Updated Last week, I told you that the French Senate had passed a bill allowing for same-sex couples in France to get married and to adopt children. Well, now the French National Assembly has also passed the final version of that bill. Same-sex marriages could begin in France as soon as mid-July.Related to that is a bit of good news: Last week, New Zealand became the 13th nation in the world and the first in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage. The law goes into effect on August 19.
Progress on this front is also occurring domestically. Several states will be considering bills to allow gay couples to legally marry. Rhode Island’s Senate Judiciary Committee passed its bill yesterday and the vote in the state Senate is happening as I record this. The Assembly has already passed a bill, so the only matter would be reconciliation before it would go to Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who supports it.
Delaware’s state House of Representatives also passed a same-sex marriage bill. That now goes to the state Senate, where a close vote is expected.
Legislatures in Minnesota and Illinois are also debating the issue. In Minnesota, a state senator thought to be a swing vote on the issue has come out in favor of same-sex marriage.
But perhaps the biggest news this week comes out of Nevada. On Monday, April 22, the state Senate voted to repeal an amendment to the state Constitution banning same-sex marriages and replace it with one requiring Nevada to recognize them. This does not change the state Constitution; it's just the first step in doing so. But if this is happening in Nevada, well....
Updated with the news that the Rhode Island Senate passed the bill. It should be re-passed by the House (to deal with some minor changes made in the Senate) and go to Gov. Chafee in a week or two. And then there will be 10.
Sources:
http://pamshouseblend.firedoglake.com/2013/04/23/and-france-makes-fourteen/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/17/new-zealand-gay-marriage_n_3098762.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10879203
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/04/gay-senator-comes-out-as-state-approves-same-sex-marriage/
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/polinaut/archive/2013/04/eken_backs_same.shtml
http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/politics/state_politics/key-senate-panel-oks-same-sex-marriage
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/04/23/delaware-house-approves-gay-marriage-bill/
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment