California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger showed his middle-of-the-road orientation this week. He signed one bill making it harder to use the “gay panic” defense, another that standardizes housing laws to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and a third that adds fair treatment of LGBT people to a voluntary pledge taken by candidates and campaign committees. On the other side, Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have strengthened existing state law prohibiting anti-LGBT discrimination and harassment in public schools.- The Georgia Court of Appeals awarded a lesbian mom primary custody over her child, overturning a lower court ruling that denied them to her because she lived with a same-sex partner. The child’s father had been given custody by the lower court, despite having been jailed for delinquent child support payments.
- A Superior Court judge in Massachusetts ruled that same-sex couples from Rhode Island have the right to marry in Massachusetts. Massachusetts law prevents out-of-staters from marrying there if their home states prohibit same-sex marriage. Because Rhode Island does not specifically ban it, the judge ruled its residents can legally travel to their northern neighbor to marry. Rhode Island is not, however, obligated to recognize those marriages.
- A new poll in Minnesota found that opposition to a ban on same-sex marriage has dropped within the state, although a majority still favor a ban. Similarly, opposition to civil unions has dropped, in this case putting supporters in the majority.
- A Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled that neither the state legislature nor several municipalities could argue against a lawsuit seeking domestic partner benefits for gay and lesbian state workers. The Republican-controlled legislature had hired the conservative Alliance Defense Fund (co-founded by James Dobson, chair of Focus on the Family), to represent them in the case, saying they didn’t trust the Wisconsin Department of Justice (headed by a Democrat who supports partner benefits) to properly represent the state.
- Mothertalkers highlights some frightening new statistics on the number of uninsured children in the U. S.: over nine million. A whopping 88.3% of them come from families where at least one parent works.
And a few items from north of the 49th parallel:
- In Canada, activists for and against same-sex marriage say the Conservative government has delayed a vote to reopen the issue. Some say this move could help those who oppose same-sex marriage, giving them time to mobilize others who oppose it but are not now ready to revisit the matter. The vote is now expected to occur at the end of the fall sitting of Parliament, though the government would not confirm that.
- Meanwhile, openly gay Canadian MP Bill Siksay is calling for the adoption of the Declaration of Montreal in his country’s foreign policy. The Declaration is a statement of LGBT human rights, codified at an international LGBT rights conference last summer. Even if the House adopts Siksay’s motion, however, the government would not be obligated to follow it.
- The Ontario Court of Appeal—the province’s highest—will hear a case perhaps unique in the world, and decide whether a lesbian couple and their son’s biological father can all become the boy’s legal parents. The biological mother and the father are currently the legal parents. Both support the application by the bio mom’s partner to be named the third legal guardian.
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