Disney opens Fairy Tale Wedding service to gay couples
Posted on April 6, 2007
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Same-sex couples who want to exchange vows in front of Cinderella’s Castle now have the chance.
The Walt Disney Co. had limited its Fairy Tale Wedding program to couples with valid marriage licenses, but it is now making ceremonies at its parks available to gay couples as well. ”We believe this change is consistent with Disney’s long-standing policy of welcoming every guest in an inclusive environment,” Disney Parks and Resorts spokesman Donn Walker said. ”We want everyone who comes to celebrate a special occasion at Disney to feel welcome and respected.”
The company said it made the change after being contacted by a gay couple who wanted to use the wedding service, which offers ceremonies at Disneyland in California, Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disney’s cruise ships.
The service offers flowers, dining, music and many optional Disney touches, from ceremonies in front of the parks’ iconic attractions to having Mickey and Minnie Mouse in formal wear as guests. The packages start at $8,000 and can cost more than $45,000.
Groups not affiliated with Disney have held annual ”gay days” celebrations at Disney parks for years. Company officials have taken a tolerant attitude to the weekend, allowing party promoters to rent out parks after hours and rebuffing religious groups that condemned Disney.
Source: Associated Press
Same-sex marriage ban gives gays, lesbians ’second-class’ status
Posted on April 2, 2007
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The state’s ban on same-sex marriage tells lesbians and gay men that they are “second class citizens” inferior to sex offenders and prisoners, and it contributes to discrimination, the city of San Francisco argued today in asking the California Supreme Court to strike down the law.
In a strongly-worded brief, the city traced the discrimination of lesbians and gay men from the first millennium to the Enlightenment to the present day. City attorneys compared the fight for same-sex marriage rights to the battle for desegregation, and they asked the state’s highest court to ignore the pull of tradition and “the will of the popular majority.”
The Supreme Court, which nullified nearly 4,000 weddings of gay and lesbian couples performed at San Francisco City Hall in February and March 2004, voted unanimously in December to decide whether a state law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman violates a constitutional right to marry the partner of one’s choice. Read more….
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Posted on March 15, 2007
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Governor iffy on same-sex marriage
Posted on March 8, 2007
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Perhaps more than any Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger openly professes his support of gay rights. He has signed more than a dozen laws strengthening domestic partnerships and hate-crimes protections.
But Schwarzenegger will perhaps never sign a same-sex marriage bill. With his fame, centrism and popularity, the governor could have a unique platform to lead on same-sex marriage. But on a subject that stirs passions among activists on both sides, he’s uncharacteristically passive: The people of California can navigate, he said. Or the courts can steer. That hands-off stance isn’t what some Californians have come to expect from their take-charge governor.
Some observers think his actions are aimed at safeguarding his conservative base. But the governor’s confidants said the stance isn’t calculated to duck political shrapnel. In fact, even the governor’s close gay advisers disagree on the marriage debate. His allies believe his stance makes perfect sense for a man who cares more for the tangible — say, allowing domestic partners to file joint state tax returns — than the symbolic, even if it makes history.
“His sort of feeling is, ‘What’s the big deal? If you’re gay, you’re gay. There should be no discrimination,’” said a former aide, one of several who spoke on condition of anonymity because the subject is politically fraught. Schwarzenegger is “not a cause kind of guy.”
The governor “does not calculate the political balancing act of the same-sex marriage issue,” said Adam Mendelsohn, his communications director. He tries to represent “the position of the people of California.”
So, while the governor backs domestic partnership rights, he also abides by a 2000 ballot measure, Proposition 22, that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Source: Medianews Sacramento Bureau
EQCA disappointed governor refuses to embrace marriage for same-sex couples
Posted on February 17, 2007
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At a youth conference in Sacramento on Thursday, governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would not sign legislation allowing same-sex couples to marry in California. Responding to a question from a high school student, governor Schwarzenegger said the people of California, not the governor or the Legislature, should decide if same-sex couples can marry.
In response to the governor’s comments, Equality California (EQCA) Executive Director Geoff Kors made the following statement: “Excluding same-sex couples from marriage hurts committed partners and their families,” Kors said. “Two people in a committed and loving relationship deserve the respect and support that only comes with marriage. How would the governor feel if his right to marry First Lady Maria Shriver had been put to a popular vote? We urge him to remember that each of us deserves to be treated fairly.”
EQCA is the sponsor of AB 43, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, authored by Assemblymember Mark Leno, D-San Francisco. If passed, the bill would give same-sex couples the freedom to marry in California. EQCA is also a plaintiff in the same-sex marriage cases currently before the California Supreme Court. Read more….
Source: yubanet.com
Courthouse clerk protests same-sex marriage inequality
Posted on February 16, 2007
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Freddie Oakley, a clerk and recorder in California’s Yolo County courthouse, gave out “certificates of inequality” on Valentine’s Day to same-sex partners. After observing California’s law against issuing marriage certificates to same-sex partners for four years, Oakley decided to mount her own protest against the lack of equality for same-sex couples by creating these certificates on her computer, using her own money.
“It is my strong belief that the denial based on gender of the right to a contract of civil marriage with the spouse of one’s choosing is discriminatory and a violation of civil rights,” Oakley told TV station 9News.
Two of the people that Oakley sees every Valentine’s Day are Ellen Pontac and Shelly Bailes, a lesbian couple who have been together for over 30 years. They ask her for a marriage license and are denied one every year, according to 9News. Read more….
