A California appeals court denied an effort by Christian activists to prevent a law that will grant gay and lesbian couples nearly all the rights and responsibilities of marriage from taking effect as of Jan. 1, the Associated Press reported. The California Court of Appeal for the Third District rejected the groups' request for an emergency stay, but is allowing the legal challenges to the law itself to move forward. The groups, the Campaign for California Families and the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund, appealed a September ruling by a Superior Court judge in Sacramento that held that the new law does not violate a voter-approved measure that holds the state can only recognize marriages between a man and a woman.
Two weeks after the Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) announced the abrupt resignation of its executive director, Cheryl Jacques, the nation's largest gay political group issued a strenuous denial that it was backing away from support for same-sex marriage, according to the Southern Voice. HRC officials, responding to a Dec. 9 story in The New York Times, also denied the group was considering backing President Bush's proposal to partially privatize Social Security if the president's plan would allow same-sex couples to name each other as beneficiaries.
The five pension systems that comprise the retirement funds for New York City municipal employees have all voted to approve a decision announced Nov. 17 by mayor Michael Bloomberg that the spouses and partners of same-sex marriages sanctioned in other jurisdictions and of Vermont civil unions will be recognized as though they are legal spouses.
In Arkansas, the trial concluded in the American Civil Liberties Union's challenge to a state regulation that bans gay people and anyone living in a household with a gay adult from being foster parents in the state. According to an ACLU press release, the organization brought the lawsuit against the state in 1999 on behalf of three prospective foster parents.
San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom may be busy tackling his city's homeless problem and budget deficit these days, but his decision to open City Hall to same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses is still resonating beyond the Golden Gate. The Sacramento Bee reported that Time Magazine named the 37-year-old Democrat to its list of 'People Who Matter.' The designation followed Newsom's selection as 'Person of the Year' by the editors of Planet Out.
Dec. 20 marked the fifth anniversary of the landmark ruling by the Vermont Supreme Court ordering the legislature 'to assign to same-sex couples the common benefits and protections that flow from marriage under Vermont law,' 365Gay.com reported. The ruling led to the creation of 'civil unions,' making Vermont the first state in the U.S. to formally recognize same-sex relationships. Since then some 7,000 gay and lesbian couples from around the country have affirmed their commitments in Vermont.
The 25 regional executives of the 1.5-million-member American Baptist Churches in the United States jointly announced that the denomination's ongoing controversy over homosexuality 'threatens to break us apart,' Planet Out reported. A pastoral statement to 'preserve unity,' released this month after a meeting of denomination leaders, said they had personally agreed to 'voluntarily refrain from' naming sexually active gays and lesbians to national and regional positions.' The church leaders also said they would not participate in same-sex marriage ceremonies, but pledged to shun 'homophobic behavior.'
The city of Los Angeles has reached tentative settlements worth about $650,000 with two gay Los Angeles Police Department officers who alleged in civil lawsuits that they had been discriminated against because of their sexual orientation, the L.A. Times reported. Officer Alan Weiner, 45, who alleged he was harassed while serving as a training officer in the Van Nuys Division, would receive about $450,000, according to his lawyer and a spokesman for the city attorney's office. Sgt. Robert Duncan, a Medal of Valor winner who alleged his career was destroyed after fellow officers learned he is gay, would receive more than $200,000, his lawyer said. Both settlements must be approved by the city council.
Nearly 2,700 couples have registered as domestic partners in the first five months of a New Jersey law that gives added rights and benefits to same-sex couples, according to an item in the Newark Star Ledger. Through Dec. 15, 2,640 gay couples signed up under New Jersey's Domestic Partnership Act. Another 42 unmarried heterosexual senior citizen couples also registered.
Former President Jimmy Carter confirmed that he supports state-sanctioned civil unions for gay couples, in response to a letter from two veteran Atlanta gay-rights activists and questions from Southern Voice, the newspaper reported. 'President Carter opposes all forms of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and believes there should be equal protection under the law for people who differ in sexual orientation,' Deanna Congileo, Carter's press secretary, told the Voice.
San Francisco public health officials issued a warning that a rare and potentially debilitating sexually transmitted disease reported recently in the Netherlands has turned up among a small number of patients in the city, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Known as lymphogranuloma venereum, or LGV, the disease is a form of the common sexually transmitted infection chlamydia. However, this particular strain can cause scarring of the genitals and colon, and can produce swelling and bursting of lymph glands near the groin.
