Nearly three quarters of Germans support same-sex marriage, according to a poll published on Wednesday, as Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives weigh up extending more rights to homosexual couples ahead of a September election.

Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit (first row 2nd R), U.S. Ambassador to Germany
Philip Murphy (first row 3rd R), Britain's ambassador to Germany Simon
McDonald (first row L) and the Green Party parliamentary faction co-leader
Renate Kuenast (first row 2nd L) open the Christopher Street Day (CSD)
parade in Berlin, June 23, 2012. The annual street parade parade is a celebration of
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender lifestyles and
 denounces discrimination and exclusion.

Nearly three quarters of Germans support same-sex marriage, according to a poll published on Wednesday, as Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives weigh up extending more rights to homosexual couples ahead of a September election.

The survey for RTL television and Stern magazine suggested 74 percent of Germans were in favour of allowing homosexuals to marry and 23 percent against.

Support is strongest among people voting for the opposition Greens and centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) but even among those backing Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), almost two-thirds were in favour, the poll showed.

The CDU wants to boost its appeal among urban voters as it gears up for this year's vote.

Merkel's government is preparing to amend the law to grant same-sex couples greater adoption rights after Germany's constitutional court ruled last week that gay people should be allowed to adopt a child already adopted by their partner. Heterosexual couples already have the right.

The court has given the government until July 2014 to amend the law.

Last weekend, a close Merkel ally hinted that the party may also be ready to abandon its opposition to giving gay couples the same preferential tax treatment as married heterosexuals.

Homosexuals in Germany can form civil partnerships but cannot marry. Opposition parties accuse the CDU, staunch advocates of traditional family values, of dragging their feet on gay rights.

The CDU's more conservative Bavaria-based sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), has warned against rushing to change the law.

Earlier this month, the lower houses of parliament in both France and Britain voted in favour of gay marriage.

(Reporting by Gareth Jones; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

- Reuters

Illinois House committee advances gay marriage bill

A bill legalizing gay marriage cleared a Democratic-led committee late Tuesday and now moves to the full House, where the issue is expected to meet its toughest test.

The proposal, approved on a 6-5 vote in the House Executive Committee shortly before 10 p.m., is coming under increasingly heavy fire from church organizations who say same-sex marriage violates moral and religious principles. But advocates have ratcheted up calls for swift action.

Sponsoring Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, said the bill is needed “because we need to treat all Illinois families equally under the law” but the status of people in civil unions is often misunderstood.

Under the measure, marriage in Illinois would be allowed between two people rather than only a man and a woman. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn has vowed to sign the legislation, a move that would make Illinois the 10th state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage. The Senate passed the legislation with only one Republican vote on Valentine’s Day.

Advocates said the proposal would allow ministers to refuse to perform same-sex marriages if it’s against their beliefs and would not require church officials to make their buildings or parish halls available if they don’t wish it. But opponents have questioned if the protections are strong enough.

The House has held close votes on same-sex issues over the years. The latest movement to support gay marriage in Illinois has evolved quickly. It’s been less than two years since the first civil union certificates were issued for gay and straight couples.

But with the Democrats increasing their majorities in both the House and the Senate during last fall’s elections, the gay marriage issue gained traction. Advocates tried to pass the measure in the brief, lame-duck legislative session in January, but they called off the bid and refocused on passing the bill in the newly seated General Assembly.

-continue reaing at Chicago Tribune

Gay marriage bill unveiled in Minnesota

Governor Mark Dayton has indicated he will sign a marriage equality bill into law if it were to reach his desk

27 FEBRUARY 2013 | BY JOE MORGAN

Marriage equality advocates are celebrating after Minnesota lawmakers have unveiled a new bill.

Sponsors of the same-sex marriage bill are aiming to repeal the outright 1997 ban prohibiting marriage for gay couples.

At a news conference today (27 February), co-author of the bill Scott Dibble spoke out in favor of marriage equality.

‘We are all human beings equal in the eyes of God,’ he said. ‘We’re affirming things that we all prize, love at the center of marriage.’

It is a bi-partisan bill, with Republican Senator Branden Peterson publicly supporting marriage equality in Minnesota

- See more at: Gay Star News 

Kansas supreme court rules in favor of gay adoption

After deliberating over a claim submitted by two women over parenting rights, the supreme court of Kansas passed a landmark ruling in favor of gay adoption
25 FEBRUARY 2013 | BY DAN LITTAUER

Kansas state supreme court made a landmark ruling that same-sex couples are to be allowed to adopt.

In addition it ruled that when a same-sex couple has a child together, both parents can be fully recognized as parents under Kansas state law.

The court explained that Kansas parentage laws apply equally to women and non-biological parents, and that courts must consider the reality of who a child’s parents are in order to protect the interests of children.

With this ruling, Kansas joins a number of other US states in ruling that when two people bring a child into the world and then raise that child as co-parents, the law should treat both of them as the child’s parents, regardless of gender or biology.

The ruling was delivered on Friday (22 February) over a case of two women, Marci Frazier and Kelly Goudschaal, who had been raising children together, but then faced a custody dispute after they separated.

The court ruled that the coparenting contract the couple had signed is valid and should be recognized, as their children are better off having two parents than just one:

'To summarize, the coparenting agreement before us cannot be construed as a prohibited sale of the children because the biological mother retains her parental duties and responsibilities.

