Civil Unions

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Rhode Island's House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly passed legislation allowing gay couples to enter into civil unions, after a last-ditch effort to revive gay-marriage legislation failed. The 62-11 vote sends the measure to the Senate, where leaders predict broad support for civil unions. The proposal would allow same-sex couples to enter into civil unions granting all of the rights given to married couples. It was introduced as a compromise after legislative leaders said gay-marriage legislation lacked the votes.

DENVER - Opponents of same-sex unions rallied at the Colorado Capitol on Tuesday as tensions remained high one day after state House Republicans rejected a proposal to provide gay couples rights similar to marriage. Dozens of people saying they support traditional marriage cheered Republican lawmakers and thanked State House Speaker Frank McNulty, crediting him for the defeat of the heavily debated civil-union legislation. Gay-rights advocates also maintained a presence at the Capitol, as a man with a horn loudly heckled McNulty as he addressed the crowd.

Vermont has done the right thing in approving "civil unions" for homosexuals. While some fear this move sets American on a slippery slope of some kind, it's just as likely it could create a new equilibrium. Actually, I have no choice but to support civil unions, having twice advocated such a concept as preferable to that of "domestic partners," which remains a bad choice. Domestic-partner ordinances in Philadelphia and elsewhere grant gay and lesbian employees the benefits, notably family medical insurance, that are intended to make it easier for one spouse to remain at home, work part-time or raise small children.

Inside a teal-trimmed frame house overlooking Lake Champlain, Nina Beck stands near the warmth of a fire holding her sleeping 3-month-old son, Seth. Her bright green eyes glow; there is a proud smile on her pretty, freckled face. It is a peaceful scene, belying the controversy that surrounds it. Eight years ago, Beck was married before family and friends in a Jewish ceremony ("cantor and all," she says). Legally, however, she is an unwed mother - because her partner's name is not Stephen or Stanley but Stacy.

Feb. 14 may be Valentine's Day, but if you're a gay or lesbian couple in New Jersey, Feb. 23 is going to be love day. That's the date, according to Garden State Equality, that the first civil union ceremonies are likely to take place under the bill that Gov. Corzine signed into law yesterday. Monday, Feb. 19, is the first day people will be allowed to get civil licenses, but since that's a state holiday, Feb. 20 will probably bring the first license. As with marriage, a 72-hour waiting period follows.

The New Jersey Legislature is moving forward with a plan to grant gay couples all the rights of marriage, but under a different name. In their expected response to a state Supreme Court mandate to level the playing field for same-sex couples, lawmakers late Monday introduced a bill creating civil unions. Gay couples would apply for the new status the same way their heterosexual counterparts now apply for a marriage license, said Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D., Bergen), who cosponsored the bill in the Senate with Senate President Richard J. Codey (D., Essex)

The clunky words civil union can't do justice to the bond between Karen and Marcye Nicholson-McFadden. Together for 21 years and raising two children, the women are married in every sense . . . but one. "The words matter," says Karen, 45, an executive recruiter who lives in Monmouth County. "Marriage matters. " The Nicholson-McFaddens are among seven same-sex couples fighting to enable New Jerseyans like myself to legally marry whom we love. "If this isn't a marriage," said Louise Walpin, a mother of four who's been partnered with Marsha Shapiro for 21 years, "then I don't know what is. " Lambda Legal is suing the State of New Jersey on behalf of seven couples, their children, and the Garden State Equality organization.

Gov. Christie's typically bellicose demeanor, which has made him the subject of both endearment and scorn, means he is unlikely to back down from his position against gay marriage. But were the governor to exhibit the type of thoughfulness that is requisite for anyone who truly aspires to one day be president of an entire nation, and not just the citizens who agree with him, then he would change his position. Many had hoped the 2006 law allowing civil unions in New Jersey would satisfy the needs of homosexual couples who want to share households and have all the accompanying legal rights provided to married heterosexual couples.

At Collingswood's Borough Hall yesterday, in streamed a handful of citizens of historical significance - gay and lesbian couples who applied for a civil-union license on the first day New Jersey's new law allowed them. Mark Henderson, 42, and Charles Dowdy, 41, walked in with their two sons, Xavier, 6, and Sekai, 3. After a required waiting period of 72 hours, the men can be officially united with all the state's legal benefits of marriage, but not the title. As they filed the civil-union paperwork with a clerk, the boys charged up behind their fathers, then giggled their way back to the other side of the office.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has given the state Legislature a historic opportunity, and I don't mean the chance to allow same-sex couples to marry. The Legislature has the chance to enact civil unions for all couples - same-sex and different-sex. New Zealand does it. So does the Netherlands, under the name "registered partnership. " Maine and the District of Columbia recognize "domestic partnerships" for both straight and gay couples, although both give domestic partners fewer rights than those accorded married couples.

