As you’ll know if you weren’t on the moon this week, marriages became legal for same-sex couples in California. Here are some additional highlights:
- More than 2,700 marriage licenses were issued statewide on June 17, vs. the average June day’s count of about 480. The LA Times has a cool interactive map breaking this down by county, and the Sacramento Bee says that 60% of the licenses for same-sex couples are for two women.
- GLAAD has posted a compilation of TV news coverage from various SoCal locations.
- Michael J. Rosenfeld, an assistant professor of sociology at Stanford University, offers evidence in the Sacramento Bee that same-sex parents are raising children successfully. He cites data from the U.S. Census in opposition to conservative groups who claim there are no national studies to show how children fare when raised from birth by same-sex couples.
- Ashley Harness, the daughter of lesbian moms from Minnesota, explains what the California ruling means to her, and what societal acceptance of her mothers’ relationship might have meant to her while growing up.
News didn’t stop elsewhere, though:
- The city council of Santa Rosa, California has chosen Vice Mayor John Sawyer to replace Mayor Bob Blanchard, who died of cancer last weekend. Sawyer will become the city’s first openly gay mayor, and will serve the remaining six months of Blanchard’s term.
- An evangelical group in Maine has dropped a campaign to repeal the state’s gay rights law and put in place roadblocks to gay marriages and adoptions after it “failed to attract voter, volunteer and financial support.”
- Two sets of parents in Lexington, Massachusetts have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in a case against their local school district, alleging that the elementary school’s gay-inclusive diversity curriculum violated their right to religious freedom. In February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit unanimously upheld a lower court’s rejection of the suit.
- Two high school girls in Wayland, Michigan reportedly targeted and attacked a third for being a supporter of LGBT rights and a lesbian. Another girl watched and recorded the attack on her camera phone.
- New Jersey Rep. Steve Rothman (D-Fair Lawn) had been hesitant to support marriage for same-sex couples, but this week announced he now does. He also joined the new LGBT Equality Caucus in the House. Why the change? One of his new stepdaughters is lesbian.
- New Jersey could boost its economy by more than half a billion dollars over the next three years if it legalizes marriage for same-sex couples, said Brad Sears, executive director of the Williams Institute at UCLA. He was testifying before the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission.
- Transgender youth in New York’s juvenile detention centers can now wear their uniform of choice, be called by the name they want, and ask for special housing under one of the nation’s most progressive anti-discrimination policies.
- In Ohio, the Franklin County Court of Appeals ruled against a mother who wanted to end a joint-custody agreement with her former partner. The ex-partner’s attorney argued, among other things, that the agreement was unconstitutional because of Ohio’s ban on marriage of same-sex couples.
- Conservatives in Oregon are abandoning efforts to collect signatures for initiatives to repeal two Oregon gay rights laws in November’s election.
- The Pittsburgh City Council gave final approval to a domestic partner registry. The registry will provide a standard for employers to allow workers to share benefits with their partners, but the employers are not obligated to do so. The city has long offered benefits to its employees’ domestic partners and common law spouses, “but the new legislation tightens up definitions.”
- A police officer in Memphis, Tennessee brutally beat a handcuffed transgender woman in the booking area at the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center after she was arrested for prostitution. Memphis TV station WMC-TV has the video; the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition and HRC have issued statements calling for action.
- The mayor of Washington, D.C., has directed his interim attorney general to review on the city’s legal options if same-sex couples from D.C. go to California to marry and then ask the D.C. government to recognize their marriages.
Around the world:
- Green MP’s in Tasmania, Australia will introduce a bill into the state’s parliament to legalize marriage for same-sex couples. The state premier said in response that marriage is a federal responsibility. (Compare the U.S. “leave it to the states” policy.)
- A new opinion poll in Jamaica found that 70 percent of Jamaicans do not believe gays and lesbians should have any civil rights.
- The Lithuanian parliament has approved legislation to ban discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. “Educational and training institutions of religious communities” will be exempted.
- A Paraguayan couple jailed on suspicion of having a same-sex wedding was freed Monday after a doctor determined that the groom is an intersex person.
- Three Ugandan LGBT activists were arrested during a peaceful protest at a major AIDS conference, co-sponsored by the Bush administration. The government of President Yoweri Museveni has refused to include any focus on prevention among LGBT Ugandans.
- Three leading gay and lesbian organizations in the Ukraine have joined forces to form the Union of Gay Organisations of Ukraine (UGOU).
- The U.K. House of Lords ruled that unmarried couples in Northern Ireland must be allowed to apply to adopt children, bringing Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the U.K. The case was one in which a non-biological mother was trying to adopt her partner’s biological daughter.