Gays upset over Obama’s stance on gay marriages
Written by Janet
Gay rights groups are upset with President Obama’s championing of the Defense of Marriage Act, a law the president pledged to try to repeal while on the campaign trail. Late thursday the government filed a motion to dismiss the case of Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer, who are challenging the 1996 federal act. The law prevents couples in states that recognize same-sex unions from securing Social Security spousal benefits, filing joint taxes and other federal rights of marriage.
The Department of Justice argued known informally as DOMA — is constitutional and contended that awarding federal marriage benefits to gays would infringe on the rights of taxpayers in the 30 states that specifically prohibit same-sex marriages.
The department is abiding by its standard practice of defending existing law and that the filing doesn’t mean Obama has changed his mind about wanting to see gay couples win federal recognition. More than four months into his first term, Obama has been under growing pressure from gay rights activists who supported his candidacy to move forward on repealing DOMA and the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that prevents gays from serving openly in the military.
Justice Department lawyers said federal court was not the right venue to tackle legal questions raised by Hammer and Smelt, who got married in California last year during the five-month window in which the state sanctioned same-sex unions.
Gay couples who tie the knot in the six states where same-sex marriages are permitted are legally married and does not cite the oft-used argument that children fare better in households headed by a married man and woman.
The Obama administration will have more opportunities in coming weeks to weigh in on the subject. Another challenge to DOMA brought on behalf of married couples in Massachusetts and a lawsuit seeking to overturn California’s gay marriage ban under the U.S. Constitution are making their way through the courts.
- Posted in: US Lawsuits, Laws, & Legislation
- Tagged: gay marriage rights, Gay rights groups, upset with Obama
Newsdesk International 
Well there’s not much he can do really without gaining the wrath of straight people….and the law does define marriage as between man and woman….
Gay rights groups: Obama needs to do more
Seems what he planned to do isn’t enough to suit them..
Response from gay rights groups to President Obama’s offer of some federal benefits to same-sex partners of government employees: The sound of one hand clapping.
Leaders of the gay community are making it clear that the president’s action, expected at a White House signing ceremony later this afternoon, doesn’t make up for the administration’s refusal to abandon the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law prohibiting federal recognition of marriages between same sex couples.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/06/68206447/1
Here’s another article of how displeased they are.
Outcry on Federal Same-Sex Benefits
The package of domestic partnership benefits that President Obama established for federal workers on Wednesday drew the loudest protests from some of those it was intended to help, gay men and lesbians who criticized the move as too timid.
Maine gay marriage foes hire Calif. Prop 8 firm
Gay marriage foes in Maine have hired the public relations firm that led the successful Proposition 8 proposal to overturn same-sex marriage in California, while supporters have turned to a legislative aide who led a successful campaign to retain Maine’s gay rights law.
Schubert Flint Public Affairs Inc. will provide guidance to the campaign to repeal Maine’s gay marriage law, just as it did during the Proposition 8 campaign in California.
Meanwhile, Maine Freedom to Marry has hired Jesse Connolly, who’s taking a leave of absence as chief of staff to House Speaker Hannah Pingree. Connolly, of South Portland, led Maine Won’t Discriminate’s successful 2005 campaign to keep the state’s gay rights law.
Maine was the fifth state to approve gay marriages when Gov. John Baldacci signed the legislation on May 6. New Hampshire later followed suit, so all New England states except Rhode Island now permit same-sex couples to marry. Iowa also allows it.
In Maine, the law goes into effect in September unless, before then, opponents collect the signatures of at least 55,087 registered voters. If so, the law will be put on hold pending a statewide referendum that could be held as early as Election Day in November.
Marc Mutty, spokesman for Stand For Marriage Maine and for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, said petition-gathering is under way with volunteers and paid workers. They’re getting a boost from the diocese, which is allowing signature-gathering at churches.
As for Schubert Flint, the California firm will serve as a consultant but won’t play as big a role as it did in the California referendum, Mutty said.
In California, Schubert Flint helped to do what some people considered be unthinkable – overturn a gay marriage law in a state considered one of the most liberal in the land.