In late April, Mitt Romney hired Richard Grenell as his campaign spokesman on foreign affairs. Grenell is impeccably qualified in foreign affairs but not, apparently, in domestic affairs. He wants to marry a man. U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and I watched with interest as the right wing of the Republican Party, a/k/a the Republican Party, denounced the appointment. Bob employs more than a few LGBT staffers, and, so far, he hasn't fired them. The senator and I are proud of this. But faster than you can say 8.2% jobless rate, Mitt The Presumptive, champion of jobs for Americans, had rendered Grenell jobless.

DENVER - Opponents of same-sex unions rallied at the Colorado Capitol on Tuesday as tensions remained high one day after state House Republicans rejected a proposal to provide gay couples rights similar to marriage. Dozens of people saying they support traditional marriage cheered Republican lawmakers and thanked State House Speaker Frank McNulty, crediting him for the defeat of the heavily debated civil-union legislation. Gay-rights advocates also maintained a presence at the Capitol, as a man with a horn loudly heckled McNulty as he addressed the crowd.

Re: The following in Daniel Quinn's recent letter: "Marriage provides the next generation. Gay marriage/civil unions do not. Marriage is the basic cell of society. Without it kingdoms fall. " What a load of crock that is! A man and a woman having sex and conceiving a child provides the next generation — which happens in this day and age, more often than not, without the "benefit" of marriage. Not everyone who enters the union of marriage does so to have children.

Re: Stu Bykofsky's "Same-sex marriage is a bad idea" column: When a president is running for a second term, he emphasizes his first term's many accomplishments. Obama cannot. He blames his failures on the EU money problems, Republicans' so-called stand on women's rights, the tsunami in Japan and the Congress, which the Democrats overwhelmingly controlled for the first two years of his administration. Now he speaks of Romney's wealth, his stand on women, his stand on gay-lesbian marriage, et. al. We now are told of Romney's alleged acts as a teenager.

  TRENTON - President Obama's change of heart Wednesday boosted morale for gay rights advocates in New Jersey, but they don't expect the state to legalize gay marriage any time soon. The Legislature made history in February by approving a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. But Republican Gov. Christie vetoed the bill just one day after it passed the Assembly. A supporter of civil unions, Christie thinks voters should decide whether gay couples can marry. Sen. President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester)

IT FEELS LIKE it took fish less time to grow legs and walk on land than it took for President Obama's position on gay marriage to finally "evolve" to supporting it. Leave it to the ever-cautious "No Drama Obama" to take an epic moment in the slow forward march of civil rights for all Americans and to leave supporters to wonder if they should be shouting, "You've come a long way, baby!" or asking the president, "Jeez, what took you so long?" I have to confess that my original reaction was the latter, to focus on the politics, when I heard that Obama had finally announced his personal support for gay marriage in the all-too-calculated format of an ABC News interview that the White House had hurriedly set up (usually it's the other way around — a news outlet spends months begging for a presidential one-on-one)

President Obama ended nearly two years of "evolving" by declaring his support for legalizing same-sex marriage Wednesday, a historic step that is sure to raise the profile of a divisive social issue in the 2012 campaign for the White House. "At a certain point I've just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married," Obama said in an ABC News interview amid increasing pressure from allies and the press to clarify his position.

Here's a look at attitudes and laws about gay marriage locally and around the country: State Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Delaware/Montgomery, and state Rep. Babette Josephs, D-Center City, proposed same-sex marriage bills in 2009, but both stalled in committee. Ultraconservative state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler County, proposed an amendment to the state Constitution last year to officially ban same-sex marriage, but that stalled as well. A recent Muhlenberg College/Morning Call poll showed that 52 percent of Pennsylvanians feel that gay marriage should be legal, while 37 percent believed it should not and 9 percent said they were unsure.

MARRIAGE IS A sacrament. A function of the church, not the state. Given all that we are up against today, the state should not perform "marriages" for anyone. Only religious institutions should do that. The state should offer civil unions for anyone. I'll explain the italics later. With President Obama's "evolution" returning gay marriage to Page One, I remain conflicted: emotionally in favor of it, but intellectually opposed. I strongly endorse civil unions, with the stipulation that persons in such a union have precisely the same rights as a married couple.

President Obama may have been forced to come out sooner than he wanted on gay marriage, but he deserves tremendous credit for taking a risky political stand on one of the more divisive social issues of the day. Obama had long said his position on same-sex relationships was evolving beyond his support for civil unions. But after Vice President Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan broke ranks this week and said they support gay marriage, the pressure was on Obama to make up his mind.