Massachusetts to hold same-sex weddings

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Registered: 03-23-2003
Massachusetts to hold same-sex weddings
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Sun, 05-16-2004 - 12:31pm

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Gay%20Marriage%20New%20Era


Sunday, May 16, 2004 · Last updated 6:34 a.m. PT


Massachusetts to hold same-sex weddings    Rings 


By DAVID CRARY
AP NATIONAL WRITER


For better or for worse, depending on which side of the ideological aisle one chooses, a divided America crosses a historic threshold Monday as state-approved marriages of same-sex couples take place for the first time.


Promised a waiver of the normal three-day waiting period, the seven gay and lesbian couples who successfully sued for marriage rights in Massachusetts will wed before relatives, friends and supporters in Boston and three other towns. The United States will become just the fourth country in the world where same-sex couples can tie the knot.


The couples' jubilation will be shared by gay-rights advocates across the country, including many in states such as New York, California, Washington and New Jersey where comparable lawsuits are moving forward.


"This isn't just one historic moment in Massachusetts," said Kevin Cathcart, executive director of the gay-rights group Lambda Legal. "It's the start of what will be a long period of progress and breakthroughs, with gay couples in other states also winning the right to marry."


For foes of gay marriage, Monday's weddings represent a stinging defeat - but one they hope will be reversed by a backlash among politicians and voters nationwide.


"What I'm starting to see is people who are apolitical, who never got involved before, saying, 'This is too much - we don't want same-sex marriage foisted on us,'" said Mathew Staver, president of a Florida-based legal group, Liberty Counsel, that is opposing gay marriage in numerous court cases.


Both sides in the debate expect the issue to figure prominently in the November election, with Massachusetts serving as a rallying cry and alarm bell.


Candidates for Congress will face pressure to explain their position on a proposed federal constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage. Voters in Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Missouri and Utah - and probably several other states - will consider similar amendments to their state constitutions.


"It will be a national referendum about gays and gay marriage," said Rod McKenzie of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "We're the underdog when it comes to all these ballot measures - the scale is bigger than we've ever had to deal with."


In states with the ballot measures, divisive campaigns already are underway.


An Oklahoma gay-rights group, for example, took out newspaper ads last week showing an outline of the state with "Closed" stamped over it. The ad contended that businesses would leave - or stay away - if voters approved the constitutional ban on gay marriage.


State Sen. James Williamson, a Republican from Tulsa, called the ad outrageous and predicted that a ban would attract new businesses.


"There is a real hunger for a return to traditional values and for leaders who will draw a line in the sand to help stop the moral decay of this country," he said.


Nationwide, both sides are planning marches and rallies over the coming week - among them, pro-gay marriage events in Iowa City, Iowa, and Las Cruces, N.M., and a "Not on My Watch" rally in Arlington, Texas, for pastors opposed to gay marriage.


Also following the Massachusetts events with interest will be the thousands of gay couples who married in recent months with the encouragement of local officials in San Francisco, Portland, Ore., and a handful of other municipalities.


Those marriages are clouded by varying degrees of legal uncertainty, and even in Massachusetts there is a possibility that voters in 2006 could jeopardize the impending marriages by approving a constitutional ban.


Katie Potter, a Portland policewoman who married partner Pam Moen in March, said she was delighted by the Massachusetts developments yet worried that it could take years for marriage rights to extend nationally.


"It's important for my two children to be able to say, 'My parents are married,'" Potter said.


Anti-gay marriage activists have no sympathy for such arguments.


"If we move down the road to legalizing marriage for unnatural homosexual couples, it will lead to an explosion of intentionally motherless or fatherless households," said Dave Smith of the Indiana Family Institute. "That is a radical social experiment that will place children in harm's way."


Though opinion polls show that most Americans oppose gay marriage, the rate of acceptance is much higher among people under 30 - for the younger generation, polls show a roughly even split on the issue.


"There's an absolute inevitability there," said Lambda Legal's Cathcart. "There's no reason to think the next generation of young people will go backward."


Mathew Staver, referring to the same demographic trends, said the next 18 months would be critical for gay-marriage foes.


"The window is now to pursue a federal marriage amendment that would put a halt to this nonsensical patchwork of litigation," said the Liberty Counsel attorney.


Even if many Americans wish otherwise, Massachusetts, as of Monday, will join the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada's three most populous provinces as the only places worldwide where gays can marry, though the rest of Canada expected to follow soon.


