Mexico Supreme Court upholds gay marriage law

|  5:55 pm

Mexico's Supreme Court has upheld a landmark law permitting same-sex marriages in Mexico City, rejecting  the conservative federal government's claim that the law is unconstitutional because it threatens the institution of the family.

The justices, in an 8-2 decision, with one jurist absent,  cast their opinions on one of two grounds: First, individual states (including the Federal District, as Mexico City is also known) can define or limit marriage through their legislatures; or second, Mexico's constitution is vague on the definition of "family."

Mexico City's law is an anomaly in the heavily Roman Catholic country, where the church hierarchy and the ruling center-right National Action Party (PAN) have vehemently opposed same-sex marriage.

Thursday's ruling was greeted as another victory in the international gay-rights community and came the day after a U.S. federal judge struck down Proposition 8, a ballot initiative in California that banned same-sex marriages there. Argentina last month passed a sweeping same-sex marriage law, making it the first country in Latin America to give gay couples the same rights as heterosexuals.

Mexico City's legislative assembly voted in December to allow same-sex marriages within the Federal District. An estimated 300 gay and lesbian couples have been married since the law took effect in March.

The Mexican Supreme Court will rule next week on another challenge to Mexico City's law: whether married gay couples can adopt children. The court is also slated to decide whether same-sex marriages from Mexico City should be recognized and protected in Mexico's states.

-- Daniel Hernandez in Mexico City

Photo: Demonstrators gather outside the Supreme Court in Mexico City awaiting ruling. Credit: Associated Pres

Harry Hamlin talks about 1982′s “Making Love”

By Greg Hernandez 

Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna showed up at TV Critics Press Tour today to gab about their new TV Land series Harry Loves Lisa.

It’s a six-episode reality series debuting in October that follows the lives of his Hollywood couple as they navigate their hectic life as parents, business people and as stars.

Since there’s only so much you can ask about such a show, the questioning veered off into other directions including how Hamlin met Rinna three days after his former wife, Nicolette Sheridan, left him for Michael Bolton.

Harry, former star of LA Law and People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” in 1987,  was also asked about his most famous feature film: the 1982 drama Making Lovein which he played a gay writer who becomes involved with a married and closeted doctor (Michael Ontkean).

“It’s something I would do again if I were offered the same kind of opportunity,” Harry said of the film which also starred Kate Jackson and was directed by Arthur Hiller. “At the time I had 70 percent of the people in my career and life telling me not to do it and 30 percent kind of on the fence. No one was saying, you’ve got to run and do this.”

The plot focused on how a married couple struggled with a husband’s closeted gayness which comes to a head when he falls in love with Hamlin’s free-spirited character. The film was not a commercial success.

“I wanted to do it because I sat there with director Arthur Hiller and he talked about the issue of gays and the time in America,” Hamlin recalled. “This was, by the way, pre-AIDS and HIV when we made the film. The whole situation was somewhat different in those days. Hollywood wasnt really ready for that movie at that time, it was probably 10-15 years head of its time. I’d do it again but I’m not sure if was helpful to my future film career.”

At the time of the movie, Hamlin was coming off the success of the adventure flick Clash of the Titans which was recently remade.

That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t reunited with Ontkean for a sequel: “If they want to do something about a gay octogenarian, I may be up for it in a couple of years.”

His wife was asked what she thought of the film and her husband’s participation in it: “I think he was really brave to do it. I think it was an awesome move back then. I think it’s very cringe-provoking to watch for me. I married him!”

http://greginhollywood.com

Gay Marriage Supporters Say Prop 8 Ruling Hard To Overturn

BY CARLOS SANTOSCOY 
PUBLISHED: AUGUST 05, 2010

Even as proponents of California's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, 

vow to appeal, gay marriage supporters say overturning the ruling 

will be difficult.

The ruling, handed down Wednesday by Chief U.S. District Judge 

Vaughn Walker, says Proposition 8 violates the constitutional rights 

of gay and lesbian couples who wish to marry.

“Because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional,” Walker wrote.

