MARRIAGE
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RECENT ARTICLES ON MARRIAGE
LAWMAKERS IN NINE STATES PROPOSE MEASURES TO OVERTURN SAME-SEX MARRIAGE LAWS. Five of the measures, including one introduced in Michigan, urge the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its 2015 landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which granted same-sex couples nationwide the right to marry. Read more here.
NEW YORK ENCOUNTER PANEL: MARRIAGE MATTERS ‘MORE THAN EVER’ AMID FALLING BIRTH RATES. “Love and marriage have fallen on harder times of late,” observed Brad Wilcox, a sociologist who directs the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, during a Feb. 15 panel discussion titled “Why Have Children?” at New York Encounter, an annual conference organized by members of the Catholic movement Communion and Liberation. Read more here.
NEW TRUMP ADMIN POLICIES PROMOTE MARRIAGE, HAVING KIDS. The U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a memo announcing that the federal agency would “prioritize projects and goals” that “direct funding to local opportunity zones” and that “mitigate the unique impacts of DOT programs, policies, and activities on families and family-specific difficulties, such as the accessibility of transportation to families with young children, and give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average.” Read more here.
TENNESSEE BILL WOULD CREATE ‘COVENANT MARRIAGES,’ RESTRICTING DIVORCES TO SPECIFIC SITUATIONS AND EXCLUDING SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. A bill proposed by a Republican state lawmaker in Tennessee would create “covenant marriages” in the state, a kind of marriage that couples can choose to enter that includes more restrictions on how and when they can separate and get a divorce. Read more here.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE OUTLAWED IN NAMIBIA. Activists have vowed to challenge a new law in Namibia that explicitly outlaws same-sex marriage and overturns a landmark LGBTIQ-affirming ruling by the Supreme Court. The Marriage Act, 2024, explicitly limits the definition of marriage to “a legal union between two persons of the opposite sex.” Read more here.
VIRGINIA HOUSE ADVANCES CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS ON REPRODUCTIVE AND VOTING RIGHTS, SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. The Virginia House of Delegates passed a state constitutional amendment that would enshrine same-sex marriage in state law, by a vote of 10-4. Read more here.
INDIA’S SUPREME COURT TO REVIEW SAME-SEX MARRIAGE VERDICT. A new five-judge bench of India’s Supreme Court will consider review petitions regarding the legalization of same-sex marriage. Read more here.
MARRIAGE PROMOTES ‘WHITE SUPREMACY,’ ACCORDING TO WHITE UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR. “Marriage fundamentalism” promotes the ideas of “White supremacy,” according to Professor Bethany Letiecq, a white George Mason University professor who wrote in the Journal of Marriage and Family that “marriage fundamentalism, like structural racism, is a key structuring element of White heteropatriarchal supremacy.” Read more here.
TOKYO WARD MAYORS CALL FOR GREATER RIGHTS FOR SAME-SEX COUPLES. The mayors of some of Tokyo’s 23 special wards are urging the Japanese government to grant same-sex couples greater rights, such as health insurance coverage for dependents. Read more here.
‘AGAINST SOCIETY’S RULES’: NITIN GADKARI ON LIVE-IN RELATIONSHIPS, SAME SEX MARRIAGES. In India, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said live-in relationships are wrong and against the rules of society, while adding that same-sex marriages would lead to the collapse of social structure. Read more here.
FUKUOKA BECOMES 3RD HIGH COURT IN JAPAN TO RULE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BAN UNCONSTITUTIONAL. The Fukuoka High Court became the third high court in Japan to rule the country’s lack of legal recognition of same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, but upheld a lower court ruling to dismiss plaintiffs’ claim for damages. Read more here.
SPAIN TO ENSHRINE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND ABORTION RIGHTS INTO ITS CONSTITUTION. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has vowed to add abortion rights and same-sex marriage to Spain’s constitution so they ‘can never be undone.’ Read more here.
MICHIGAN GOP REP. JOSH SCHRIVER SAYS SAME-SEX MARRIAGE SHOULD BE ‘ILLEGAL AGAIN.’ Michigan GOP Rep. Josh Schriver took to social media to speak on same-sex marriage, saying, “Make gay marriage illegal again.” Read more here.
THAILAND HOLDS COUNTDOWN EVENT FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. A law allowing same-sex marriage takes effect Jan. 22, allowing LGBTQ couples the same rights as heterosexual unions, including tax benefits, inheritance and adoption rights, and 200 couples will participate in a group wedding ceremony on that day. Read more here.
TOP HONG KONG COURT BACKS HOUSING RIGHTS FOR SAME-SEX COUPLES. Hong Kong’s top court unanimously upheld three earlier rulings that favored granting public housing and inheritance rights to married same-sex couples, citing equality provisions in the city’s mini-constitution. Read more here.
STAND-ALONE CHURCH SERVICES FOR BRITISH SAME-SEX COUPLES ‘BEFORE TOO LONG’, SAYS BISHOP. In a video shown to St. Albans diocesan synod and subsequently posted on YouTube this month, the Bishop of Leicester, the Rt. Rev. Martyn Snow says that stand-alone services of blessing for same-sex couples will be available for use “before too long.” Read more here.
VANUATU PARLIAMENT AMENDS MARRIAGE ACT TO BAN SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. Vanuatu’s parliament has passed an amendment to its Marriage Act stating marriage is the union of a male and female. Minister of Internal Affairs Andrew Napuat said that marriage is defined in the country’s constitution as being between a male and a female. Read more here.
CALIFORNIA, COLORADO AND HAWAII VOTERS PASS SAME-SEX MARRIAGE PROPOSITIONS. California voters passed Proposition 3, guaranteeing the right for same-sex, as well as interracial, couples to marry. Colorado voters passed Amendment J, repealing a ban on same-sex unions, and Hawaii also passed a resolution approving same-sex marriage. Read more here.
CHURCH LEADER’S SAME-SEX MARRIAGE GETS HIM FIRED MONTHS BEFORE RETIREMENT IN MICHIGAN. Fred Szczepanski, the music director of a Catholic church in Traverse City, Mich., was fired months before his retirement when officials learned of his same-sex marriage, and stated: “The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is instituted by God and therefore in its nature cannot be changed.” Read more here.
SOUTH KOREAN CHRISTIANS RALLY AGAINST HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE AT MASSIVE PROTEST. South Korean Christians participated in a huge rally in Seoul to express their opposition to homosexual marriage, new pro-LGBT legislation and a supreme court decision conferring some spousal rights on homosexuals. Read more here.
SECOND JAPANESE HIGH COURT RULES LACK OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE PROTECTIONS UNCONSTITUTIONAL. The Tokyo High Court ruled that the government’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriage goes against the country’s constitution, that it has “no rational basis” and has become a form of “legal discrimination based on sexual orientation.” Read more here.
COLLEGES CONTRIBUTE TO ‘DECLINE OF MARRIAGE,’ SOCIAL COMMENTATOR SAYS IN NEW BOOK. Universities are discouraging marriage through their promotion of “intersectionality” and “ideologically driven pseudoscience,” according to Conn Carroll, the author of a new book about marriage and democracy. Read more here.
POLAND INTRODUCES BILL TO LEGALIZE SAME-SEX CIVIL UNIONS. Poland’s government submitted a draft law legalizing civil unions, but the bill still has to run the gauntlet of the parliament and conservative President Andrzej Duda. Read more here.
NEW JAPAN PM ISHIBA CAUTIOUS ABOUT ALLOWING SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. New Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba took a cautious stance on allowing same-sex couples to marry in Japan, the only Group of Seven nation without legal protection for such marriages and civil unions. Read more here.
