Same-sex couples urge immediate resumption of gay marriages (CA)

[pinto]

Same-sex couples urge immediate resumption of gay marriages

By Howard Mintz
[e-mail]
Posted: 02/23/2011 10:21:01 AM PST
Updated: 02/23/2011 03:56:54 PM PST

The gay marriage conflict heated up considerably Wednesday in both the legal challenge to California's Proposition 8 and separate lawsuits elsewhere over a federal law that bars the government from recognizing same-sex marriage rights.

In California, lawyers for same-sex couples urged a federal appeals court to immediately put Proposition 8 on hold and allow same-sex marriages to resume across the state. Gay rights advocates asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift a stay on a federal judge's ruling last summer striking down Proposition 8, arguing that the legal battle is dragging on so long that it is further depriving gays and lesbians of their equal rights.

The Obama administration, meanwhile, handed gay rights advocates a major policy victory, dropping its legal defense of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and denies equal benefits to gay and lesbian couples. The Justice Department issued a legal analysis concluding that the federal law violates the equal rights of same-sex couples, essentially the same argument behind the challenge to Proposition 8.

It will now be up to members of Congress or other groups to defend the federal law in cases pending in New York and Connecticut. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she would introduce a bill to repeal the 15-year-old federal law.

http://www.mercurynews.com/samesexmarriage/ci_17461944?nclick_check=1

[Tripod]

1. Good post Pinto

:bounce: