it would be regrettable and wrong if Virginia were to go further than any other state in its efforts to restrict the rights of people to enter into legal relationships,” he said.
Then, on April 22, the Oklahoma House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved an amendment to that state's constitution banning same-sex marriage. The state senate had already approved the amendment. The vote means it will be sent to Oklahoma voters for final approval in the fall.
However, On April 27, Maine legislators passed a bill creating state-recognized domestic partnerships that offer many of the same benefits as marriage. If, as expected, Gov. John Baldacci (D) signs the bill into law, Maine will become the fifth state in the union to offer state recognition of same-sex couples.
The issue of same-sex marriage and other gay rights has been thrust into the spotlight as Massachusetts counts down to May 17, the date by which the state's Supreme Judicial Court has ordered it to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The court initially issued its ruling in November, setting off a nationwide controversy.
Massachusetts legislators have since given initial approval to an amendment to the commonwealth's constitution outlawing same-sex marriage. However, that amendment still must be approved a second time by the legislature and then voters. That means it couldn't take effect for at least a year, during which time thousands of same-sex couples will likely be legally wed in Massachusetts.
Gov. Mitt Romney (R) has said he will not allow same-sex couples from outside the commonwealth to marry there. And a group of Massachusetts legislators asked the court on April 27 to delay implementation of its ruling. However, few observers expect the court's justices to do so.
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