GOV’T ARGUES HONG KONG PUBLIC HOUSING FOR ‘TRADITIONAL FAMILIES’ AS FIGHT FOR SAME-SEX MARRIED COUPLES’ RIGHTS REACHES TOP COURT. Hong Kong’s public housing policy was aimed at supporting “traditional families founded on opposite-sex marriage,” a government lawyer has told the city’s top court in an appeal over housing rights for same-sex couples married overseas. Read more here.
BALLOT MEASURES COULD REMOVE DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE FROM THREE STATE CONSTITUTIONS. The state constitutions of California, Colorado and Hawaii still define marriage as a union between one man and one woman, but measures on the 2024 election ballots in those states could remove this traditional definition. Read more here.
TAIWAN RECOGNIZES SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BETWEEN TAIWANESE AND CHINESE. Taiwanese-Chinese same-sex couples can now legally register their marriages in Taiwan, provided they marry in one of the 35 countries that recognize same-sex marriage, such as the U.S., U.K. and Canada. Read more here.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE WAS ON A ROLL IN ASIA. NOT ANYMORE. Thailand passed a law in June to legalize same-sex marriage, and the king is expected to sign it into law soon, but the recent flurry of progress for marriage equality in Asia could stop there, with no other government in the region looking likely to follow suit anytime soon. Read more here.
AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH REAFFIRMS BAN ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. During its 52nd Quadrennial Session of the General Conference, the historically black denomination African Methodist Episcopal Church rejected a proposal to strike down its ban on same-sex marriage. Read more here.
ADVOCATES PUSH FOR HAWAII CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. Hawaii voters are going to the polls in November to vote on Ballot Question No. 1, which is an attempt to approve a constitutional amendment for same-sex marriage, though it’s already legal in the state. Read more here.
THE MARRIAGE PARADOX: UNDERSTANDING AND REMEDYING THE PARADOXICAL PLACE OF MARRIAGE IN AMERICA. Demographically, in the wake of the divorce revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, and the ongoing decline in the marriage rate, this social institution has lost significant ground as the anchor of adulthood and foundation of family life and fewer Americans view marriage as important for men, women and children. Read more here.
NIGERIA: GOVERNMENT DENIES APPROVING DEBATE COMPETITION ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. The federal government has denied approving a letter stating that it has agreed to host a National Schools Competition and a debate for secondary schools in the country tagged “Same-Sex Marriage Should Be Legalized in Nigeria.” Read more here.
KIM DAVIS FILES BRIEF IN EFFORT TO POTENTIALLY OVERTURN OBERGEFELL RULING ON HOMOSEXUAL ‘MARRIAGE.’ Attorneys for the former county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Rowan County, Kentucky because it was a violation of her religious beliefs, have filed a brief to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Read more here.
SOUTH KOREA’S TOP COURT UPHOLDS LANDMARK RULING OVER SAME-SEX SPOUSAL STATE BENEFITS. South Korea’s supreme court upheld a 2023 ruling that the National Health Insurance Service should provide equal spousal coverage to a homosexual couple who filed a suit in 2021 against the agency that canceled their spousal benefits. Read more here.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL STAR HANNAH HIDALGO SHARED VIDEO SLAMMING SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. Notre Dame University women’s basketball star Hannah Hidalgo is under heavy fire for sharing a video from political commentator Candace Owens because both women believe same-sex marriage is a sin. Read more here.
SUPREME COURT IN CARIBBEAN RULES THAT SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IS NOW PERMITTED IN ARUBA AND CURAÇAO. People of the same gender will now be allowed to marry each other in Aruba and Curaçao, the Supreme Court has ruled, overturning the previous prohibition. Read more here.
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA TO REVISIT SAME-SEX MARRIAGE RULING ON JULY 10. The Supreme Court of India will hear petitions July 10 demanding a review of the apex court’s 2023 judgment rejecting attempts to legalize same-sex marriage. Read more here.
BILL TAKING PA. SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BAN OFF THE BOOKS CLEARS STATE HOUSE. A bill that would repeal Pennsylvania’s same-sex marriage ban passed the state House of Representatives on a bipartisan vote and now heads to the GOP-controlled state Senate. Read more here.
