Category Archives: Washington

Attorneys general urge Supreme Court to strike down Prop 8

Supreme Court, gay news, Washington Blade

13 state attorneys general on Thursday filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case challenging California’s Proposition 8. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Fourteen state attorneys general on Thursday filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of marriage rights for same-sex couples.

“Equality under the law is a founding principle of America, but we will not all be equal until everyone has the freedom to choose whom to love and whom to spend their lives with,” Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden said during a news conference in Wilmington. “It is unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples the freedom to marry.”

The brief onto which Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, Maine Attorney General Janet Mills, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney, New Mexico Attorney General Gary King, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell and Washington Attorney General Robert Ferguson argues California’s voter-approved Proposition 8 denies a variety of legal and social benefits afforded through marriage to same-sex couples and their children. It also highlights nine states and the nation’s capital allow gays and lesbians to marry.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris on Wednesday filed a separate brief with the U.S. Supreme court that urges the justices to strike down Prop 8.

“Our experience in Massachusetts has unequivocally shown that ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage has only strengthened the institution,” Coakley said. “We urge the court to strike Proposition 8 down because it discriminates against gay and lesbian individuals and their families.”

The briefs come ahead of a likely debate on a bill in the Delaware Legislature that would allow gays and lesbians to marry.

An Illinois state House committee on Tuesday approved a same-sex marriage measure, while Minnesota legislators earlier on Thursday introduced a bill that would allow gays and lesbians to marry. Lawmakers in New Jersey and Rhode Island are expected to consider the issue in the coming days and weeks.

“We at Equality Delaware could not be any prouder of our attorney general, Beau Biden, for standing up for freedom and marriage equality for all Delaware families,” Equality Delaware President Lisa Goodman, who spoke at Biden’s news conference, told the Washington Blade.

The state attorneys general filed their brief with the court on the same day Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo and Chris Kluwe of the Minnesota Vikings again expressed their support for marriage rights for same-sex couples in their own brief that urged the justices to strike down Prop 8.

Equality Virginia, the Utah Pride Center, the Campaign for Southern Equality and other LGBT advocacy groups on Wednesday filed a brief that urges the justices to uphold lower court rulings that found both Prop 8 and DOMA unconstitutional. Former Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.,) Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, gay California Assembly Speaker John Perez and the U.S. Conference of Mayors are among those who have either filed briefs in support of marriage rights for same-sex couples or signed onto them.

Biden and other state attorneys general are expected to file a brief in the DOMA case on Fiday.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the two cases on March 26-27.

Sports: Gearing up for action

Team DC Fashion Show, gay news, Washington Blade

Last year’s Team DC Fashion Show (Washington Blade file photo by Pete Exis)

Every spring, the LGBT athletes of the Washington sports community come together to host the Team D.C. Fashion Show and Model Search. This year, it’s on March 9 at Town.

This year’s show features donations of latest fashions from Skiviez, UnderBriefs, Body Aware, Fireboy, Underwear Station, Adam & Eve and Universal Gear. You can purchase the apparel right off the models during the auction.

The event is a fundraiser for the Team D.C. College Scholarship Fund which provides scholarships to local, openly gay student athletes. You can vote for the models before the show online at teamdc.org.

Stonewall Kickball will kick off its spring season on March 17 with games being contested every Sunday through May 19. Registration will close once they reach their max of 480 players. More information is at stonewallsports.org/kickball.

The District of Columbia Aquatics Club will compete in regional tune-up meets leading up to the International Gay & Lesbian Aquatic Championships in Seattle to be held Aug. 12-17. The swimmers will be looking to take back their world title from Team New York Aquatics. They are online at swimdcac.org.

The Chesapeake & Potomac Softball League (CAPS) will be holding early registration events in March with the spring season beginning on May 5 at Watkins Regional Park. Later in the summer, the CAPS will be looking for volunteers as they host the Gay Softball World Series Aug. 26-31. You can find the CAPS at eteamz.com/caps.

The Federal Triangles Soccer Club will host the annual Women’s Winter Wrapup Indoor Cup on March 24 at the Rockville Sportsplex. Information is forthcoming as the Triangles will once again host the Summer of Freedom League. Details will be available at federaltriangles.org.