In the Netherlands, which pioneered gay marriage three years ago, the practice now stirs little controversy. Cheryl Jacques, a former Massachusetts legislator who now heads the Human Rights Campaign, a major gay-rights group, hopes her compatriots eventually emulate the Dutch.


"For the vast majority of Americans, Monday will be a completely ordinary day - nothing's going to change," she said. "But for some Americans in Massachusetts - gay and lesbian families - it will be a truly historic day, when their families will be made stronger and their children will become safer."


"I'm very proud of my state," Jacques added. "Massachusetts is going to teach the rest of the country a lesson - equality doesn't hurt anyone."


---


Lambda Legal: http://www.lambdalegal.org/


Liberty Counsel: http://www.lc.org/





cl-nwtreehugger


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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-30-2003
Wed, 05-19-2004 - 11:26am
so he just tossed the laws about such in the old testiment???
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-06-2004
Wed, 05-19-2004 - 11:29am
I'm sorry reccap, I must refute your claim. Christianity is not the majority religion in the WORLD. It may be in the U.S. but not in the world. Christianity only makes up about 10%
-=Seawyt
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Wed, 05-19-2004 - 11:32am

The left assumes that all belief systems are equal simply because they are permitted in the country. Moral superiority does exist. The morals taught in the Bible both OT and NT are superior to the beliefs of Hinduism, Islamism, Wicca, or any other belief system.


Please back this up.


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Wed, 05-19-2004 - 11:39am

I know of no science that would allow a same sex couple to have "their own biological children". Do you mean one woman is the biological mother and the other woman is along for the ride? It Doesn't make it their biological child now does it?


Not as a couple, no.


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 05-19-2004 - 11:44am

Creation


>"The word "Deism" is derived from the Latin word for God: "Deus." Deism involves the belief in the existence of God, on purely rational grounds, without any reliance on revealed religion or religious authority.







Deists:


Do not accept the belief of most religions that God revealed himself to humanity through the writings of the Bible, the Qur'an or other religious texts.


Disagree with strong Atheists who assert that there is no evidence of the existence of God."<





John Quincy Adams, Ethan Allen, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison Thomas Paine, and George Washington were Deists.


>"Deists played a major role in creating the principle of separation of church and state, and the religious freedom clauses of the 1st Amendment of the Constitution.


We have been unable to find estimates of the number of Deists in North America. Although both the U.S. and Canada census document religious affiliations, many Deists are listed under Freethinkers, Humanists, persons of no religion, etc. Many Deists who feel a need to join a spiritual community of searchers for truth become members of congregations associated with the Unitarian Universalist Association."<


Quote........ http://www.religioustolerance.org/deism.htm

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-18-2004
Wed, 05-19-2004 - 11:44am
"Please back this up. Stating that Christian 'morals' are superior just doesn't cut it."

Sorry, if it doesn't cut it for you. Do you think it is a coincidence that a nation founded on Christianity is the greatest nation ever created? There is a belief that because we all have differet beliefs one can't be superior to another's. If you don't believe your belief system is superior why would you follow it? Compare Christianity to another belief system and show me where another has produced greater positive effects than Christianity.

97% is a reference to heterosexuals vs homosexuals. I realize that polls show support for gay marriage is at about 40% but that goes back to my previous post...

from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-06-2004
Wed, 05-19-2004 - 11:46am
A step-parent that adopts the biological children of their mate is not the "biological parent". Does that make them less a family? The childless couple adopts. Are they not a "true" family? There are all kinds of definitions of family. What I have is DEFINITELY a family. My partner and I made a CONSCIOUS choice to have children. That means that we wanted them more than anything. We did not accidentally get pregnant. It was a concerted effort. "Biologically" the children do not belong to my partner. That does not make us less of a family. LOVE makes us a family. COMMITMENT makes us a family. WE make us a family.
-=Seawyt
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Wed, 05-19-2004 - 11:57am

The reference was to the 9th Circuit's decision to declare the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional. They imposed a 90 day stay. You would have seen the pledge in your local school if you aren't in their sphere of influence.


I live in Washington state...well within the jurisdiction of the 9th Circuit.


iVillage Member
Registered: 05-18-2004
Wed, 05-19-2004 - 11:57am
This is getting fun...

They were Deists only to the extent that they would not join an official church. I guess to that extent you could call me a deist. However, they certainly read the Bible and put its beliefs into practice.

Secondly. There is NO SEPERATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. It does not exist. Jefferson made a reference to it in a letter to a church. That is the only historical reference to this separation. I point you to the Constitution.

Jim

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Wed, 05-19-2004 - 12:00pm


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