Marriage Equality update from US and World

Marriage equality bills advanced in the UK and France, with adoption expected. In the US: RI-bill passes House, awaits Senate action; DE – bill likely this year; IL – Senate vote may come on Valentine’s Day; MN – bill expected later in legislative session; NM – bill clears first hurdle; MS – Episcopal churches can offer same-sex rites; UT – State files brief with Supreme Court urging support of traditional marriage; WY – partnership, discrimination bills turned down, but consideration seen as progress; IN – vote unlikely this year.

Gay marriage is currently allowed in nine states — Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and Washington— and the District of Columbia. Countries that allow it are The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Iceland and Argentina.

FRANCE - Gay marriage bill wins support of French lawmakers 

PARIS (AP) — France's National Assembly has approved a key article of a controversial bill that would legalize gay marriage.

The measure, approved by a 249-to-97 vote Saturday, would drop the legal requirement that a marriage in France must be between two people of the opposite sex.

To become law, that measure must now be approved by France's Senate. That is expected to happen since President Francois Hollande favors the change.

UNITED KINGDOM - Lawmakers to vote on gay marriage bill 

LONDON (AP) — A gay marriage bill that has divided Britain's Conservative Party but is backed by its leader, Prime Minister David Cameron, is being debated in Parliament in advance of a vote.

The bill would enable same-sex couples to get married in both civil and religious ceremonies, provided that the religious institution consents. The Church of England, the country's official faith, is barred from performing such ceremonies.

The bill would also allow couples who had previously entered into civil partnerships to convert their relationship into a marriage.

Dozens of Conservative lawmakers are expected to vote against the proposed bill later Tuesday, but it is expected to pass with support from the vast majority of lawmakers from the left-leaning Labour Party and Liberal Democrats.

RHODE ISLAND – Marriage bill passes House; awaits Senate action; RI Bar Association endorses gay marriage 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The leaders of the Rhode Island Bar Association have endorsed a proposal to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.

The association's executive committee and House of Delegates have both endorsed the legislation, which has passed the state House of Representatives. The Bar Association represents Rhode Island's licensed attorneys.

Rhode Islanders United for Marriage announced the association's endorsement on Monday. Ray Sullivan, the group's campaign director, says gay marriage is an issue of justice and basic fairness.

Rhode Island is now the only state in New England that does not allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.

The proposal is awaiting consideration in the Senate. Debate there could hinge on an exemption in the law designed to ensure that religious leaders who oppose gay marriage aren't forced to participate in same-sex marriages.

DELAWARE – Bill likely; Civil Unions already legal. Catholic bishop takes aim at gay marriage in Del. 

RANDALL CHASE, Associated Press

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — As advocates prepare to push for a bill authorizing gay marriage in Delaware, the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington is weighing in with a pastoral letter on marriage.

Bishop Francis Malooly begins his pastoral letter with a quotation from the book of Genesis stating that God created mankind in his own image, both male and female, and directed them to be fertile and multiply.

Malooly also notes that the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines marriage as a matrimonial covenant between a man and a woman and says marriage must be "cherished and defended."

State lawmakers have said it's likely that a bill authorizing gay marriage will be introduced in the legislature this year, barely a year after same-sex civil unions became legal in Delaware.

ILLINOIS - Same-sex marriage bill expected in committee 

CHICAGO (AP) — Key Illinois senators say legislation legalizing same-sex marriage could come up for a floor vote on Valentine's Day.

State Sen. Heather Steans (STAYNZ') is the sponsor of a gay-marriage bill and says the matter is on the executive committee's agenda Tuesday. She's confident it has the support to pass the Senate next week.

Last week, Senate President John Cullerton said he'd like to approve gay marriage on Feb. 14. He believes the bill has the 30 votes needed to pass and move to the House.

Steans says the time is right because public opinion is rapidly changing about gay marriage. The legislation would grant same-sex couples rights available to heterosexual couples.

Advocates cite momentum in other states and President Barack Obama's support.

However, some religious groups oppose the idea.

MINNESOTA - Minn. marriage fight topped $18 million in 2012. Marriage bill expected later in session.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Last year's emotional campaign over a proposed Minnesota gay marriage ban cost the two main competing groups a combined $18 million, according to campaign finance reports released Friday.

That made it Minnesota's most costly election, although spending on the failed state constitutional amendment was just a slice of the millions consumed by all the races on the ballot.

Minnesotans United for All Families, the leading group on the winning side, spent about $12.4 million last year. It was far more than the $5.6 million that Minnesota for Marriage put into its effort, at least one-fifth of that from the Catholic church. The total spending on the ballot question climbs even higher when campaign activity from 2011 and by other groups is included.

Those dollars fueled a highly visible campaign waged with television advertising, leaflets, bumper stickers, billboards and door-to-door canvassers.

Richard Carlbom, who managed the anti-amendment campaign, said his group knew at the outset it would take more than $10 million to win given that voters in other states had yet to reject a gay marriage ban. He said the organization's 80,000 contributors and 250,000 email addresses will pay dividends as Minnesota lawmakers now debate whether to legalize gay marriage.

