U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy files amendment to immigration bill for sponsoring gay, lesbian partners

From an Associated Press article by Erica Werner about the upcoming immigration bill:

The test will begin Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. As of Tuesday evening's deadline for filing amendments, some 300 had been offered by Democrats and Republicans. A number of them, particularly from the GOP side, would strike at the heart of the bill in a way supporters say would destroy the fragile agreement between four Republican and four Democratic senators who wrote the legislation. ...

Perhaps the biggest potential trouble for the bill loomed from the Democratic side, in the form of two similar measures filed by Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to extend immigration rights to gay citizens and permanent residents, allowing them to petition for U.S. residence for their partners just as straight married Americans can.

All four Republican members of the Gang of Eight have voiced serious concerns about such a provision, saying it could kill the bill or cost their support. Those objections are why it was left out of the bill in the first place, despite vigorous advocacy from gay-rights groups.

Click here to read the complete article.

Update: Delaware Senate OKs marriage equality; state's governor immediately sign into law

Just after the Delaware Senate passed marriage-equality legislation, Gov. Jack Markell signed the bill into law.

That will make Delaware the 11th state, plus Washington, D.C., to legalize gay marriage.

Here's the news release from HRC, Human Rights Campaign:

WASHINGTON – Today the Delaware state Senate passed marriage equality legislation, putting the First State on track to become the eleventh state in America where gay and lesbian couples can legally marry.  The legislation, which passed with bipartisan support in both houses, will be signed into law by Gov. Jack Markell later today. Same-sex couples can begin applying for marriage licenses July 1st of this year.

“As America waits for rulings from the Supreme Court on two historic marriage cases, Delaware today took decisive action and guaranteed equality for the thousands of gay and lesbian couples of that great state,” said Human Rights Campaign (HRC) president Chad Griffin.  “Thanks to principled impatience from state leaders in Dover, the momentum for LGBT equality continues unabated.”

The nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organization, HRC has been an integral financial and strategic player in winning marriage in each of the eleven states and DC. In Delaware, HRC has provided significant financial investment, staff and technical resources over many years to help establish and support Equality Delaware, the statewide equality organization in the First State.  In 2013 alone, HRC sent nearly 30,000 emails to members and supporters in the state, generating nearly 2,400 messages to legislators.  Total HRC financial and staff contributions in 2013 exceed $160,000.

"In the years of hard work we have undertaken in Delaware, HRC has been an invaluable partner,” said Equality Delaware president Lisa Goodman.  “Their expertise and financial contributions have been a huge part of getting us where we are today."

A strong majority of Americans support marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples including 70 percent of those born after 1980, according to a recent Pew Poll.  Last week Rhode Island became the tenth state with marriage equality and the first since a series of sweeping victories at the ballot box on Election Day 2012 in Maine, Maryland and Washington.  Today over 50 million Americans – 16 percent of the population – live in states that allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. The state legislatures in Illinois and Minnesota are presently both debating marriage equality bills.

The passage of marriage equality in Delaware comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hand down decisions on two marriage-related cases by the end of June.  Hollingsworth v. Perry challenges the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, and United States v. Windsor, challenges the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. 

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

The New Yorker: 'Happy Mother's Day' to lesbian moms

The New Yorker this week says "Happy Mother's Day" with a cover drawing by Chris Ware of two moms reading a shared card.

Click here to read an essay by Ware about how the Mother's Day cover came to be.

DOMA Project: Tuesday marks 17th anniversary of DOMA introduction in Congress

News release from the DOMA Project:

17 YEARS AFTER THE DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE ACT WAS INTRODUCED, GAY AND LESBIAN BINATIONAL COUPLES ENGAGE PUBLIC IN THE FIGHT TO KEEP THEIR FAMILIES TOGETHER

MARRIED GAY AND LESBIAN COUPLES CONTINUE TO BE DENIED ACCESS TO GREEN CARDS AND FIANCÉ(E) VISAS BECAUSE OF FEDERAL LAW

Seventeen years ago, on May 7, 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. At the time, legislators’ primary objective was to express moral disapproval of gays and lesbians. DOMA Section 3, which defines marriage for all federal purposes as between one man and one woman, has caused catastrophic and irreparable harm to American families. Same-sex married couples are barred from 1,138 provisions of federal law that are designed to strengthen families. By contrast, no marriages were actually defended.