Obama’s action comes as the gay community is raging over a Justice Department brief last week asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a gay California couple, Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer of Orange County, that challenges the marriage law. The couple want to have their marriage, which was upheld by the state Supreme Court because it took place before Proposition 8’s ban on same-sex marriage took effect, recognized by other states.
The White House argued that it is obligated to defend the marriage act, known as DOMA, until Congress repeals it.
But what has riled the gay and lesbian community is the wording of the brief. It found the statute “entirely rational,” said it was a savings to taxpayers and cited as precedents states rejecting marriages from other states that involved under-age females or close relatives.
Rep. Barney Frank, the gay Massachusetts Democrat, told the Boston Herald in a story published Wednesday that Obama made a “big mistake” with the brief. Several activists have pulled out of a gay Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Washington next week.
Obama’s action Wednesday “doesn’t mollify anyone for the horrendous brief that was filed about DOMA or the failure to act on the issues the president promised to act upon when he was running,” said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, a San Francisco group pushing for legal same-sex marriage in the state.
John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management and the administration’s top-ranking openly gay official, called the memorandum on federal benefits “a first step, not a final step.”
Groups back federal challenge to gay marriage ban
Two gay rights group and the American Civil Liberties Union are backing a federal lawsuit seeking to restore gay marriage in California.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/06/26/state/n125243D27.DTL&type=gaylesbian
Mass. sues feds over definition of marriage
Well, Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage, sued the U.S. government Wednesday over a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
The federal Defense of Marriage Act interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define and regulate marriage as it sees fit, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said. The 1996 law denies federal recognition of gay marriage and gives states the right to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, argues the act “constitutes an overreaching and discriminatory federal law.” It says the approximately 16,000 same-sex couples who have married in Massachusetts since the state began performing gay marriages in 2004 are being unfairly denied federal benefits given to heterosexual couples.
There’s a total of five other states who have legalized gay marriages – Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Iowa – have legalized gay marriage. Gay marriage opponents in Maine said Wednesday that they had collected enough signatures to put the state’s pending law on the November ballot for a possible override.
Before the law was passed, the federal government recognized that defining marital status was the “exclusive prerogative of the states.” Now, because of the U.S. law’s definition of marriage, same-sex couples are denied access to benefits given to heterosexual married couples, including federal income tax credits, employment benefits, retirement benefits, health insurance coverage and Social Security payments, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also argues that the federal law requires the state to violate the constitutional rights of its citizens by treating married heterosexual couples and married same-sex couples differently when determining eligibility for Medicaid benefits and when determining whether the spouse of a veteran can be buried in a Massachusetts veterans’ cemetery.
This is the second lawsuit filed in Massachusetts challenging the law.
In March, the Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders claimed the law discriminates against gay couples and is unconstitutional because it denies them access to federal benefits that other married couples receive, such as health insurance and pensions.
Now I took the time to look it up in the U.S. Constitution, and here is how it is defined there…..
In the religious world, marriage is almost exclusively the committed union between a single man and a single woman. Generally, the union is blessed or consecrated by a representative of the religion. An example is the presiding priest in a wedding ceremony. Marriage is found in all societies and religions, including the major religions of the West like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as those of the East like Buddhism and Hindi.
Demonstrators in Tampa, Fla., say an hourlong infomercial from the American Family Association was an insult to the gay community.
GaYbor District Coalition president Carrie West said Wednesday’s protest by nearly 70 demonstrators was aimed at the decision by WFLA-TV, Tampa, to air “Speechless: Silencing the Christians” June 27, The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reported Wednesday.
“It was like a 180 slap in your face,” West said of the TV program from the Christian organization that opposes gay rights.
“Shame, shame, Channel 8. Make your money and spread your hate,” demonstrators chanted Wednesday.
The association’s infomercial aired the night of a gay-pride parade in St. Petersburg, Fla., the Times reported.
Florida Communications Group President John Schueler, whose company that owns and operates WFLA, said the program did not represent the views of the TV station.