“One of the things that the judge has done is he's made a very, 

very strong opinion that's very difficult to overturn on appeal,”

 lead attorney David Boies said Wednesday night during an 

appearance on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show.

California voters approved the measure by a narrow margin

 on November 4, 2008. The law put an end to gay and lesbian

 weddings taking place in the state after the California Supreme

 Court legalized the institution.

“Only a trial court [like Walker's] can make factual findings,”

 lawyer Brian Devine said in his analysis, adding that Walker

 devotes 109 pages of his 138-page ruling to factual findings.

“A Court of Appeal must give great deference to the factual 

findings of the trial court, especially when those findings are

 based on the credibility of witness testimony.”

“We should be grateful to Judge Walker for carefully and diligently 

going through the facts of the case, creating a detailed and compelling 

record for the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court,” he added.

Douglas NeJaime, associate professor of law at Loyola Law School in

 Los Angeles, went further.

In an email to On Top Magazine, NeJaime said Walker concluded, 

based on the facts, that “Proposition 8 could not withstand the 

lowest level of constitutional scrutiny since ... it is based on the 

idea that same-sex couples (and their relationships) are inferior 

to different-sex couples (and their relationships).”

“Judge Walker issued several findings of fact, based on 

extensive expert testimony, to support these legal 

conclusions,” he added. “Indeed, in a statement that will

 likely resonate for years to come, Judge Walker concluded 

that '[t]he evidence shows that, by every available metric, 

opposite-sex couples are not better than their same-sex 

counterparts; instead, as partners, parents and citizens, 

opposite-sex couples and same-sex couples are equal.'”

Walker heard 13 days of testimony during a January trial held

 in a San Francisco courtroom. Closing arguments were presented

 in June. He's stayed his ruling at least until Friday, when he'll hold

 another hearing to determine if gay marriages can resume as the 

case is being appealed.

Andy Pugno, lead counsel for Protect Marriage, the group that

 sponsored Proposition 8, called the decision “a disappointment.”

“The judge's invalidation of the votes of over seven million Californians

 violates binding legal precedent and short-circuits the democratic process,

” he said. “But this is not the end of our fight to uphold the will of the 

people for traditional marriage, as we now begin an appeal to the 

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.”

“We will certainly appeal this disappointing decision,” Brian Raum, 

senior counsel at the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), whose attorneys 

defended Proposition 8, said. “Its impact could be devastating 

to marriage and the democratic process.”

Mexico's Supreme Court Upholds Gay Marriage Law

Mexico's Supreme 

Court Upholds Gay Marriage Law

BY ON TOP MAGAZINE STAFF 
 

Mexico's Supreme Court has upheld Mexico City's gay marriage law, 

the AP reported.

Justices ruled 8-2 Thursday that the law approved by lawmakers

 in December is constitutional.

The law went into effect in March. It gives gay and lesbian couples

 all the rights and responsibilities of marriage, including the right

 to adopt children. Previously, the city government recognized

 gay couples with civil unions, but gay adoption was banned.

The court must still rule on the constitutionality of the law's

 adoption provision, which will be considered on Monday.

Calling the law detrimental to children, the federal Attorney 

General's Office had challenged the law.

The federal government is controlled by the conservative

 PAN Party. Mexico City lawmakers approved the law over

 the objections of local PAN leaders and the Roman

 Catholic Church.

Mexico's Roman Catholic archbishop, Cardinal Noberto

 Rivera Carrera, called the law “immoral” and “reprehensible.”

The ruling comes a day after a federal judge in California 

struck down the state's gay marriage ban.

Mexico City was the first autonomous government to

 legalize gay marriage in Latin America and several 

countries in the region have followed its lead. 

Argentina approved a gay marriage law last month. 

Chile, the last country on the continent to allow divorce, 

Uruguay, and Paraguay say they'll consider

 a gay marriage law.Peru will debate a bill that recognizes

 gay and lesbian couples with civil unions.

Officials in Mexico City announced earlier this week

 that 320 gay couples have married since the law's enactment

Recognition of same-sex unions in Chile

Chile currently does not recognize same-sex unions.

