So Cool!!!

[catalina_francisco]

Spain has decided to join Belgium and The Netherlands in making gay marriage legal, gay couples retaining all the same rights in relation to health, pensions, insurances etc., as heterosexual couples, and the provision for them to legally adopt children!! The journey is slow, but it is so cool to see progress is happening despite what George Bush and the Pope would think appropriate and fair.

Catalina

 

[babiesmiles]

Great sign of civilization . Hope it's contagious

 

[catalina_francisco]

Great sign of civilization . Hope it's contagious

Now that would be great.

Catalina

 

[babiesmiles]

Indeed

 

[Netzach]

As the rest of the world gets on this bandwagon and achieves something like progress I wonder how entrenched and stupid and medieval we are going to get.

 

[shy slave]

As the rest of the world gets on this bandwagon and achieves something like progress I wonder how entrenched and stupid and medieval we are going to get.

between the new Pope, George Bush and the British Govt about as medieval as you can humanly get, is my guess.

I bet they dont get out the old medieval torture implements though

Thank goodness, some places in the world recognise a need for enlightened changes

 

[Aeroil]

I know Canada had a bill proposing supporting gay marriage a few weeks back, I dunno if it's passed, been defeated, or still in the system now though, I should probably look into it.

 

[TaintedB]

I know Canada had a bill proposing supporting gay marriage a few weeks back, I dunno if it's passed, been defeated, or still in the system now though, I should probably look into it.

The politics around this one, how it's polarized the three parties, are very interesting. I get updates from my Canadian friend on it. You guys are still far to the left of the US, but I fear you may be following in our footsteps.

 

[FungiUg]

I gather they are headed into a massive confrontation with the new Pope -- Spain is a Catholic church stronghold, after all!

NZ has kind of side-stepped the issue. Gay marriages aren't legal, but they've essentially stripped away most of the legal differences between marriage and co-habitation. So two (or more) people living together have (almost) the same legal rights as if they were married.

So it's not perfect, but it's a change in the right direction.

 

[Aeroil]

The politics around this one, how it's polarized the three parties, are very interesting. I get updates from my Canadian friend on it. You guys are still far to the left of the US, but I fear you may be following in our footsteps.

So what, it was defeated?
grr... fricken moron MP's..... such a stupid issue, just pass the damn bill and be done with it.
and there's four parties, btw, or did you mean it's polarized three of the parties?

 

[TaintedB]

So what, it was defeated?
grr... fricken moron MP's..... such a stupid issue, just pass the damn bill and be done with it.
and there's four parties, btw, or did you mean it's polarized three of the parties?

Polarized three. The bill will come up again, and again, and again. I just think that if the wrong party gets control, it'll never have a chance.

 

[Aeroil]

Polarized three. The bill will come up again, and again, and again. I just think that if the wrong party gets control, it'll never have a chance.

yeah, we may have to have anothr election up here soon, I saw a campaign sign on the hill as I was walking home, liberal government is in a lotta trouble right now, for sure.
Perhaps if we get some better damn people in power we can pass it.

 

[catalina_francisco]

I gather they are headed into a massive confrontation with the new Pope -- Spain is a Catholic church stronghold, after all!

NZ has kind of side-stepped the issue. Gay marriages aren't legal, but they've essentially stripped away most of the legal differences between marriage and co-habitation. So two (or more) people living together have (almost) the same legal rights as if they were married.

So it's not perfect, but it's a change in the right direction.

NZ sounds much like Oz's method of dealing with it. As for the Catholic Church and the Spanish law going through, it seems a mixed story. The bishops are said to be up in arms, while the news last night reported the Cardinal was supporting the law and saw it as a positive human rights move to allow the law to be upheld. 66% of the Spanish people are said to be in support of the new changes, while only 26% oppose.... the Spanish Roman Catholic Dom in this household is one of those in full support of it going ahead, and like me thinks it archaic that gays do not enjoy the same rights as heterosexuals.

Catalina

 

[Marquis]

I wonder if we'll ever have poly marriages.

