An article in the Desert News highlights the varied rights of gay and lesbian couples all over the United States and the progress and hurdles in the fight for full marriage equality:

America’s struggles to define marriage are all over the map.

It’s more complex than just differences from California to Connecticut and from Idaho to Iowa – it’s also how those definitions continue to be refined across the country.

Marriage definitions have been crafted or confirmed in the courts, legislatures and voting booths. And in some cases those definitions have been reversed in a matter of months.

With the exception of the Defense of Marriage Act passed a dozen years ago by the United States Congress, the definition of marriage – either the traditional definition of a man and a woman or the most recent allowance of uniting same-sex couples – is an issue left for each state to answer for itself. See our interactive state-by-state map.

Gay-rights activist point out that five states have legalized same-sex marriage through court decisions or legislative actions in the past five years, while another ten states allow for civil unions or domestic partnerships for same sex couples.

 

The New York Times makes a clear case why the New Jersey legislature and Governor Corzine should enact a full marriage equality law:

Doing the right thing — promptly enacting legislation discarding inadequate civil unions in favor of full marriage equality for same-sex couples — requires no gargantuan amount of courage or risk-taking on the part of rank-and-file New Jersey legislators or their leaders.

…Inaction is not an acceptable option. Delaying past Mr. Corzine’s departure means delaying justice for gay and lesbian couples and their families for four or even eight years. Christopher Christie, the Republican who was elected to succeed Mr. Corzine, has said he would veto any legalization bill (although he mostly forgot to mention the issue while campaigning in a decidedly moderate state).

If the Democratic majorities in New Jersey’s Legislature are unwilling to stand up for a fundamental civil right that a majority of voters would accept, when exactly would they stand up?

Susan Young is a teacher, author and active community member talks about her support for her openly gay son, and how laws should afford him the right to marry just as any other couple would:

We have a gay son. He has a distinct masculine identity, dark two-day unshaven scruff.  He loves fast cars. He drinks Starbucks. He argues vociferously. He can act bull-headed, and bite like a scorpion. Like the rest of us, he works, plays, sleeps and eats. He calls almost daily and I end each conversation, “I love you, hon.”

He echoes, “Love you, too.”

If my son ever loves a man enough to want to be a husband, I’ll take their commitment as one more strand to strengthen the institution of marriage.  How could their bond possibility destroy the one I have with his father? I don’t get that. And to answer Zac’s kindergarten question, “Can boys marry boys?”

Why not? 

More love in the world.

Click here to read the rest of Young’s article.

As the District of Columbia City Council and Mayor are expected to pass a law affording gay and lesbian couples equal access to civil marriage, the Catholic Church has made its position against the new law and has insisted that it could suspend social services.

In a surprisingly bold and seemingly unbiblical move, the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is threatening to discontinue its social support for nearly 70,000 people — including a third of Washington’s homeless — because of its opposition to a proposed same-sex marriage bill.

Under the proposed bill, according to a story by Post reporters Tim Craig and Michelle Boorstein, religious organizations would not be required to perform same-sex weddings, “but they would have to obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.”

Apparently, the archdiocese is concerned that it could be forced, for example, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, open adoptions to same-sex couples, or rent a church hall to gay and lesbian groups. “If the city requires this, we can’t do it,” Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said Wednesday. “The city is saying in order to provide social services, you need to be secular. For us, that’s really a problem.”

And withdrawing support for the poor and the hungry isn’t a problem?

It gets complicated anytime church and state work together to provide services for people, especially when a mix of public and private funds and facilities is involved. In this case, for example, the church manages a number of city-owned homeless shelters.

The use of public funds and facilities should be governed by secular laws and regulations, including anti-discrimination laws. But churches and other non-profit religious organizations are exempt from many such laws, because of church-state separation.

Read more in the Washington Post.

According to a recent poll New Jersey voters are in favor of a bill which would replace the state’s civil unions law with complete marriage equality.

The poll, conducted between Nov. 6 and 10, found 46 percent of adult residents want to extend the right to gay couples while 42 percent oppose it. Still undecided were 12 percent of respondents.

“While this tests opinion outside the intensity of a campaign to ban gay marriage, as occurred in California, there is more of a ‘live and let live’ attitude in New Jersey than in many other states that have dealt with this issue,” said David Redlawsk, director of the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll and professor of political science at Rutgers University.

The results come out as the Legislature contemplates the issue in the last weeks before Gov.-elect Chris Christie takes office in January. The legislature begins its lameduck session early next week.

If lawmakers pass the bill legalizing gay marriage, 52 percent would accept the new law, while 40 percent would support a constitutional amendment banning it, the poll said.

Read more about the poll and the efforts by the New Jersey legislature to enact marriage equality at NJ.com.