Source: Prideparenting.com
Same-sex couples miss benefits of marriage
Posted on February 15, 2007
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On a sunny morning on February 15, 2004, Paula Lewis and Joan McCarthy drove from their Newark home to San Francisco after learning that the city was granting same-sex marriage licenses. They were turned away that day but this time it wasn’t because of bigotry.
Instead, they encountered hundreds of other gay and lesbian couples already standing in line at San Francisco City Hall. Lewis and McCarthy returned at 4 a.m. two days later to rejoin the line, which had hundreds more standing in the dark, warding off the winter rain with blankets and coffee donated by supporters.
By 11 a.m., Lewis and McCarthy were married in the City Hall’s picturesque rotunda by a marriage commissioner who had wed her lesbian partner there two days earlier. “It was a delight. The atmosphere was overflowing with love, excitement and fun,” Lewis said. “We had never thought that this would be possible in our lifetime.”
Their wedding came almost 24 years after the couple first exchanged vows and rings in a private ceremony in Newark. But the San Francisco service was the first that offered the hope of legal validation for their relationship. It also held an unexpected meaning for their relationship.
“We went there thinking we were doing an act of civil disobedience,” said McCarthy, 57. “But by publicly proclaiming our commitment to one another, we didn’t realize it would take us to a deeper emotional level.” However, the California Supreme Court eventually ruled their same-sex marriage — and the roughly 4,000 others that took place in San Francisco in 2004 — invalid.
Lewis and McCarthy liken the denial of their right to marry to the racist Jim Crow laws that existed for blacks and other minorities before the civil rights movement. “People used to say that gays aren’t stable and are too decadent to hold long-term relationships,” said Lewis, 59. “But when we say, ‘OK, let’s make it legal,’ now they say, ‘no, you can’t do it.’ Well, what do they want?”
Despite the good times, the couple says having had their wedding disallowed has had negative practical effects on them as they head into their golden years. For example, Lewis opted for a lump-sum buyout from her company after retirement to gain control of her pension funds, even though she preferred monthly payments. Why? Because if she were to die after retirement, her monthly pension would not be transferred to McCarthy, a benefit that is enjoyed by spouses in straight marriages.
Instead, Lewis said she took the lump-sum, which amounts to less money than the monthly pension over time, because that was the only way to ensure she could will the money to McCarthy after death.
Source: Oakland Tribune
Newsom ‘more resolved’ on same-sex marriage
Posted on February 12, 2007
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San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom took time out this morning to relive a high point of his time in office - the decision to grant marriage licenses to nearly 4,000 same-sex couples in 2004.
That move three years ago today brought him international recognition. Newsom said today that he is “more resolved than ever” on the issue. “For me this is a long battle, but it is one that will be won inevitably. It’s only won through courage and constancy and works. You’ve got to continue to remind people what’s at stake and not give up or deviate from your purpose,” Newsom said.
State supreme courts in New York, Washington and New Jersey and a California appellate court have ruled since he authorized the marriages here that same-sex couples do not have a constitutional right to marry. In addition to the California case, the New York and Washington lawsuits were sparked by Newsom’s action. Voters in 26 states also have amended their constitutions to bar same-sex couples from marriage in election battles that frequently evoked Newsom and San Francisco. Read more….
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Lesbian couple wedded at SF City Hall. Women had been together for five decades.
Posted on February 13, 2004
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History was made at 11:06 a.m. today at San Francisco City Hall when Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon took their wedding vows, becoming the first same-sex couple to be officially married in the United States.
(By mid-afternoon, at least 15 same-sex weddings were performed and officials issued about a dozen more marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, the Associated Press reported.)
Mabel Teng, the city’s assessor-recorder, officiated over the first ceremony, inserting the phrase “spouse for life'’ in place of “husband'’ and “wife.'’
“This is a very significant day for Del and Phyllis and for all of us witnessing this historic ceremony,'’ Teng said before the couple recited their vows.
About 20 people witnessed the ceremony; many of them were moved to tears as the couple, who have been together for five decades, were wed.
The wedding came just two days after Mayor Gavin Newsom announced that he wanted San Francisco to take the lead in bestowing the same marriage rights to gays and lesbians as are awarded to straight couples, saying he is duty-bound to fight discrimination.
The landmark wedding, the first of many expected to be held at City Hall today, is sure to set off a legal challenge. City officials, in fact, rushed to issue the first marriage licenses to same-sex couples as quickly as possible for fear that opponents would seek a court injunction to stop them. Officials alerted only a handful of people that they were ready to act, wanting to keep it secret until the papers were signed and the “I do’s'’ were spoken.
The decision was made late Wednesday night, and the clerk’s office spent this morning amending the marriage license documents to reflect the change.
In place of “bride'’ and “groom'’ on the application were the words “1st applicant'’ and “2nd applicant.'’
After Martin, 83, and the 79-year-old Lyon were declared spouses for life, three other couples were lined up, awaiting their turn to take marriage vows.
Lyon, who will celebrate her 51st anniversary with Martin on Saturday, Valentine’s Day, got a call Wednesday from Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, asking her if she’d be willing to take the plunge.
“I asked Del and she said OK,” Lyon said. The San Francisco couple isn’t new to being firsts. They have been at the forefront of the lesbian rights movement for decades.
“We didn’t really think about this before, because we didn’t think it was possible,” Lyon said. “Now, so much has changed … and everyone’s working so hard to get gay marriage. It didn’t seem right to say ‘no.’ ”
Source: San Fransisco Chronicle
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