board77

But you're also considered married outside the United States.

And now, if the newspaper I'm reading is correct, Australia's John Howard is trying to do the same as Bush...

*Irritated grumbling*

Nienor SharkAttack wrote:

And now, if the newspaper I'm reading is correct, Australia's John Howard is trying to do the same as Bush...

*Irritated grumbling*

He already has, sort of – the Marriage Act 2004 defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others. At the moment, the Federal Government is fighting with the Australian Capital Territory, which has passed Civil Union laws for same-sex couples – apparently they’re classed as marriage too, and are in violation of the Act.

He can’t amend the Constitution, though – the Australian Constitution can only be changed through referendum. He doesn’t need to, anyway – the Constitution gives the Federal Government power to make laws with respect to marriage (hence the Marriage Act).

I wish this Government would stop doing things like this, especially as I still intend to vote for it…

ETA: The Marriage Act had bipartisian support, so I don't have too many options anyway, even if I wanted to make gay marriage a decisive issue.

Lord_Morningstar wrote:

But you're also considered married outside the United States.

In general yes. Countries are not obligated to recognizes marriages made in other countries the way states are so obligated. Suppose Meril and I went to a country where polygamy is legal ... we would not be able to bring the new spouse back based on "this person is married to us."

States are obligated to recognize the marriages contracted in other states, because the constitution says so.

I thought it was a federal law, not the Constitution that says states must recognize marriages from other states.

Article 4, Section 1. Full Faith and Credit.

Constitution wrote:

Article IV
Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.

It appears that the Federal Marriage Amendment has been defeated in the Senate 49-48 (60 required to pass). That puts it out for this year at least. What happens next will depend on who gets Congress in November and who gets what in 2008.

This isn't about marriage, but we haven't got that many gay threads. And I wanted to draw attention to the world's first (openly) gay state leader.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 19068.html

"She is often described as the only politician who really cares about the little guy,"

Sounds like the opposite of Lesbian to me...

I hate it when people come crashing into a thread without reading all the pages. So please forgive me for doing so now, and for posting something that might have already been posted. A friend of mine just sent me the link to this video. He and his husband are in it. Made me cry.

http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/divorce" target="_blank

I'd seen a photo-album version of that but it's far more touching in video form.

Beautiful.

Quote:

We know that, ultimately, love will prevail, no matter how hard they try to fight it.

I'm sure of it.

So many different kinds of couple... so many different kinds of happiness...

That video was beautiful - made me cry too

Then I won't watch it.

I've cried enough for now.

I almost fell apart with the slide show. I'll hold of on the video.