'The agreement is not injurious to the public because it provides the children with the resources of two persons, rather than leaving them as the fatherless children of an artificially inseminated mother. No societal interest has been harmed; no mischief has been done.

'Like the contract in Shirk, the coparenting agreement here contains “no element of immorality or illegality and did not violate public policy,” but rather “the contract was for the advantage and welfare of the child[ren]'.

LGBT rights organizations welcomed the ruling across the state.

-Gay Star News

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Republicans Sign Brief in Support of Gay Marriage

WASHINGTON — Dozens of prominent Republicans — including top advisers to former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress — have signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a constitutional right to marry, a position that amounts to a direct challenge to Speaker John A. Boehner and reflects the civil war in the party since the November election.

Jon M. Huntsman Jr., who opposed same-sex marriage
 during his 2012 presidential bid, signed the brief.

Meg Whitman supported Proposition 8
when she ran for California governor.

The document will be submitted this week to the Supreme Court in support of a suit seeking to strike downProposition 8, a California ballot initiative barring same-sex marriage, and all similar bans. The court will hear back-to-back arguments next month in that case and another pivotal gay rights case that challenges the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act.”

The Proposition 8 case already has a powerful conservative supporter: Theodore B. Olson, the former solicitor general under Mr. Bush and one of the suit’s two lead lawyers. The amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief is being filed with Mr. Olson’s blessing. It argues, as he does, that same-sex marriage promotes family values by allowing children of gay couples to grow up in two-parent homes, and that it advances conservative values of “limited government and maximizing individual freedom.”

Legal analysts said the brief had the potential to sway conservative justices as much for the prominent names attached to it as for its legal arguments. The list of signers includes a string of Republican officials and influential thinkers — 75 as of Monday evening — who are not ordinarily associated with gay rights advocacy, including some who are speaking out for the first time and others who have changed their previous positions.

Among them are Meg Whitman, who supported Proposition 8 when she ran for California governor; Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Richard Hanna of New York; Stephen J. Hadley, a Bush national security adviser; Carlos Gutierrez, a commerce secretary to Mr. Bush; James B. Comey, a top Bush Justice Department official; David A. Stockman, President Ronald Reagan’s first budget director; and Deborah Pryce, a former member of the House Republican leadership from Ohio who is retired from Congress.

Experts say that amicus briefs generally do not change Supreme Court justices’ minds. But on Monday some said that the Republican brief, written by Seth P. Waxman, a former solicitor general in the administration of President Bill Clinton, and Reginald Brown, who served in the Bush White House Counsel’s Office, might be an exception..

-New York Times, February 25th 2013

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German government to consider expanding gay unions rights

Following a court ruling, Germany's ruling party considers equalising legislation for same-sex civil unions

25 FEBRUARY 2013 | BY DAN LITTAUER

Leaders of the of the Germany's right wing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party said they are prepared to bridge the gap between gay and straight couples. During an interview this weekend with the weekly news magazine Focus, finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble said the government was examining the effects of a ruling on Tuesday by a constitutional court, saying that gays in a civil partnership should be able to adopt their partners' adopted children. In 2001, Germany legalized same-sex registered partnerships with similar rights to married couples, excluding tax and adoption rights.

- See more at: Gay Star News

Senate committee recommends new anti-discrimination law be passed listing 'intersex' separately as a protected identity 

Gina Wilson, President of Organisation Intersex  International (OII)Australia

21 FEBRUARY 2013 | BY ANNA LEACH

Following calls from LGBTI rights groups and legal experts, the Australian Senate committee drafting the new Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill has recommended that 'intersex' be included as a category in its own right in the proposed law.

'The committee recognizes that intersex individuals are often the subject of discrimination in public life, and that as such there is a need for protection on the basis of intersex status in Commonwealth anti-discrimination law,' said the report published today.

The report said the committee agreed with campaigners that 'intersex is a matter of biology rather than gender identity,' so protection from discrimination was not covered by the definition of gender identity in the draft bill.

'This is a profoundly important report in that it recognizes that intersex is a “matter of biology rather than gender identity”, and reflects “innate biological characteristics”,' said Gina Wilson, president of Organization Intersex International Australia (OII Australia).

'Internationally it represents best practice, proposing the explicit inclusion of intersex people in anti-discrimination legislation for only the second time anywhere [after Tasmania].'

The Senate committee's report added that 'since intersex status is a condition related to the innate biological characteristics of an individual, it should not be an attribute to which any religious exceptions apply'.

Regarding religious exceptions, the committee recommended that they be removed from religious groups who provide services, but remain for employment.

Wilson thanked the many LGBTI rights groups and legal experts, including New South Wales Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, the National Association of Community Legal Centres and Australian Human Rights Commission, who added their voices to the call for 'intersex' to be listed separately on the Bill.

If passed, the new law would protect the rights of sexual orientation and gender identity minorities from discrimination in Australia for the first time.

'This is an historic reform that is long overdue, and will provide significant benefits to sex and gender diverse Australians,' said the Senate committee's report.

Victoria Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby (VGLRL), OII Australia and TransGender Victoria released a joint statement today calling for the government to pass the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill into law before the next election.

'We urge the government to adopt the recommendations of the committee and pass the legislation as soon as possible, to deliver on its commitment to introduction discrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity,” said VGLRL convener Anna Brown.

Intersexion, a documentary about the difficulties that intersex people face in society, is showing at Sydney Mardi Gras film festival this month and Melboure Queer Film Festival next month.

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