Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Marriage News: California, Maryland, United Kingdom

CALIFORNIA
Yesterday, the newly elected (and re-elected) members of the California state legislature were sworn in, and Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) re-introduced the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, co-sponsored by Equality California, the statewide LGBT political advocacy organization.

Also, the state Attorney General Bill Lockyer (soon to become the State Treasurer) asked the California Supreme Court to take up the appeal of marriage supporters in (the formerly named) Woo v. Lockyer, the consolidated constitutional challenge to California's marriage laws.

MARYLAND
The State Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Conaway v. Deane, that state's equal marriage lawsuit, on Monday and the proceedings were webcast and archived.
MadProfessah has watched the video recording and it is quite compelling if one has any interest in law and civil rights. To me, it seemed like the plaintiffs' advocate, ACLU Maryland's LGBT Rights Project Senior Staff Attorney Ken Choe made the more compelling case, and the justices asked very few questions and were respectful throughout the entire hour.

UNITED KINGDOM
Monday was also the one year anniversary of the United Kingdon's civil partnership statute going into effect. As Paula Ettelbrick's op-ed in yesterday's Los Angeles Times relates that 6500 couples have registered in the first year alone. The BBC reports that the figure is actually 15, 672 civil partnerships between December 1, 2005 and September 2006, with over 14, 084 in England alone.

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