Tag: Marriage Equality

Posted inPolicy Topics

Respect for Marriage Act wins Senate cloture vote: Marriage equality will soon be codified!

by Andrew Villeneuve

On a bipar­ti­san vote of 62–37, the Sen­ate vot­ed to invoke clo­ture on the Respect for Mar­riage Act (H.R. 8404), which would send a pow­er­ful mes­sage to the Roberts/Alito Court that the exec­u­tive and leg­isla­tive branch­es of the Unit­ed States fed­er­al gov­ern­ment do not want the Oberge­fell deci­sion over­turned, and final­ly cod­i­fy mar­riage equal­i­ty into fed­er­al law. 

Posted inCivil Liberties, Litigation, Policy Topics

FREEDOM WINS!!! U.S. Supreme Court makes marriage equality law of the land nationwide

by Andrew Villeneuve

This morn­ing, in a his­toric and ground­break­ing deci­sion, the Unit­ed States Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that states may not pro­hib­it cou­ples from mar­ry­ing on the basis of their sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion. The court’s major­i­ty opin­ion in Oberge­fell v. Hodges means that mar­riage equal­i­ty is sud­den­ly and final­ly the law of the land in all fifty states […]

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Policy Topics

IRS: LGBT couples who are married can file joint tax returns beginning next year

by Andrew Villeneuve

The Inter­nal Rev­enue Ser­vice announced today that in the wake of the Supreme Court’s late June deci­sion strik­ing down the poor­­ly-con­­ceived “Defense of Mar­riage Act”, Amer­i­can LGBT spous­es will be able to file joint or sep­a­rate tax returns as mar­ried cou­ples begin­ning next year, no mat­ter where they hap­pen to live. “Today’s rul­ing pro­vides cer­tain­ty and […]

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Litigation, Policy Topics

A HUGE morning for mariage equality: DOMA is unconstitutional, Proposition 8 is history

by Andrew Villeneuve

Pro­gres­sives have a lot to cel­e­brate this morn­ing. In a pair of much-antic­i­­pat­ed deci­sions, the Unit­ed States Supreme Court struck down a key pro­vi­sion of the so-called “Defense of Mar­riage Act” and let stand a low­er court deci­sion inval­i­dat­ing Cal­i­for­ni­a’s Propo­si­tion 8, a 2008 attempt to amend Cal­i­for­ni­a’s Con­sti­tu­tion to out­law civ­il mar­riages by same-sex […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Elections, Policy Topics

Referendum 74 gets a new ballot title; right wing to launch anti-equality signature drive

by Andrew Villeneuve

A cou­ple hours ago, fol­low­ing a lengthy hear­ing, Thurston Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court Judge Thomas McPhee ordered that Ref­er­en­dum 74, the right wing’s attempt to force a pub­lic vote on Wash­ing­ton’s new mar­riage equal­i­ty law, be giv­en a new bal­lot title, after con­sid­er­ing chal­lenges to the orig­i­nal bal­lot title writ­ten by the Attor­ney Gen­er­al’s office by […]

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Policy Topics

Washington State House sends marriage equality legislation to Governor Gregoire

by Andrew Villeneuve

Joy­ous news to report this after­noon: After many hours of debate, our state House has fol­lowed in the foot­steps of the Sen­ate and approved a bill mak­ing mar­riage equal­i­ty the law of the land of Wash­ing­ton. The vote was fifty five to forty-three. SB 6239, prime spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Ed Mur­ray, now heads to the […]

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Policy Topics

Washington’s Senate approves marriage equality legislation after long debate

by Andrew Villeneuve

Won­der­ful, won­der­ful news to cel­e­brate tonight: After a debate that stretched for more than an hour and a half, and saw the adop­tion and rejec­tion of more than a dozen amend­ments, Wash­ing­ton’s state Sen­ate has vot­ed to approve leg­is­la­tion mak­ing mar­riage equal­i­ty the law of the land. The vote was twen­­ty-eight to twen­­ty-one. Four Repub­li­cans joined […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Meta, Policy Topics

Big vote on marriage equality tomorrow

by Andrew Villeneuve

In a mat­ter of hours, Wash­ing­ton’s Sen­ate is set to take up Ed Mur­ray’s bill, SB 6239, to make mar­riage equal­i­ty the law of the land across the Ever­green State. At least twen­­ty-five sen­a­tors (includ­ing some Repub­li­cans) have already com­mit­ted to vote in favor of the bill, so it is expect­ed to pass. How­ev­er, if you […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics

Marriage equality gains twenty-fifth vote in state Senate; Haugen to vote yes

by Andrew Villeneuve

Great news this after­noon: We final­ly have the votes to pass mar­riage equal­i­ty in the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture! Min­utes ago, Sen­a­tor Mary Mar­garet Hau­gen — who had pre­vi­ous­ly said she was only will­ing to sup­port putting the issue on the bal­lot for a pub­lic vote — reversed her posi­tion and decid­ed to join the forces […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Economic Security, Policy Topics

Governor Chris Gregoire announces support for full marriage equality in 2012

by Andrew Villeneuve

In a major boost to Wash­ing­ton Unit­ed for Mar­riage’s efforts to make Wash­ing­ton the sev­enth state where mar­riage equal­i­ty is the law of the land, Gov­er­nor Chris Gre­goire this morn­ing declared her full sup­port for leg­is­la­tion to over­turn the state’s dis­crim­i­na­to­ry Defense of Mar­riage Act (DOMA) and per­mit gay and les­bian cou­ples to legal­ly wed […]

Posted inElections, Party Politics, Views & Reviews

Poll Watch: Where do things stand in the Republican presidential race?

by Wes Murry

The 2012 Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial race has been noth­ing if not enter­tain­ing, as the writ­ers for The Dai­ly Show with Jon Stew­art will undoubt­ed­ly attest. A new poll com­mis­sioned by Roger Ailes’ Fox Noise net­work, con­duct­ed from Sep­tem­ber 25–27, finds that Mitt Rom­ney is now the fron­trun­ner for the Repub­li­can nom­i­na­tion. The poll showed Rom­ney at […]