Evan Wolfson, Executive Director of Freedom to Marry, offered his perspective on Marriage Equality and the Presidential Election.- The ultra-conservative Arkansas Family Council has submitted a proposal to the state Attorney General as the first step in placing a measure on the November 2008 ballot to ban adoption by unmarried couples. The group failed earlier this year to get the state Legislature to pass a law banning adoption by same-sex couples.
- A California man will be able to receive the pension benefits of his deceased partner after the Industrial Employers and Distributors Association and Warehouse Union (ILWU) bowed to pressure from the National Center for Lesbian Rights and changed its policy to grant registered domestic partners the same pension benefits as spouses, retroactive to March 1, 2005.
- The world’s only openly gay Anglican bishop, New Hampshire’s Gene Robinson, announced he and his partner will join in civil union when the state legalizes them early next year. Opponents call it a publicity stunt. Let’s see: Robinson and his partner have been together 18 years. The state is finally getting around to according them certain rights and protections. And they’re only doing it for the publicity.
- The Rhode Island Supreme Court is reviewing a second round of legal briefs related to the divorce case of two Rhode Island women who married in Massachusetts. Opponents of recognizing the state’s ability to dissolve a same-sex marriage from elsewhere are dragging out the usual silly arguments about marrying animals and dead people.
- A Vermont commission met for the first time today to discuss whether the legislature should consider marriage equality for same-sex couples.
- The City Council of Charleston, West Virginia unanimously passed an ordinance that adds sexual orientation to the list of categories subject to the city’s anti-discrimination laws. The ACLU, which pushed for the move, says they will expand their campaign to the entire state.
Around the world:
- Members of Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s cabinet have delayed introducing a bill that would give certain rights to same-sex couples. They have left it up to Howard to determine when to present it and what rights to include. He has said he is in favor of limited rights, but not marriage or civil unions.
- The mayor of Ottawa, Canada met with LGBT citizens at a Pride Week town hall in an attempt to start a dialogue with the community. (Thanks to PageOneQ.)
- Italy is willing to give political asylum to an Iranian lesbian due to be deported from the U.K., who could face death by stoning in her native country.
- A district court in Moscow, Russia ruled that the ban on Moscow’s gay parade in May was legal.
- South Africa, despite allowing same-sex couples to marry, voted against allowing two LGBT-rights organizations to have consultative status at the U.N., or abstained from key votes in the matter. The Guardian posits that this is because of its desire for solidarity with other African nations, many of which are anti-LGBT.
- Human Rights Watch has sent a letter to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni calling for legal reform and an end to his “long record of harassing” LGBT people.