“Our overriding mission is to provide platforms for the broadest points of view and be responsible to the community we serve,” he said in a statement. “We understand that doing so can cause strong disagreement.”
Gays, Mormons Clash at Second ‘Kiss-In’ at Mormon Plaza
These guys are just showing their ignorance….and the more they protest it shows their lack of morals….it’s not an acceptable lifestyle in society, and for once a church is standing up for what they believe in.
A mass-kissing protest near the Mormon church temple Sunday drew a shouting match between gay activists and their critics.
For the second consecutive weekend, about 100 people gathered to stage a “kiss-in” to protest the treatment of two gay men cited for trespassing July 9 after they shared a kiss on the plaza owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both gay and straight couples exchanged kisses during the protest.
Demonstrators were greeted at the south entrance by a group of protesters carrying large signs that denounced homosexuality, prompting a heated verbal exchange.
Police say no one was arrested or cited, despite a large group exchanging kisses by a reflecting pool at the plaza’s center. The church bought one block of Salt Lake City’s Main Street to build a plaza in the 1990s alongside the Temple, where Mormon marriages and other religious rituals take place.
Matt Aune has said he and his partner, Derek Jones, exchanged a modest kiss at the plaza 11 days ago, but church officials contend their behavior was lewd.
Utah paper rejects same-sex wedding announcement
A southern Utah newspaper has rejected a gay California couple’s wedding announcement, saying its policy is to publish announcements only for marriages legal under Utah law.
http://channels.isp.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-us-12-l13&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20090813%2F1400176692.htm&sc=1110
Gay marriage fight, `kiss-ins’ smack Mormon image
The Mormon church’s vigorous, well-heeled support for Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California last year, has turned the Utah-based faith into a lightning rod for gay rights activism, including a nationwide “kiss-in” Saturday.
The event comes after gay couples here and in San Antonio and El Paso, Texas, were arrested, cited for trespassing or harassed by police for publicly kissing. In Utah, the July 9 trespassing incident occurred after a couple were observed by security guards on a downtown park-like plaza owned by the 13 million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
http://channels.isp.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-us-12-l9&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20090816%2F0203258939.htm&sc=1110
Now an update from Florida over the gays ability to adopt….
A Florida appeals court is being urged to affirm a judge’s ruling that the state’s strict ban on adoptions by gay people is unconstitutional. Attorneys for parent Martin Gill and his two children argued Wednesday in Miami that there’s no rational basis to exclude gay people. Gill and his partner have adopted two young brothers.
State lawyers contend the Legislature should make such decisions. They claim the judge wrongly legislated from the bench in striking down the law last year. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Gill, calls Florida’s gay adoption ban the broadest such law in the nation. It will likely be months before the appeals court issues a ruling, which could then be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court.
Fate of Maine gay marriage law in hands of voters
The governor of Maine has signed a formal proclamation putting the state’s gay marriage law up for a vote in November.
Gov. John Baldacci signed the measure Wednesday after election officials verified that gay marriage foes had reached the threshold of petitions necessary to put the law on the ballot. The gay marriage law was supposed to go into effect this month, but it was put on hold while the secretary of state’s office validated the number of petitions.
The announcement comes as no surprise. Gay marriage opponents needed the signatures of at least 55,087 registered voters for the so-called People’s Veto, and they turned in nearly 100,000 signatures. In May, Maine became the fifth state to allow gay marriage, and New Hampshire followed suit.
Maine marriage campaign probe gets OK
Maine’s campaign oversight board overruled a staff recommendation Thursday and authorized an investigation into fundraising by groups supporting the campaign to repeal the state’s gay marriage law in a Nov. 3 referendum.
http://channels.isp.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-us-12-l4&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20091001%2F1257821508.htm&sc=1110
Obama reaffirms vow to end ban on gays in the military
President Barack Obama pledged to end the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military in a speech today but acknowledged to a cheering crowd that the policy changes he promised on the campaign trail are not coming as quickly as they expected.