Season six of the D.C. Gay Flag Football League began Feb. 24 with play to continue through April 21 at the Carter Barron Fields. Players can still get on the waitlist by going to dcgffl.org.

Lambda Links will begin its weekend golf outings in April with the first golf tournament, the President’s Cup to be held in May. Tee times will be listed at lambdalinks.org.

Registration is now open for the spring season with the D.C. Strokes Rowing Club. You can sign up for the Learn to Row, Club or Competitive Programs. There is a pre-season camp to be held from March 15-17. Information is at dcstrokes.org.

The spring season for the Washington Renegades Rugby Football Club began last month with practices at Cardozo High School. The Renegades will travel to New York City for the Four Leaf 15s Tournament on March 23. They are online at dcrugby.com.

The Ski Bums hosted a great day trip in February to Seven Springs and are not quite ready to let go of winter as they are currently in Niseko, Japan. This August, they will be traveling to Argentina to check out some South American powder. Trip details are at ski-bums.org.

The Rainbow Spinnakers Sailing Club will ramp up their weekend sails in the Chesapeake Bay in the coming months. Meet up with the sailing enthusiasts for some skipper training or just go along for a relaxing ride. You can join their mailing list at rainbowspinnakers.com.

Charm City Volleyball hosts its social play on Wednesday nights and competitive play on Sunday afternoons. On April 27-28 they will be hosting Charm City Invitational XXVIII. Information is at volleybaltimore.org.

The Washington Wetskins water polo team is also gearing up for the IGLA Championships in Seattle this August. You can meet up with the players at the Wetskins Mixer at Nellie’s on March 14. They are on Facebook under Washington Weskins.

For all you hockey fans, there will be a Night OUT at the Capitals viewing party on April 6.

The D.C. Icebreakers will host the event and offer a bonus skate from 6-7 p.m. at the Capitals Practice Rink at the Kettler Iceplex in Arlington. Following the skate, the group will head to Baliey’s Pub to watch the Capitals take on the Florida Panthers at 7:30 p.m. The skaters are at dcicebreakers.com.

The Adventuring Outdoors Group has a great list of hikes planned for the spring season. It’s a great time of year to tag along with the hikers to enjoy the flora and fauna of the Washington area. They will also launch their “If It’s Warm Enough” bike ride series this weekend. The trip list is at adventuring.org.

Registration spring tennis is now open for singles and doubles with the Capital Tennis Association. The outdoor leagues will run from March 16 to May 5 and will be held at the Rock Creek Tennis Center. You can register at capital-tennis.org.

George Washington University, a longtime supporter of the LGBT sports community, has invited all volleyball players to their open courts at the Smith Center. This is open to all levels of players for $5. The next dates are March 5 and March 19 from 7-9 p.m.

You can find more information about spring sports outings such as basketball running, ultimate frisbee, rock climbing, racquetball, horseback riding, scuba diving and dancesport at teamdc.org.

Boeing to allow same-sex pension benefits

A Boeing aircraft (Photo by David Lisbona via Wikimedia Commons)

SEATTLE — Aerospace giant Boeing, currently engaged in contentious labor negotiations, has reversed itself on a prior statement that it would not provide pension survivor benefits to same-sex spouses of retirees in states where same-sex marriage is legal.

The issue came to the fore when Washington voters approved a ballot measure extending marriage rights to same-sex couples. According to Seattle newspaper, The Stranger, the company — which employs more than 75,000 workers in the state — justified the policy by saying the company was not compelled to extend the benefits by federal law.

“We are satisfied that this [new] language protects same-sex spouses,” said Ray Goforth, executive director of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, which represents 23,000 Boeing engineers in Washington.

The policy, which reads “Recognizing Boeing’s commitment to equality without regard to sexual orientation, Boeing will extend pension survivor benefits to all spouses, as defined under either State or Federal law whichever defines the same sex person as a spouse,” would only protect Boeing’s union workers in Washington state.

In 2001, Boeing moved its headquarters from Seattle — where it had been located since 1916 — to Chicago. While unlike Washington, Illinois does not currently extend marriage rights to same-sex couples, the Washington Blade has reported that a bill to do so has strong support in both houses of the state legislature, and Gov. Pat Quinn has pledged to sign the bill into law if passed. Boeing also employs 59,304 people in Alabama, Arizona, California, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Texas. None of those states extend marriage rights to same-sex couples.

