Posting this a tad early this week; I’ll catch late Friday news next week. Happy weekend!
- Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Barney Frank (D-MA) announced the formation of the bipartisan House of Representatives LGBT Equality Caucus, with the goal of promoting LGBT equality.
- One of the architect’s of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” Senator Sam Nunn, is recommending a “review” of the policy. As Steve Clemons at the Huffington Post points out, however, he is not indicating whether his own views have changed, and this may be a ploy to help him wangle a seat on the Democratic presidential ticket or cabinet.
- California, here we come. The California secretary of state said opponents of marriage for same-sex couples had collected enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. The state Supreme Court, however, rejected petitions asking for a stay or reconsideration of the May 15 ruling, clearing the way for marriages to begin on June 17—make that June 16 at 5:01p.m. The Office of Vital Records this week said clerks did not in fact have to wait until the start of the business day June 17. hours.
- Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination against LGBT state employees, repealing the order of his predecessor, Ernie Fletcher.
- The New York State Assembly approved the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), which would “bar bias based on gender identity and expression in employment, housing, public accommodations, and access to credit. It would also amend the 2000 hate crimes statute to include gender identity and expression as protected categories. The Republican-led Senate looks unlikely to follow the Assembly in approval, however.
- Pittsburgh City Councilman Bruce Kraus has introduced a bill to let people living together in a committed relationship register with the city. He says it would cover not only intimate same- and opposite-sex couples, but also others who share a home and show dependence on each other. Employers could then use the registry to determine whether to offer domestic partner benefits.
Around the world:
- Lesbian and gay and sexual health groups from Jamaica, Zimbabwe and Egypt have been excluded by the United Nations General Assembly from a major international conference on HIV/AIDS, after representatives of their countries’ governments complained.
- The first same-sex couple to register under the Australian Capital Territory’s new civil partnership law held a commitment ceremony in Canberra. The ACT chose to frame the new law as a registration process, rather than as a civil union ceremony, after the federal government said it would veto such ceremonies as too close to marriage. This means, as near as I can tell, that couples can still choose to hold their own ceremonies as long as their officiant affirms (as was the case here), “Effectively, the couple have signed a stat dec (statutory declaration) . . . This is a process of registration. I’ve just registered, effectively, the civil partnership.” If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, let’s call it a penguin because heaven forbid anyone thinks it’s a duck.
- The mayor of Tilos, Greece, performed the country’s first same-sex marriages for a male couple and a female couple, under a law that doesn’t specify that couples have to be one man and one woman. Opponents argue that the Constitution defines marriage as “matrimony between a man and a woman with the intent of forming a family.” LGBT-rights activists say they will take their case to the European Court of Justice if necessary.
- Stefan Niesiolowski, a deputy Speaker of the Polish parliament, said that a gay parent who is in a sexual relationship should have their children taken from them.