Maplewood pushing state to legalize marriage equality
Posted on Jun 17, 2009 at 07:42 am
June 15, 2009
One of the first towns to embrace the state's civil union and domestic partnership laws is now pushing to expand the rights for same-sex couples they established. In what is thought to be a first among New Jersey municipalities, the Maplewood Township Committee is expected to adopt a resolution Tuesday evening calling on state legislators to sanction the freedom to marry.
Mayor Victor DeLuca said he hoped the resolution could serve as a catalyst for legislators' passage of a marriage equality bill before the year's end. "I think it's incumbent upon people like us who believe that this is a matter of civil rights and equal rights to say something about it," he said. "I'm actually hoping this is the beginning of 560 municipalities in the state considering this." [Link]
Voice for Equality: Joe Bruno
Posted on Jun 11, 2009 at 08:30 am
Joe Bruno is a businessman and Republican politician. He was the Temporary President of the New York State Senate and its majority leader.
Bruno, in an interview in June of 2009 about the freedom to marry bill pending in the New York legislature, said, "It's time. Now. For the government to back off, let people make their own life decisions, and about who they care about and who they don't care about...."
Commentary: Obama absent on marriage equality
Posted on Jun 10, 2009 at 02:51 pm
June 10, 2009
William Jelani Cobb is associate professor of history at Spelman College and author of the forthcoming "Change Has Come: Barack Obama and the Meaning of Progress."
Last week Gov. John Lynch signed a bill making New Hampshire the sixth state to legalize marriage equality. It was a paradoxical moment. The new law is a reminder that freedom to marry is the civil rights issue of our era and just how far the movement for marriage equality has come. It also highlighted the unexpected and remarkable silence from the White House on this issue. [Link]
Voice for Equality: Lewis Black
Posted on May 30, 2009 at 04:31 pm
Lewis Black is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, and actor. He is known for his comedy style, which often includes simulating a mental breakdown, or an increasingly angry rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena. He hosted Comedy Central's "The Root of All Evil" and makes regular appearances on "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart delivering his 'Back in Black' commentary segment.
Black has expressed his support of the freedom to marry in many a stand-up performance. While performing in Santa Rosa, CA, in 2004, Black ridiculed efforts to amend the U.S. constitution to ban marriage equality.
Black, Gay and Reclaiming ‘Civil Rights’
Posted on May 30, 2009 at 01:32 am
Pam Spaulding
May 27, 2009
Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons, the first out black lesbian in the country to serve as mayor, says she has noticed that some in the black community have come around to accepting the freedom to marry, possibly because they realize married gay couples are no different from married straight couples. [link]
Finding Common Ground in Freedom to Marry Debate
Posted on May 27, 2009 at 11:05 pm
May 27, 2009
Critics fail to see that arguments for recognizing the freedom to marry and protecting religious liberty share a common foundation. Both the right to marry and the right to practice a religion are basic autonomy rights. We protect them both because they reflect core aspects of a person's identity and involve important, self-defining decisions that belong as a right to each individual. [link]
Editorial: Equal Marriage Rights Will Spread, Even to California
Posted on May 26, 2009 at 11:08 pm
May 26, 2009
Today's California Supreme Court ruling sets a dangerous precedent: It denies a minority a right that the constitution had provided. As if to reinforce that point, the justices unanimously let stand the marriages of 18,000 same sex couples who tied the knot between last May's court ruling and the passage of Proposition 8. The only dissenter in the Proposition 8 decision was Justice Carlos Moreno. He wrote that the proposition requires discrimination and "places at risk the state constitutional rights of all disfavored minorities." [link]
Voice for Equality: Jerrold Nadler
Posted on Apr 20, 2009 at 01:15 pm
Jerrold Nadler is an American politician from New York City. A Democrat, Nadler represents New York's 8th congressional district, which includes parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn in New York City.
Representative Nadler, Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, hailed the ruling by the Supreme Court of Iowa in 2009 that struck down the state’s ban on the freedom to marry.
EDITORIAL: Vermont Equality
Posted on Apr 08, 2009 at 11:22 am
Deja New: Prop. 8 Challenge Reaches Calif. Court
Posted on Mar 02, 2009 at 12:26 pm