 

[Killishandra]

Wondered that myself...

I wonder if we'll ever have poly marriages.

*crosses not only my own fingers, but everyone else's in the room*

 

[sphynx's dragon]

I wouldn't go so far as to blame ONLY Bush for blocking homosexual marriages in America. After all the REAL withered hand on the controls is freaking congress and the damned senate. Take a look at the average age of congressmen and senators. That and how long they've been in office. For the most part the LEAST problematical is the president. The extremely right wing senators and congressmen who've been in office for 20 plus years block the VAST majority of what we would consider enlightened progress. After all, how many 70 year old men do YOU know that think the idea is a good one?

 

[oddity83]

Pity that most Americans feel that same sex marriage is wrong. Or so I heard from AM talk radio... Personaly I want to know why government has its paws in marriage in the 1st place, I was under the spell that marriage is church thing.

 

[Aeroil]

Pity that most Americans feel that same sex marriage is wrong. Or so I heard from AM talk radio... Personaly I want to know why government has its paws in marriage in the 1st place, I was under the spell that marriage is church thing.

If the government didn't regulate marriages, then there'd be a problem, trust me, it's not the government's bad for keeping an eye on who's getting married.

 

[sphynx's dragon]

Pity that most Americans feel that same sex marriage is wrong. Or so I heard from AM talk radio... Personaly I want to know why government has its paws in marriage in the 1st place, I was under the spell that marriage is church thing.

Yes most americans do..but only because they've been brainwashed their whole lives that it is unacceptable. It's one of the few (in my eyes) drawbacks to living in a country that is currently controlled by a majority christian view. Those of us that aren't are often shunted aside. <shrug> Nobody ever said life was fair.

 

[caela]

I wouldn't go so far as to blame ONLY Bush for blocking homosexual marriages in America. After all the REAL withered hand on the controls is freaking congress and the damned senate. Take a look at the average age of congressmen and senators. That and how long they've been in office. For the most part the LEAST problematical is the president. The extremely right wing senators and congressmen who've been in office for 20 plus years block the VAST majority of what we would consider enlightened progress. After all, how many 70 year old men do YOU know that think the idea is a good one?

The senators in congress can be problematic no doubt, but the real problem isn't the politicians...it's the people that keep electing them. I (very sadly) live in one of the many states that actually voted to ammend it's constitution this last election, to make define marriage as solely between a man and a woman. The bill however went one step further in actually denying same-sex couple ANY of the rights of married people. Bush and Congress had nothing to do with that, the fuckwits here voted it into law. I could have screamed and pulled my hair out when I heard it passed. The ramifications of it are starting to be felt among some of my gay and lesbian friends who were lucky enough to work for open minded companies that had already started extending family benefits (health insurance etc.) to their gay employess and their long term partners.

Thanks to our hideous new law those companies actually are supposed to stop offering such benefits and it gives companies that never wanted to an excuse to discriminate against their gay and lesbian employees.

 

[DVS]

I wonder if we'll ever have poly marriages.

The state of Utah?

 

[Netzach]

Nobody ever said life was fair.

The equal protection under the law part of the Constitution does, but who cares about these technicalities?

 

[Xelebes]

So what, it was defeated?
grr... fricken moron MP's..... such a stupid issue, just pass the damn bill and be done with it.
and there's four parties, btw, or did you mean it's polarized three of the parties?

Soon to be five - the Green Party is gaining popularity as the Progressive Conservative party vanished and are threatening to take a couple seats. My vote is going for them when the election comes.

Anyways, I believe the bill is still going through the process. The Conservative opposition tried passing a member's bill looking to amend the Gay marriage bill and it was refused by the other three parties. It is likely to go through as there is too much party-line entrenchment in the Liberal Party to vote it down and the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois are all for it.

 

[Aeroil]

Okay, I decided to look it up lol, but I didn't read it all.
Bill C-38
http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/Bills_...=1&ls=C38&source=Bills_House_Government#21txt