Simon Hughes, the British coalition government Liberal Democrat leader said Monday that the Government will allow same sex couples the right to “civil marriage” affording gay men and women the same legal status as that enjoyed by married straight men and women. Currently, Britain offers same sex couples the right to a civil partnership, which is still legally recognised, but not in the same manner as marriage for opposite sex couples. “It would be appropriate in Britain in 2010 to have civil marriage for straight people and gay people equally,” said Hughes. “The state ought to give equality. We’re halfway there. I think we ought to be able to there in this Parliament.”
In Ireland, the Civil Partnership Bill was signed into law Monday. The bill offers legal recognition for same sex couple for the first time in the country, extending benefits similar to those enjoyed by married opposite sex couples. The Minister for Justice Dermot Aheren said the bill was “one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation to be enacted since independence.” He added that the “Act provides enhanced right and protections for many thousands of Irish men and women. Ireland will be a better place for its enactment.” The first civil partnership ceremonies can take place beginning in January, 2011.
The National Organization for Marriage’s summer tour of anti-gay hate – One Man, One Woman – hit its first public confrontation catastrophe in Providence, Rhode Island Sunday, an estimated one hundred and fifty anti-gay marriage opponents clashing with an estimated one hundred and seventy-five pro-gay marriage proponents, the gay activists surrounding NOM President Brian Brown as he spoke, shouting “Get your hate out of state.” The counter demonstration was organized by the group Queer Action Rhode Island, as well as Marriage Equality Rhode Island, an advocacy group lobbying for the passage of a gay marriage law in Rhode Island.
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