MALAWI COURT REJECTS SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. Malawi’s Constitutional Court dismissed the case of two applicants who wanted it to legalize same-sex relationships. The applicants claimed Malawi’s laws violate their fundamental rights, including a right to privacy and dignity. Read more here.
NO RIGHT TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE—KOREAN SUPREME COURT TO HEAR CASE WITH POTENTIAL TO REDEFINE MARRIAGE. Korea defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but its Supreme Court is set to rule on a case to determine if a same-sex partner can be registered as a “dependent spouse” under Korea’s National Health Insurance Service, potentially undermining that definition of “spouse.” Read more here.
UK: LIVING TOGETHER BEFORE MARRYING AT HIGHEST LEVEL SINCE RECORDS BEGAN. More than nine in 10 couples who married in 2021 or 2022 were living together beforehand, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. Data also showed a record number of same-sex marriages took place in 2022. Read more here.
‘PANDORA’S BOX’ OF POLYAMORY, CHILD MARRIAGES POSSIBLE UNDER PROPOSED CALIFORNIA AMENDMENT, GROUP WARNS. The proposed state constitutional amendment, Assembly Constitutional Amendment 5, could remove the traditional definition of marriage from state law and could potentially open up a Pandora’s box to legitimize polyamorous, incestuous and child marriages. Read more here.
THAI SENATE LIKELY TO APPROVE LANDMARK SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BILL. Thailand’s senate is set to approve a same-sex marriage bill, which will bring the country closer to being the first in Southeast Asia to guarantee marriage rights for homosexual people. Read more here.
SUPPORT FOR HOMOSEXUAL ‘MARRIAGE’ DECLINING IN THE US AS MORE AMERICANS WAKE UP TO LGBT AGENDA. A new Ipsos poll shows Americans’ support for homosexual ‘marriage’ dropped 8 points in just three years, down to 51%, as people increasingly turn against the LGBT colonization of society. Read more here.
POPE FRANCIS DENIES APPROVAL OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE . Pope Francis has clarified his position on same-sex marriage, stating that while he permits blessings for individuals, he does not endorse blessings for same-sex unions. Read more here
ALBANIAN LGBT COUPLE FILES APPLICATION FOR LEGAL MARRIAGE. Two Albanian women filed an application for legal marriage at their local municipality office, becoming the first couple in the country’s history to challenge the laws on marriage. Read more here.
LIECHTENSTEIN LEGALIZES SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IN NEAR-UNANIMOUS VOTE. The 24-1 vote by lawmakers makes Liechtenstein the 22nd country in Europe to legalize same-sex marriage. Read more here.
EFFORT TO PROTECT SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AT THE POLLS KICKS OFF IN COLORADO. As the 2024 legislative session entered its final hours, Gov. Jared Polis and state politicians gathered with members of the LGBTQ+ community on the west steps of the Capitol to launch an effort to remove language banning same-sex marriages in the state Constitution. Read more here.
COLORADO LEGISLATURE: SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AMENDMENT TO GO TO VOTERS. A proposed Constitutional amendment to remove defunct language banning same-sex marriage will go to voters this November after a referred measure passed the Colorado House. Read more here.
CZECH PRESIDENT SIGNS LAW GRANTING SAME-SEX COUPLES MORE RIGHTS – BUT NOT MARRIAGE. President Petr Pavel has signed into law a new bill that changes the rights of same-sex couples in civil partnerships, allowing most of the rights that married couples have, but not all. Read more here.
POLL SHOWS GROWING SUPPORT FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IN POLAND. The poll reveals that 66 percent of Poles support civil partnerships for same-sex couples, and 50 percent believe such couples should have the right to marry. The survey found 63 percent of respondents oppose adoption rights for same-sex couples. Read more here.
