Weekly Political Roundup

• The best news this week is international. South Africa has become the first country in Africa and the fifth in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. Acting President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka signed the Civil Union Act, and it went into effect yesterday. The Act allows for unions to be recognized by either a marriage or a civil partnership.
• In Europe, Ireland’s cabinet is considering whether and how to extend relationship recognition to same-sex couples. Marriage is one option, but the whole debate has not surprisingly sparked much controversy.

Back in the U. S.:

• The California Franchise Tax Board held a “town hall” meeting to discuss the myriad of problems unleashed by the recent tax bill that grants registered domestic partners the right to file their income taxes as married couples. (Thanks to PageOneQ.com.)
• The Maryland Appeals Court will hear arguments next week from nine same-sex couples over whether the state’s law banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.
• A Massachusetts Supreme Court justice said the full court should decide whether legislators should have to vote on whether to allow a proposed ballot question on banning same-sex marriage. The court will now hear the case December 20.
• In Oklahoma, legislation is still in play that would invalidate adoptions by same-sex couples, even if the adoptions were performed legally in other states. The law was struck down by a federal judge last spring, but is now before the U. S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
• The Pennsylvania Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling awarding custody of twins to their non-biological mother, whom they said was a more fit parent that her former partner, the biological mother.
• An appeals court in Virginia ruled that the state has to cede jurisdiction to Vermont in a case granting visitation to the former Vermont-civil-union partner of a Virginia woman. The case, which attorneys say could end up at the U. S. Supreme Court, has wider ramifications. The Virginia court ruled, in effect, that the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act trumps both the state’s Marriage Affirmation Act and the federal Defense of Marriage Act.