During January's presidential campaign 2006 both President Michelle Bachelet and center-right candidate Sebastián Piñera voiced their support for civil unions but the Catholic Church and many members of Congress are opposed.

Chile's national LGBT rights group, the Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation, says it is cautiously optimistic the measure will pass.

Debate of creating a civil union law continues to go on. In October 2009 new Civil Union Bill was introduced.^[1]

On June 15, 2010, Senator Andres Allamand announced he will introduce a another bill to legalize civil unions.^[2]

On August 3, 2010 Senator Fulvio Rossi of the Chilean Socialist Party introduced a bill to legalize same sex marriage in the country.^[3]

An April 2009 poll concluded that only 33.2% of Chileans are in favor of allowing same-sex couplesto be married, with 65.2% opposed.^[4] However, support among young people is much higher: according to a study by the National Youth Institute of Chile, 56% of people aged between 15 and 29 supported same-sex marriage, while 51.3% supported same-sex adoption.^[5][6]

^{From Wikipedia}

Governor Schwarzenegger calls for same-sex weddings

AP – Stuart Gaffney, from left, his husband John Lewis, Spencer Jones, and his husband Tyler Barrick celebrate … 

By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer 

SAN FRANCISCO – California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown filed motions Friday calling for resumption of same-sex weddings in the state.

The officials filed the motions after U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walkerpreviously overturned Proposition 8, California's voter-approved gay marriage ban.

Resuming gay marriage "is consistent with Californias long history of treating all people and their relationships with equal dignity and respect," Schwarzenegger said in his legal filing.

Walker ruled Wednesday the ban violates federal equal protections and due process laws.

However, he agreed to block gay marriages from immediately resuming until he can consider arguments on whether to keep the ban in effect while its supporters take their appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Brown, a candidate for governor, said that ruling means it's time for gays to begin marrying again.

"While there is still the potential for limited administrative burdensshould future marriages of same-sex couples be later declared invalid, these potential burdens are outweighed by this court's conclusion, based on the overwhelming evidence, that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional," Brown said in his legal filing.

It was unclear when Walker would issue a ruling on the possible resumption of same-sex marriages.

The outcome in the appeals court could force the U.S. Supreme Court to confront the question of whether gays have a constitutional right to wed.

Currently, same-sex couples can legally wed only in Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Washington, D.C.

California voters passed Proposition 8 five months after the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex unions and an estimated 18,000 same-sex couples already had tied the knot.

Walker presided over a 13-day trial earlier this year that was the first in federal court to examine if states can prohibit gays from getting married without violating the constitutional guarantee of equality.

Supporters argued the ban was necessary to safeguard the traditional understanding of marriage and to encourage responsible childbearing.

Opponents said that tradition or fears of harm to heterosexual unions were legally insufficient grounds to discriminate against gay couple

Cynthia Nixon, Cheyenne Jackson Vent After Prop 8 Ruling

Cynthia Nixon, Cheyenne Jackson

 Vent After Prop 8 Ruling

BY ON TOP MAGAZINE STAFF 

Cynthia Nixon and Cheyenne Jackson are venting their frustration at
 New York's rejection of gay marriage after a federal judge struck
down Prop 8.

Both openly gay celebrities say they wish to marry in New York.

But despite strong public support, the New York Senate last year
 rejected a gay marriage bill endorsed by the governor and
 approved
 by the Assembly.

On Wednesday, California's gay marriage ban, known as
 Proposition 8, was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge.

Broadway star Jackson called the ruling a “giant step forward,”
 while Sex and the City 3 star Nixon said, “It's a beautiful day 
in California today,” according to gay glossy The Advocate.

Both actors went on to vent their frustrations at New York's 
foot dragging on the issue.

“Now come on, home state of New York,” Jackson added.
 “We all know that you're the 'concrete jungle where dreams
 r made of,' so make mine come true and take the necessary 
steps to allow me to make it legal with my man. Step up,
 we believe in you.”

“New York,” Nixon said, “is hoping to bask in some of that
 sunshine before too long.