THAI LGBT ACTIVISTS CELEBRATE VOTE THAT BRINGS SAME-SEX MARRIAGE CLOSER. Thai LGBT activists celebrated another victory after a same-sex marriage bill overwhelmingly passed a first reading in the upper house, a key step bringing the country closer to becoming Asia’s third territory to legalize same-sex unions. Read more here.
THAILAND POISED TO LEGALIZE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AFTER PARLIAMENT PASSES BILL. Lawmakers in Thailand’s lower house of Parliament overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill that would make the country the first in Southeast Asia to legalize marriage partners of any gender. Read more here.
MARRIED PEOPLE MORE LIKELY TO BE ‘THRIVING’: GALLUP SURVEY. A new Gallup Poll reveals that married couples are more likely to have a “strong and loving” relationship with their children than cohabiting partners do. Read more here.
MARRIAGES RISE IN CHINA FOR THE FIRST TIME IN NINE YEARS. The Ministry of Civil Affairs said there were 845,000 more marriages than in 2022. A record 13.47 million tied the knot in 2013. It comes as the government campaigns to promote marriage in its latest bid to target record-low birth rates. Read more here.
JAPAN’S BAN ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE UNCONSTITUTIONAL, HIGH COURT RULES. The Sapporo High Court upheld a lower court’s verdict that not recognizing same-sex marriage violated the country’s constitution. Read more here.
VIRGINIA GOV. YOUNGKIN SIGNS DEMOCRAT BILL CODIFYING HOMOSEXUAL ‘MARRIAGE,’ BETRAYING CONSERVATIVES.here.
CZECH HOMOSEXUALS CAN HAVE PARTNERSHIP; MARRIAGE IS RESERVED FOR HETEROSEXUALS. The Czech Parliament voted against formalizing same-sex marriage, but some elements were changed in the partnership rules, and the adoption of children is still limited to a few cases. Read more here.
PROPOSAL TO DELETE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BAN FROM FLORIDA CONSTITUTION DIES WITHOUT A HEARING. One measure (HJR 167) would have called for a statewide referendum during the 2024 General Election proposing the repeal of language in the state constitution defining marriage as only being between one man and one woman. Read more here.
U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTIC
GREECE BECOMES FIRST ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN COUNTRY TO LEGALIZE SAME-SEX CIVIL MARRIAGE. A cross-party majority of 176 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament voted in favor of the landmark bill drafted by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s center-right government. Read more here.
TENNESSEE LAWMAKERS OK BILL ALLOWING PUBLIC OFFICIALS TO REFUSE TO PERFORM SAME-SEX MARRIAGES. Tennessee lawmakers gave final approval to legislation that would allow public officials to refuse to perform same-sex marriages, sending the controversial bill to the governor, who has not said whether he will sign it. Read more here.
HUNDREDS OF PROTESTERS OPPOSED TO BILL ALLOWING SAME-SEX MARRIAGE RALLY IN GREEK CAPITAL. With the Greek Parliament nearing a vote on same-sex marriage, more than 1,500 protesters gathered in central Athens to oppose the legislation. Read more here.
GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH TO CAMPAIGN AGAINST SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. The Holy Synod, the highest governing body of the Church of Greece, expressed its opposition to the government’s expected bill on same-sex marriage and vowed to campaign against it. Read more here.
KEY OPPOSITION THROWS WEIGHT BEHIND GREEK GOVERNMENT’S SAME-SEX MARRIAGE LEGALIZATION EFFORTS. Syriza leader, Stefanos Kasselakis, who married his male partner in New York in October, said he would instruct his lawmakers to vote for a same-sex marriage proposal, although he argued that it didn’t go far enough on parenthood rights. Read more here.
MITSOTAKIS PUSHES GREECE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BILL DESPITE OPPOSITION FROM WITHIN HIS PARTY. Greece Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to address the issue extensively in a television interview, show support for “marriage equality,” and announce a bill giving same-sex couples the right to be joined in a civil marriage despite massive public opposition. Read more here.
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