NEW MEXICO - Voters could decide whether to legalize gay marriage under a proposal that's cleared its first hurdle in the Legislature.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) The House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee voted 3-2 on Thursday in favor of a constitutional amendment allowing same-sex couples to be married. The committee's Republican members opposed the measure.

The proposal must clear two other committees to reach the 70-member House for a vote. It also needs Senate approval before it could be placed on the 2014 general election ballot. The measure likely faces difficulty because the Legislature in the past has turned down proposals for domestic partnerships.

MISSISSIPPI – Marriage not legal but Miss. Episcopalians can offer same-sex rite 

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The bishop of the Episcopal Church in Mississippi has announced that he will allow some congregations to bless same-sex unions.

The Rt. Rev. Duncan M. Gray III made the announcement Friday in his opening address to the 186th Annual Council of the Diocese of Mississippi in Jackson.

In a statement, Gray said while a general ban on the blessing of same-sex marriages will remain in place, he will allow congregations that self-select and undergo a thorough process to move toward blessings of same-sex unions.

Last July, the Episcopal Church approved a new liturgy blessing same-sex unions during a national convention. Gray said the process in Mississippi will be similar to one implemented in Texas. In Texas, each rector is allowed to choose whether his or her congregation will offer the ceremony if it's approved.

"No priest, no vestry, no congregation will be asked to do anything that violates their conscience. This liturgy will only be authorized in congregations that have met" the criteria and have petitioned for permission, Gray said in his statement.

UTAH - State asks Supreme court to uphold traditional marriage 

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah has become the latest state to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold state and federal laws defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

Utah Attorney General John Swallow filed two friend of the court briefs asking the high court to overturn lower court rulings that struck down California's Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA.

Proposition 8, the state constitutional ban on gay marriage that voters adopted in 2008, was struck down by a panel of judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2012.

Four federal district courts and two appeals courts have struck down a provision of DOMA that definesmarriage as between a man and woman for the purpose of deciding who can receive a range of federal benefits.

"Traditional marriage is the bedrock foundation for families and society," Swallow said in a statement. "As part of my promise to protect Utah families, we will fight to make sure traditional marriage is protected and preserved."

His action came days after The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in conjunction with other faiths, filed friend of the court briefs in support of the state and federal laws.

Utah joins 18 other states in challenging the Proposition 8 ruling and 16 other states in defending DOMA.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in the two cases in March, and to issue decisions by the end of June.

The high court's decision to hear the cases gives it the chance to say whether gay Americans have the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals.

Utah is among 40 states that define marriage as between a man and woman. Utah voters also amended the state's constitution to ban gay marriage in 2004.

WYOMING – Domestic partner, discrimination protection bills bail, but activists say that just reaching the floor in both chambers was progress.

Wyoming lawmakers see movement on gay issues 
BEN NEARY, Associated Press

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — To say merely that Wyoming is a conservative state doesn't begin to capture it.

Republicans hold nearly every elected office. Lawmakers squirrel away much of the revenue from the state's mineral wealth in a multi-billion-dollar savings account they can't touch without voters' OK. And gun ownership and hunting are as much a part of a cherished way of life as are ranching and rodeo.

And so, it was remarkable in the legislative session that started in early January when a handful of Republicans supported two measures that might seem more at home in liberal California.

While bills to permit same-sex civil unions and a ban on discrimination against gays made it out of committee, they went down in votes in the full House and Senate. That they even got that far was seen by many as a sign of how the shifting national attitude toward gay rights is affecting views in red states such as Wyoming.

Some Republicans spoke of their decisions to co-sponsor the bills in personal terms, or in language rooted in the libertarian, government-stay-out-my-life ethic of the Cowboy State.

"I think people are beginning to realize that this is just not a big deal. The sky doesn't fall," said Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, who signed on as a co-sponsor on the anti-discrimination bill. He said recent decisions on gay rights in the courts, the military and other states are bleeding into the state's consciousness.

In this year's session, for the first time in years, no one sponsored "defense of marriage" legislation seeking to prevent the state from recognizing same-sex unions performed elsewhere.

In addition to the positive signs in the legislature, the Casper, WY Star-Tribune took some legislators to task for remarks made during the floor debate: “We are obligated to challenge both [State Reps.] Hutchings and Baker because residents in Wyoming — like any other place — must set the expectations and standards for our leaders. We should be able to tolerate a difference of opinion, but there shouldn’t be a difference of facts.”

INDIANA - Marriage vote unlikely as lawmakers await Supreme Court rulings

TOM LoBIANCO, Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana's legislative leaders casted doubt Thursday on the prospects of taking up a gay marriage ban this year by saying they needed to poll their caucus members and noting the issue is before the nation's highest court.

Senate President Pro Tem David Long and House Speaker Brian Bosma, both Republicans, said they expect to make a final decision after consulting with their respective caucuses next week. Both preside over GOP super-majorities.

"I've said a few times that personally it's inadvisable to move forward with the United States Supreme Court having the question before it, but I'm not making that decision by myself," Bosma said.

Compiled from AP dispatches.