Chair of Ill. GOP urges lawmakers to support same-sex marriage bill

Illinois State Capitol, Springfield, gay news, Washington Blade

Illinois State Capitol (Photo by Meagan Davis via wikimedia commons)

The chair of the Illinois Republican Party on Wednesday urged state lawmakers to support a bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry.

“More and more Americans understand that if two people want to make a lifelong commitment to each other, government should not stand in their way,” Pat Brady told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Giving gay and lesbian couples the freedom to get married honors the best conservative principles. It strengthens families and reinforces a key Republican value — that the law should treat all citizens equally.”

Gay former Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman, who lobbied lawmakers in Maryland and New York to support same-sex marriage measures in their respective states, also urged Illinois lawmakers to vote for the bill.

“Republicans should support the freedom to marry in Illinois, consistent with our core conservative belief in freedom and liberty for all,” Mehlman said in a statement that Illinois Unites for Marriage, a coalition of groups that supports the same-sex marriage law, released. “Allowing civil marriage for same-sex couples will cultivate community stability, encourage fidelity and commitment and foster strong family values.”

Brady, who stressed he was expressing his own views and not those of the state GOP, announced his support for the same-sex marriage bill on the same day the 15-member Illinois Senate Executive Committee was expected to consider the measure. (The Windy City Times reported late on Wednesday members are expected to vote on the bill state Sen. Heather Steans introduced on Thursday.)

Lawmakers have until the end of the current legislative session on Jan. 8 to vote on the same-sex marriage bill. Governor Pat Quinn has said he will sign the measure, while a White House spokesperson told the Chicago Sun-Times on Saturday that President Obama also supports the measure.

Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Francis George urged parishioners to oppose efforts to extend marriage rights to gays and lesbians in a letter that parishes distributed on Sunday.

Equality Illinois CEO optimistic bill will pass

Same-sex couples can legally marry in nine states and D.C., while Illinois is among the handful of other states that allow gays and lesbians to enter into civil unions.

Gay marriage referenda passed in Maryland, Maine and Washington in November, while Minnesota voters on Election Day struck down a proposed state constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Maryland’s same-sex marriage law took effect on New Year’s Day, while gays and lesbians began to tie the knot in Maine and Washington on Saturday and Dec. 9 respectively.

Lawmakers in Delaware, Hawaii, New Jersey and Rhode Island are expected to consider measures later this year that would allow gays and lesbians to tie the knot.

Equality Illinois CEO Bernard Cherkasov told the Washington Blade during an interview from Springfield, the state capital, earlier on Wednesday he remains optimistic lawmakers will support the same-sex marriage bill. He said he feels recent legislative and electoral advances on the issue in other states will spur more Illinois lawmakers to support it.

“In the past they kept us, the advocates, say to them that this is the right thing to do politically and morally,” Cherkasov said. “Now for the first time they’ve had a chance to see actually that the voters said this is the right thing to do politically and morally. So they didn’t need to trust just the activists and the advocates anymore. They can look at a clear record of successes from four states of voters being supportive of marriage equality.”

Maine’s same-sex marriage law takes effect

Gay News, Washington Blade, Gay Marriage, Maine

Steven Bridges and Michael Snell exchanged vows inside Portland City Hall shortly after midnight on Dec. 29. (Photo by Kurt Graser/Knack Factory)

Two men from Portland on Saturday became the first gay couple to legally marry in Maine once the state’s same-sex marriage law took effect.

Michael Snell, 53, and Steven Bridges, 42, exchanged vows inside Portland City Hall shortly after midnight as Snell’s two daughters, Mayor Michael Brennan and several reporters watched. Hundreds of people who had gathered outside in sub-freezing temperatures cheered the men as they left the building — they even sang the Beetles song “All You Need Is Love” as Snell and Bridges and the more than dozen other same-sex couples who either exchanged vows or obtained marriage licenses walked down the stairs.

“It means equality,” Snell told documentarians with the Knack Factory moments after he and Bridges exchanged vows. “It means that our relationship, our marriage is equal to everybody else’s.”

The Portland City Clerk’s office remained open to any same-sex couple who wanted to apply for a marriage license or tie the knot until 3 a.m. The town clerk’s office in nearby Falmouth also opened at midnight for gays and lesbians who had already made appointments to get married.