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/obama_vows_to_end_ban_on_gays.html
Gay rights advocates march on DC, divided on Obama
Thousands of gay and lesbian activists converged Sunday for a march from the White House to the Capitol, demanding that President Barack Obama keep his promises to push for civil rights protections from the federal government.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hpk3P3mSaLRU6GIpbJTi-0zWpZkAD9B8VTA03
Gay marriage momentum stalls in liberal NY, NJ
The state-to-state march to legalize gay marriage across the left-leaning Northeast has lost more momentum since a major setback three weeks ago at the ballot box in Maine.
http://channels.isp.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-us-12-l7&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20091125%2F1007478294.htm&sc=1110
New Jersey Nears Vote on Letting Gays Marry
Mass. says federal marriage law unconstitutional
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley says a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman interferes with her state’s right to regulate the institution.
Coakley’s office filed a lawsuit in July challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act. In papers filed late Thursday, Coakley asks a judge to deem the law unconstitutional without holding a trial on the lawsuit.
Coakley argues that regulating marital status has traditionally been left to the states. She also says the federal law treats married heterosexual couples and married same-sex couples differently on Medicaid benefits and burial in veterans’ cemeteries.
Massachusetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage and is the first to challenge the law.
DC gay marriage opponents appeal to high court
Opponents of gay marriage are asking the Supreme Court to put a hold on the District of Columbia’s new law allowing same-sex couples to wed.
The new law, passed in December, is supposed to take effect Wednesday. Court papers filed Monday with Chief Justice John Roberts argue that Washington residents should be able to vote on the matter. Local courts have rejected the opponents’ arguments.
The gay marriage opponents include a Baptist minister, Walter E. Fauntroy, who was Washington’s delegate in the House for nearly 20 years.
The city has said Wednesday probably will be the first day same-sex couples can apply for a marriage license. Couples will still have to wait three full business days for their licenses before exchanging vows.
Same-sex marriage becomes legal in DC; line forms
At least 50 same-sex couples were lined up to apply for marriage licenses when city offices opened Wednesday, the day the unions became legal in the nation’s capitol.
http://channels.isp.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20100303%2F0914909814.htm&sc=1110&photoid=20100303DCJM103
Gay seniors come out late, start second lifetime
On his 75th birthday, Bill Farthing decided to be reborn. In the six years since he’d buried his wife of 45 years, he’d felt as he did long before: Lonesome, different, outcast. He wondered if he was going crazy; he contemplated suicide.
http://channels.isp.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-us-12-l8&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20100315%2F0919214496.htm&sc=1110
Dutch lash out at gay link in Srebrenica massacre
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende attacked on Friday claims by a retired U.S. general that Dutch forces were overrun in Srebrenica in 1995 because of the presence of gay soldiers.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100319/wl_nm/us_dutch_military_gays;_ylt=AuA24RjTcvWBSZ2ReslGgXes0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNxbmlodHBnBGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTAwMzE5L3VzX2R1dGNoX21pbGl0YXJ5X2dheXMEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwM0BHBvcwMxBHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDZHV0Y2hmdXJpb3Vz
School district officials in Itawamba County, Miss., said a high school’s prom was canceled amid a heated dispute over the district’s ban on same-sex dates.
Attorney Benjamin Griffith, who is representing the Itawamba County School District, said the April 2 prom for Itawamba Agricultural High School was canceled after a female senior requesting the right to bring her girlfriend to the event, USA Today said Saturday.
The prom request by Constance McMillen, a senior at the school in Fulton, Miss., was denied by the school board. Following that decision, the American Civil Liberties Union urged board members to reverse their decision.
When the board instead canceled the school’s prom, ACLU officials filed a lawsuit seeking the reinstatement of the school event.
Griffith said in a U.S. District Court filing that McMillen’s constitutional rights to free expression were never violated by the school district.
“This is not an issue where anyone has been denied an education or suffered a constitutional deprivation,” the attorney claims. “Rather, this is a social event that, in light of rapidly escalating circumstances, was disruptive to the school environment because people are on all sides of the issue.”
US gay rights group gets UN accreditation
The U.N. Economic and Social Council voted Monday to accredit the U.S.-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission after strong lobbying by the Obama administration.
http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=15&sid=343718