Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said today that the government had not ruled out vetoing the laws, which the ACT Legislative Assembly passed earlier in November.

Asked about that comment, Australian Greens leader Bob Brown said the ACT legislature’s democratic decision needed to be respected.

“It would be plain bigotry for Kevin Rudd to overturn the laws and an interference … an arrogant override of the territory’s elected representatives,” he told reporters in Canberra.

“The majority of Australians want there to be no discrimination against same-sex couples in the area of law.”

Source - Perth Now

The government of Argentina’s capital will not appeal a court decision this week that legalizes same-sex marriage, Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri said Friday.

The court ruled that two articles in the city’s civil code that say only people of different sexes can get married are illegal. The court decision applies only to Buneos Aires. Same-sex unions in most of the rest of Argentina remain illegal.

Source - CNN

A New Jersey bill to allow gay marriage might not go to a vote in the Legislature before the session ends in January and Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, who supports the measure, is succeeded by Republican Chris Christis, who does not.
   
State Sen. Paul Sarlo said he would not bring up the bill in the Judiciary Committee he chairs unless enough votes exist to pass it on to the full Senate. The Bergen County Democrat said that, currently, the bill does not have sufficient support in the committee for a recommendation to the Senate.

Source - WCBS-AM

Even though gay marriage is illegal in Wyoming, the state has the fifth-highest percentage of same-sex spouses of any state in the nation.

That’s an estimated 2.28 same-sex married couples per 1,000 households. That translates into an estimated 476 households in the state.

Source - KIFI-TV

An Argentine judge has granted a homosexual couple permission to get married, setting a precedent that could pave the way for the Catholic country to become the first in Latin America to allow same-sex marriage.

This week’s ruling by Judge Gabriela Seijas in Buenos Aires, which became the region’s first city to approve civil unions between same sex couples in 2002, may increase pressure on lawmakers to debate a gay marriage bill currently deadlocked in Congress.

Source - Reuters

DC Council member Jim Graham says the Catholic church hasn’t abandoned social services in New Hampshire, Connecticut or Vermont after they began same-sex marriages.

In Boston, Catholic Charities has halted city adoption programs because Massachusetts bans public discrimination against same-sex couples.

Source - WJZ-TV

Lawyers, lawmakers, activists and newlyweds gathered at the state Capitol Thursday to mark the one-year anniversary of the effective date of the court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in Connecticut.

They began with a group photo on the north steps of the building. Then the celebration moved inside the ornate chambers of the Old Judiciary Room with its stained glass windows and gilded wallpaper. The crowd marked the occasion with slices of wedding cake and a toast.

Source - Hartford Courant

Two days after vetoing a bill giving domestic partners the right to make funeral decisions for each other, a conciliatory Governor Carcieri told a gay-rights activist group he is open to supporting a domestic-partnership law that bestows many if not all of the rights of marriage, without the right to marry.

“Maybe it’s something we should consider,” said Carcieri, after meeting privately Thursday for more than an hour in his office with a half-dozen members of Queer Action of Rhode Island, a group that in the immediate aftermath of his veto had labeled him “a bigot.”

Source - Providence Journal

Catholic Archdiocese of Washington says it won’t continue social service programs it runs for the District if the proposed same-sex marriage law isn’t changed.

The bill states religious organizations wouldn’t have to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings, but they must obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.

Source - WJZ-TV/CBS

Governor David Paterson’s demand that the New York State Senate vote on a same sex marriage bill fell on deaf ears Tuesday but it generated a lot of loud noise and an angry shouting match between supporters and a Bronx senator against the measure.

Tempers flared as gay activists demanded — but did not get — a vote on legalizing same-sex marriage.

And there was a tense shouting match between a Rockville Centre couple and Sen. Ruben Diaz — one of the opponents of the measure.

Source - WCBS-TV