04/02/2009
News Sent - 4th February 2009: LGBT Families and Civil Partnership
Edinburgh: Grandparents challenge choice of adoptive parents; 160 MEPs signed up for recognition of civil partnerships; US: Californian Supreme Court will hear case against Prop 8; Ireland: Civil partnership bill
Equality Network News;
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LGBT Families, Civil Partnership and Cohabitation
Edinburgh: Grandparents challenge choice of adoptive parents
Grandparents made an official complaint that the family was pressured into giving up their carers' rights, after they were told that the adoptive parents chosen for their grandchildren are a same-sex couple. Rachael Kelsey, a director at Edinburgh family law specialists Sheehan Kelsey Oswald, said: "I think there would be difficulty in challenging if a particular person is fit to adopt given the months of checks and double-checks there are in the adoption process. A judicial review might address the council's policy but I see difficulty here because it is clear in law that children can be adopted by gay people." The Scotsman reports that a "consortium of businessmen and professionals" is funding a legal challenge and the Roman Catholic Church is facilitating it. (
Scotsman,
Pink News)
160 MEPs signed up for recognition of civil partnerships
The resolution called for "member states with existing same-sex partnership legislation to recognise the arrangements of other member states that have also made provisions for same-sex partnerships," and for "guidelines for such mutual recognition by member states with existing same-sex partnership legislation." The declaration needed more than 393, or 50%, of MEPs, to be adopted as a resolution by the European Parliament and forwarded to the Commission, Council and member state governments for consideration. (
Pink News,
UK Gay News)
US: Californian Supreme Court will hear case against Prop 8
By a 52 to 48 percent vote, Proposition 8 restored the ban on gay marriage, after the state Supreme Court last year found the prior law outlawing same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Various lawsuits argue that the ballot measure was an improper method of amending the California constitution, and deprives same-sex couples of the right to marry established in the May 2008 Supreme Court ruling. The state Attorney General is arguing that Proposition 8 should be struck down because it erased an existing constitutional right. Forty-three groups have submitted written arguments against Proposition 8: twenty have submitted arguments that the measure should be upheld. The proceedings will be televised statewide on the California Channel: a ruling is due within 90 days of the hearing. (
Mercury News,
LA Times,
SF Gate)
Opponents and supporters of Proposition 8 pumped a total of $85 million into November's measure to ban same-sex marriage in California, the most money ever raised for a social-issue campaign in the US. The earliest reports broadly identified the largest funder as the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church) which provided an estimated 70 percent of the Prop 8 money. (
SF Gate,
365gay)
Ireland: Civil partnership bill
The legislative programme for the forthcoming Dáil session, which continues up to 9th April, includes the Civil Partnership Bill, which will grant same-sex couples legal recognition in areas such as pensions, social security, property rights, tax, succession and the payment of maintenance. The government says it will not support equal marriage, claiming that it would require a change to the country's constitution and a referendum. (
Irish Times)
LGBT Noise is still taking signatures for a petition against the ban on same-sex marriage.
The
Equality Network's manifesto position: civil partnership should also be available to mixed-sex couples and marriage should also be available to same-sex couples.
The Equality Network’s website for information on all aspects of LGBT family law – including civil partnership, cohabitation, having children, breaking up – is
www.lgbtfamilies.org
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