Gay couple, Communist mayor defy French law with same-sex marriage - France - RFI

"A French gay couple were married on Saturday in the south-western town of Cabestany in a gesture they and the town’s Communist mayor hope will help change French law, which does not recognise homosexual marriage."

“There are times when you have to be an outlaw,” declared Cabestany's mayor Jean Vila before Saturday morning’s ceremony, appealing to other mayors to follow his example.

Saturday’s happy couple, 37-year-old artist Guillaume and 48-year-old photo-lab manager Patrick, say they were married both as a demonstration of love and as an activist gesture so that “very soon in France two people of the same sex can get married legally”.

“We are citizens, the same as everybody else,” they commented.

Their marriage lines contain the phrase “unfortunately this document has no official character, since the law today forbids marriage between people of the same sex, but it signifies the wish of the local authority to see the law change”.

- full report at RFI

Ballot Box Progress, Tues 8th November

Tuesday seems to have been a generally good night at the ballot box for LGBT Americans:


Iowa
"Democrats have held a crucial senate seat in a special election in central Iowa Tuesday. Had the seat fallen to Republicans, it would have allowed the Iowa Senate to potentially proceed with revocation procedures of legal gay marriage in the state." ChicagoPride.com

Michigan

Voters in Traverse City, have overwhelmingly voted to keep a nondiscrimination ordinance that protects LGBT people from bias, after conservative voters attempting to derail the proposal forced a referendum.

Houston

Annise Parker has been re-elected as mayor  without a runoff election.

Mike Laster is now  the first openly gay man elected to the Houston City Council.

Montana

Out lesbian Caitlin Copple has been elected to the Missoula council, defeating a hostile, anti-gay incumbent.

Cincinnati

Has its first openly LGBT city councillor, with the election of Chris Coolbach, who had earlier led a campaign to repeal an anti-gay city ordinance.

Charlotte, NC

Has its first openly LGBT city councillor. LaWana Mayfield won her runoff, after earlier defeating an incumbent in the Democratic primary.

New Jersey

Tim Eustace, already the mayor of Montgomery, has been elected to the state assembly - the first openly gay non-incumbent to do so.

Bruce Harris was elected mayor of Chattam Borough - the first African American, openly gay Republican mayor anywhere.

Connecticut

Pedro Segarra was easily re-elected as mayor of Hartford.

Indianapolis

Zach Adamson, who becomes the first openly LGBT city councilmember

Virginia

Adam Ebbin, a Virginia Delegate, who became the first openly gay State Senator

Massachusetts

Alex Morse became the first openly gay mayor of Holyoke

"A Night in the Desert", George Quaintance

"Night in the Desert--1951" is one of the first of the iconic paintings of George Quaintance, who died November 8, 1957.

Although now obscure, George Quaintance was one of the most influential figures in a unique American style of art and one of the most flamboyant and interesting gay characters for four decades of the twentieth century.

Though few people outside the gay world know it, Quaintance was a pioneer of male physique painting. This genre heralded a new American gay consciousness in the early 1950s.

Poll: Support for gay marriage continues to rise

"Public acceptance of same-sex marriage has grown at an accelerating pace, with approval jumping by nine percentage points in the past two years and the nation now evenly divided on the issue, according to a new Pew Research Center survey released Thursday.

The poll, conducted in late September and early October, showed 46% of Americans surveyed support legalizing same-sex marriage and 44% are opposed. The survey among 2,410 adults has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

 -full report at  Los Angeles Times:

Scottish Conservatives elect gay leader

An openly gay woman has been elected leader of the Scottish Conservatives after the membership rejected her leading rival's radical proposals to create a new centre-right party.

Ruth Davidson, 32, widely seen as David Cameron's favourite, was chosen to lead the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party by a comfortable margin after the most bitterly-fought and divisive leadership campaign in party history.

Officials in London believe that Davidson, a lesbian and the youngest of the four candidates, will be able to freshen up the Tories' faltering appeal to Scottish voters.

- The Guardian: 

'via Blog this'

New Zealand: Majority back gay adoption

A majority of (New Zealnd) voters support changing the law to allow gay couples to adopt children, according to the latest Herald-DigiPoll survey.

Labour and the Greens have pushed the rights of gay people as an election issue, but the National Party has sidelined them as not a priority.

Adoption in New Zealand is governed by the Adoption Act 1955, and Labour and the Greens say the law needs of an update.

More than half - 54.3 per cent - of the poll respondents said the law should be changed to allow gay couples to adopt children, 38 per cent disagreed, and 7.7 per cent did not know or refused to answer.

Green MP Kevin Hague

Green MP Kevin Hague, who has started a cross-party group to find political consensus on gay issues, said the result was pleasing.

"It's great to see that most New Zealanders now support this, and I'm confident that once it's in place, that majority will increase even more.

"What should be at the centre of adoption laws is putting the interests of the child first. To do that you've got to have all the options on the table."

- NZ Herald News

New poll finds support for gay marriage law

"A new statewide poll by the University of Washington Center for Survey Research found most voters would support a state gay marriage law if it's approved by the Legislature.

Of voters surveyed, 55 percent indicated they would uphold a Legislature-approved same-sex marriage law if it were challenged by referendum. The poll found 38 percent would oppose the law and 7 percent were undecided.

However, additional questions in the poll found that 44 percent of voters surveyed said gays and lesbians should have the same legal right as straight couples to marry; and 22 percent said they should have the same legal rights as married couples, but it should not be called marriage.

State Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, and Rep. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, have said they're considering a push for gay marriage in the next regular session in January. Both men have worked on gay rights issues for years and have been building incrementally toward gay marriage.

Seattle Times Newspaper 

'via Blog this'