For 17 years, DOMA has caused immeasurable financial and emotional hardship for gay and lesbian Americans, particularly those in long-term committed relationships with a foreign national. In Boulder, Colorado, Catriona lives with her spouse, Cathy, a citizen of Ireland. Together they are raising three children. This family lives under constant threat of separation ever since Cathy’s work visa ran out last year. Other couples, like American, Jesse Goodman and Argentinean, Max Oliva, have been forced to live in exile in London, unable to return home. Others have no alternative but to struggle in long distance relationships indefinitely, traveling across the globe for short visits, sustaining their commitment to one another by Skype and telephone. The years lost to DOMA will never be regained for these families.

Even DOMA’s original sponsor, former Republican Congressman Bob Barr repudiated the discriminatory law in 2009 as an unacceptable infringement on individual liberty. President Clinton, who signed DOMA into law, finally denounced it this past March. With 12 federal court rulings against DOMA in less than three years, and the Obama Administration’s unprecedented commitment to fight DOMA alongside lesbian and gay plaintiffs, many commentators see a Supreme Court ruling striking down DOMA as imminent.

This week the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin work on the markup of a comprehensive immigration reform bill that excludes gay and lesbian couples. Senate Republicans have threatened that inclusion of an amendment to add gay families to the bill will ensure that comprehensive immigration reform goes down to defeat. Republicans are once again scapegoating gay Americans, rather than fixing a broken immigration system so that it protects all our families. Because gay and lesbian couples have been left out of immigration reform, everything now rides on a Supreme Court decision on DOMA due in a few weeks. Despite some optimism, the Court’s final ruling on DOMA won’t be known until the day of the ruling. If the Court upholds DOMA, gay and lesbian Americans with foreign-born partners would have no recourse; couples and families would continue to be torn apart, parents separated from children, and American citizens driven into exile.

'Love is Love': The historic Biltmore launches campaign to bring gay weddings to Coral Gables

BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com

The historic Biltmore has launched a very modern campaign to attract brides and grooms of all sexual orientations — and their expensive weddings — to the grand Coral Gables hotel.

“People think it’s a conservative area. It’s not. The Biltmore has welcomed [gays and lesbians] for years,” said Wendy Kallergis, president of the Greater Miami & The Beaches Hotel Association, who worked as catering director at the hotel in the 1990s. “The wedding market, we were No. 1. On a slow weekend, we did three weddings.”

Back then, brides only married grooms. Much has changed in 20 years.

The Kimpton, W and Wyndham chains all actively market to gay travelers, according to Karen Brown, executive director of the LGBT Visitor Center in Miami Beach. The Biltmore is the first locally to campaign for gay weddings, she believes.

The Biltmore on Sunday introduced it’s “Love is Love” gay and lesbian wedding campaign at a brunch for the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Each attendee received a postcard featuring romantic photos of three very different wedding parties: two gay men, a straight couple and two lesbians.

“I had people after the brunch come to me and say that instead of mailing them, they were going to frame them,” said Natalia Plasencia, the Biltmore’s associate director of catering. “They knew this was the beginning of something special.”

The campaign photos were shot by Coral Gables photographer Manolo Doreste of In Focus Studios.

Plasencia, who has many gay relatives, said she got the idea after speaking with a colleague from Little Palm Island in the Keys.

“In Key West, there’s a growing trend of destination weddings for gay couples,” she said.

In Florida, same-sex couples are banned from marrying, but in 10 states, Washington, D.C., and other nations, gay marriage is legal.

Many gay men and women from South Florida are traveling to other places for their legal ceremonies and returning home for their wedding receptions.

“The Keys have been focused on that market and we haven’t,” Plasencia said. “From that, the idea was created. We needed to tap into this. We needed to figure out how we can attract this clientele.”

Plasencia did her research, and found that one year after the state of New York passed marriage equality in 2011, New York City’s economy grew $259 million, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“And it’s not just hotels. It’s every branch of the different divisions that work with those weddings,” she said. “It’s hosting the ceremonies. It’s hosting the receptions. It’s hosting the guests. It’s hosting the dinners leading up to it. It’s a massive undertaking. And it’s just a small tip of the iceberg of what we hope to achieve here in Florida.”

Plasencia believes that if the U.S. Supreme Court in June strikes a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, even more gay and lesbian couples will wed.

The Biltmore hosts about 100 weddings a year. This week, the hotel booked a gay wedding in August for 200 guests.

“The average wedding we do for 200 people would be an average of about $40,000 or $50,000 in revenue on the food and beverage side,” she said. “Not to mention the rooms allocation, which is usually about 20 rooms per night — another $10,000 or $15,000 in room revenue. Not to mention outlets, not to mention golf, not to mention spa.

“It also benefits all the vendors we work with,” she said — including florists, bands, DJs, photographers, videographers and bridal shops. “It’s a community and we’re all here to help each other, all within the same luxury market and same luxury standards.”

But before booking gay guests comes staff training.

“People want to check in, it’s two ladies and they want one bed,” she said. “We need to be able to know that the people making the reservations aren’t pushing them into two beds.”

On Monday, the Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, the LGBT Visitor Center and YES Institute (a South Miami LGBT anti-suicide organization) brought their Pink Flamingo Hospitality Program to The Biltmore.

“We thought it’s a program deserving of support,” said Matthias Kammerer, the Biltmore’s managing director, who formerly held the same position at Canyon Ranch in Miami Beach.

“We tried it out six or eight months ago [at Canyon Ranch]. We got great response from our staff members,” Kammerer said. “At the end of the day, some may have an awkward relationship with [the gay] community. It prepares everybody better.”

Kammerer, originally of Switzerland, also stressed the business importance of courting gay and lesbian tourists in places other than South Beach or Fort Lauderdale. “It’s a great opportunity for us to participate and say guess what, other parts of Miami are also open, friendly and have something to offer.”

Billy Bean: It’s Jason Collins’ story, but it’s our day

BY BILLY BEAN

When I awoke early Monday morning, there were 25 text messages waiting on my phone. My heart raced, wondering if something awful had happened in my family.

My friends were asking how I felt about the big news: NBA center Jason Collins, in an act of courage and grace, had come out as gay.

Over the past dozen years, I have answered the same question a thousand times. “When will an active male athlete in one of the four major professional sports come out?” Over and over, I said the same thing. “I’m hopeful it will happen soon, but I honestly don’t know.”

Since I, a retired major league ballplayer, came out as a gay man in late 1999 while living in Miami Beach, the world has changed dramatically. The military’s don’t ask/don’t tell policy was scrapped. Marriage equality advanced in the courts and at the ballot box. But no active professional athlete in baseball, basketball, football or hockey had announced they were gay.

Until now.

Click here to read more.

Liza Minnelli poses for NOH8 campaign portrait in support of gay marriage equality

News release from Liza Minnelli:

May 3, 2012 – New York, NY -- The legendary Liza Minnelli was the latest celebrity to support the acclaimed NOH8 campaign. Liza’s NOH8 portrait was unveiled today by the organization whose mission is to promote equality through visual protest.

The NOH8 Campaign is a photographic silent protest created in direct response to the passage of California’s Proposition 8 which amended the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Photos feature subjects with tape over their mouths, symbolizing their voices being silenced by Prop 8 and similar legislation around the world, with “NOH8” painted on one cheek in protest.

When Liza was asked her message for the LGBT community she responded, “Here’s what I believe … no shame, no blame, no guilt. Try and be happy. And be who you are. I love you.”

Photo by Adam Bouska courtesy of NOH8 Campaign.

Court: Iowa must list both married lesbian mothers on child's birth certificate

ASSOCIATED PRESS

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The Iowa Supreme Court says the state health department must list the names of both spouses in a same-sex relationship on a child's birth certificate.

The court ruled Friday that the department must include the name of the non-birthing spouse in a lesbian marriage as a legal parent to any child born during the union.

Justices say that a state law that allowed only the "name of the husband" to appear on the birth certificate violates the equal protection clause in the Iowa Constitution.

The ruling is a victory for Heather and Melissa Gartner of Des Moines, who sued after the department listed only Heather as a parent of their daughter in 2009.

The couple married after the Iowa Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in 2009.

Rhode Island to become 10th state allowing gay marriage

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Rhode Island is joining nine other states and the District of Columbia in allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.

Gov. Lincoln Chafee plans to sign gay marriage legislation into law Thursday following a final procedural vote in the state's General Assembly.

Hundreds are expected to gather at the Statehouse to celebrate the new law, which has already passed the House and Senate once.

The other five New England states already have gay marriage, but bills that would have changed marriage laws in heavily Catholic Rhode sputtered for nearly 20 years until this year. More gay marriage supporters were elected to the legislature last fall, and advocates mounted an aggressive lobbying campaign to pressure undecided lawmakers.

The first weddings could occur Aug. 1, when the new law takes effect.

Gallery | 'I Do' tackles immigration equality, is Centerpiece at Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

Hundreds packed O Cinema Miami Shores Wednesday night for the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival's Centerpiece screening, I Do, a movie about immigration equality starring screenwriter David W Ross and Jamie-Lynn Sigler.

Ross, who received the 2013 festival's Rising Star Award, attended the screening and answered questions (above with festival director Franc Castro, center, and I Do producer Stephen Israel).

Click here for more pictures from the screening and reception afterward. Photos by STEVE ROTHAUS / Miami Herald Staff.