Same Sex Marriage

Mexico City lawmakers on Monday made the city the first in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, a change that will give homosexual couples more rights, including allowing them to adopt children. The bill passed the capital's local assembly 39-20 to the cheers of supporters who yelled: "Yes, we could! Yes, we could!" Mexico City's left-led assembly has made several decisions unpopular elsewhere in this deeply Roman Catholic country, including legalizing abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

When I was younger, my sister and I would stay up to watch BET's "ComicView. " Throughout the '90s and 2000s, "ComicView" was the launching pad for many of our current top black stand-up comedians. One night, I recall hearing a performer make a joke about gay couples, where he asked, “So, which one is the woman?” Though many years later, we live in a world where people still perceive gay relationships in a man/woman binary. Breaking that binary (and the judgments and expectations that come with it)

Advocates of same-sex marriage in Maryland say they don't anticipate any big victories in the State House this year, despite the recent adoption of more permissive laws in the District of Columbia, New Hampshire and elsewhere. Instead, proponents of a broader definition of marriage are thinking long-term. For the first time, they are launching a fundraising and lobbying effort to target individual state legislators who they say are unfriendly to their cause. Still, the issue promises to generate lots of debate in Annapolis over the next three months.

Organizers of this year's Baltimore Pride celebration have chosen Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to serve as grand marshal in recognition of her support for the gay community. The GLBT Community Center of Baltimore and Central Maryland is hosting the annual parade and block party in Mount Vernon and the festival at Druid Hill Park - the largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender gathering in the state - on June 15 and 16. "Mayor Rawlings-Blake's commitment to the LGBT community has been undoubtedly one of the best records in Maryland and for the City of Baltimore," the center said Tuesday in a statement.

When Attorney General Douglas Gansler issued his February opinion recognizing same-sex marriages from out of state, it made Maryland the next state to watch on gay marriage. But instead of using the opinion to launch a renewed effort to legalize gay marriage in Maryland, advocates are taking a different, counterintuitive tack: Stalling. That's because a referendum is likely to follow passage of any new marriage law, and voters have not favored gay marriage in states where a popular vote was held.

Societies that are tolerant, free and diverse tend to be richer and happier than societies that aren't. Maryland has shown this for decades. Now is the time to extend the legacy by legalizing same-sex marriage. The move would beam welcome signals not just to gays and lesbians but to all members of the young "creative class" who represent the economic and social future. Not coincidentally, it's the right thing to do. More and more research shows how inextricably linked tolerance and prosperity really are. No religion, race or sexual orientation has a monopoly on talent.

Just sitting down at a desk at the marriage bureau at D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday was too much for Angelisa Young. She cried so hard that she eventually had to bury her face in her fiancee's chest. About a half-hour later, Young and her partner, Sinjoyla Townsend, who met 13 years ago in a constitutional law class at the University of the District of Columbia, became the first same-sex couple to apply to be married in the district as the city officially joined five states in allowing gay marriage.

BOSTON -- Gov. Mitt Romney filed a lawsuit yesterday asking the state's highest court to order the Legislature to vote on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage or to place it on the 2008 ballot if lawmakers do not tackle it. The Legislature voted 109-87 on Nov. 9 to recess a constitutional convention before the measure was taken up, which appeared to kill it. The convention was recessed until Jan. 2, the last day of the legislative session....

More than a dozen state lawmakers testified yesterday in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland, an unusual show of legislative support even as it is unclear if proponents will be able to muster the votes for passage this year. The House Judiciary Committee also heard bills that would establish civil unions or domestic partnerships and a bill to put a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage on the November ballot. "You don't have to like us," Del. Heather R. Mizeur, who is openly gay, testified.

The Bible came out, the rainbow pin went on, rhetorical swords were sharpened, and mutual respect was declared. Despite the passionate presentations, few of the approximately 160 attendees seemed swayed at this week's debate in Columbia about same-sex marriage. But participants agreed that such public discussions are critical with the definition of marriage in Maryland at stake. The state legislature is likely to return to the issue of gay rights when it reconvenes, and the Baltimore Circuit Court is due to issue a decision soon in a closely watched case that will determine whether a 1972 state law prohibiting gay men and lesbians from marrying violates the state constitution.

The O'Malley administration has notified state employees in same-sex relationships that they won't be able to include domestic partners in their health insurance anymore. If they want coverage, they'll have to get married. The policy change is the result of the new Maryland law allowing same-sex marriage, which took effect Jan. 1. The thinking is that offering health coverage to an unmarried same-sex partner doesn't make sense anymore, officials said, particularly since an unmarried heterosexual partner doesn't have the same right.

Johns Hopkins administrators scrambled Thursday to find a commencement speaker to replace Dr. Ben Carson, who stepped down from two engagements because of backlash from recent comments he made about same-sex marriage. Carson was scheduled as the commencement speaker for Hopkins' School of Medicine and School of Education on May 23 but voluntarily stepped aside. "The dean and his staff will work their contacts to identify a noteworthy speaker and are confident that one can be secured reasonably quickly," university spokesman Dennis O'Shea wrote in an email.

  I have been tracking the dance Johns Hopkins nuerosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson has been doing with Fox News since his appearance last month at The National Prayer Breakfast. You can see my concerns about the relationship here . But Tuesday night, Dr. Carson went to a place on Sean Hannity's show that surprised even me. And I did not think anything done on such a partisan show could shock me after years of being appalled by Hannity's shamelss shilling for right-wing causes and candidates.

Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo and Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, two of the NFL's most outspoken advocates of gay marriage, have taken their fight to the highest court. The two filed an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court of the United States on Thursday that contends that California's Proposition 8, which says "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California," is unconstitutional. The brief also discusses the important role that professional athletes have in promoting tolerance.

It is not unusual to see art that tackles social and political issues, but there's still something startling about Jeffrey Kent's solo show "Preach!" at the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park. The Baltimore artist zeros in on opposition by some African-Americans, especially in churches, to same-sex marriage. Kent employs provocative imagery, including minstrel figures in blackface, and an evocative substance: cotton. The impetus for the recently completed project goes back to 2008.

Just days before Maryland's highest court hears arguments over whether the state's gay men and lesbians have the right to wed, a group of sociologists, psychologists and child-welfare advocates spoke out yesterday in support of same-sex marriage. They said they based their support on years of scientific research concluding that gays and lesbians can be as effective parents as heterosexuals and that the children of gay parents develop just as well as children of opposite-sex couples. "There is absolutely no scientific basis for legal discrimination against gay and lesbian couples and families regarding their rights to parent and marry as everyone else does," said Ruth Fassinger, a psychology professor at the University of Maryland during a news conference held at the Baltimore headquarters of the Maryland chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

BOSTON -- The couple who lent their name to the lawsuit that legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts have separated, a family spokesman confirmed yesterday. Julie Goodridge, 49, and Hillary Goodridge, 50, were married May 17, 2004, the first day that same-sex couples were permitted to wed in Massachusetts under the terms of Goodridge v. Department of Public Health. The landmark 4-3 decision by this state's Supreme Judicial Court revolutionized the concept of marriage as Massachusetts became the first state to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples.