Gay marriage update

The New Jersey Senate joined legislatures in Maine and New York, along with voters in California and about 30 other states, in rejecting a bill that would have permitted same-sex couples to marry. The New Jersey courts had mandated that gays have the same rights as marriage and left it to the legislature to implement it. They opted for civil unions. This bill was a response, declaring that civil unions still leave same-sex couples without all of the rights of marriage. Now it is back to the courts.

California's Supreme Court upheld Prop8 and overturned their gay marriage provision. Now that is being challenged in the Federal courts as an unconstitutional infringement on rights for equal treatment under the law. Hearings in federal court are for next week. It's proponents plan to carry it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, today, the Parliament in Portugal voted in gay marriage, and the President is expected to sign it into law. Thus a predominately Catholic country joins Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, South Africa -- and in the U.S., Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Iowa, and District of Columbia -- in including gays and lesbians in its marriage laws.

Ralph