The Portland-Press Herald reported South Portland City Clerk Susan Mooney issued marriage licenses to eight same-sex couples once her office — three of them tied the knot there — opened at 8 a.m. The Brunswick Town Clerk’s office also issued marriage licenses to gays and lesbians this morning.

Chris Kast and Byron Bartlett were among the same-sex couples who married at Portland City Hall after the law took effect.

They had a commitment ceremony two and a half years ago, but Kast told the Washington Blade earlier today their choice to get married after midnight was “a matter of fact decision on our part” to “go do it and be part of what was an amazing evening.”

“It felt incredible,” he said. “The energy was just all positive and joyful. It was amazing.”

Maine’s same-sex marriage law took effect after voters on Election Day approved it by a 52-48 percent margin. They repealed an identical statute in 2009 that then-Gov. John Baldacci signed earlier that year.

Same-sex marriage referenda in Maryland and Washington also passed on Nov. 6. Minnesotans on Election Day struck down a proposed state constitutional amendment that would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

“All the politics is done; now it’s just about actual couples and the people who have been together wanting to make it official,” Matt McTighe, campaign manager of Mainers United for Marriage, the group that supported the same-sex marriage referendum, told the Blade. He was among those who gathered outside Portland City Hall to celebrate the state’s first legal gay nuptials. “The energy was amazing. It was just nothing but happiness — take the best parts of every wedding you’ve ever been too and multiply it by a hundred and that’s what it was like for these people.”

Sue Estler and Paula Johnson, who have been together for 24 years, married in their Orono home on Saturday. The couple plans to have a larger celebration next summer, but Estler told the Blade just before she and Johnson exchanged vows they decided to marry on the first day same-sex couples in Maine can legally do so because “we’ve waited so long.”

“It’s historic in Maine,” she said. “We’ve had so many ups and downs and so forth. Our commitment has been long-term, and this formalizes it.”

Donna Galluzzo, who married her partner of three years, Lisa Gorney, at Portland City Hall earlier on Saturday, echoed Estler.

“We had a feeling the vote was going to pass this year,” Galluzzo told the Blade. “After the vote happened and once it was all signed into law and knew what day City Hall was going to open, we looked at each other and said ‘let’s do it.’ It was a historic day and was important for us to be a part of history.”

Kast agreed, describing the scene outside Portland City Hall after he and Bartlett exchanged vows as “surreal.”

“It has taken us so long to get here, to get to a place where everybody’s the same,” Kast said. “It was such a struggle and how no one should have to do that, no one should have to fight, no one should have to give money or knock on doors just to have the legal right to marry the person with whom they choose to spend the rest of their life with. But that aside, it was flippin’ amazing. It really was.”

Donna Galluzzo and Lisa Gorney marry outside Portland City Hall on Dec. 29. (Photo by Chloe Crettien)

Year in review: Marriage victories in Maine, Md., Wash., Minn.

Washington State, gay marriage, same-sex marriage, marriage equality, gay news, Washington Blade, Dan Savage

(Seattle Gay News photo by Nate Gowdy published with permission)

Marriage equality took a giant leap forward on Election Day when, for the first time, voters in three states approved same-sex marriage rights at the ballot. In addition, voters in Minnesota rejected a ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage.

The results brought the total number of states where same-sex marriage is legal to nine plus D.C.

Same-sex marriage was made legal by referenda in Maryland, Maine and Washington State. The margin of victory in each state was slim; in Maryland, the measure passed with 52.4 percent of the vote.

Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, praised the wins after the results of the ballot initiatives were announced.

“Our huge, happy and historic wave of wins last night signaled irrefutable momentum for the freedom to marry, with voters joining courts, legislatures and the reelected president of the United States in moving the country toward the right side of history,” Wolfson said.

But those victories came just months after a defeat for LGBT advocates in May when North Carolina approved an amendment banning same-sex marriage.

In the week prior to Election Day, the Obama campaign published a letter in each of three states where marriage equality was on the ballot saying Obama supports the legalization of same-sex marriage in each of the states.

“While the president does not weigh in on every single ballot measure in every state, the president believes in treating everyone fairly and equally, with dignity and respect,” said Michael Czin, Northeast regional press secretary for the Obama campaign, in the Portland Press Herald. “The president believes same-sex couples should be treated equally and supports Question 1.”

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