Matt Baume of Americans For Equal Rights’ Marriage News Watch recounts the year’s highlights in marriage-equality news and peers into his crystal ball for some predictions about 2012.
There were five big trends this year:
1. Multiple polls show a majority of Americans—and that
includes a lot of Republicans—support the LGBT community’s
right to marry.
2. There’s been a lot of action around civil unions.
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3. 2011 saw some big shakeups at statewide equality organizations.
4. There’s been international progress on gay marriage that
sometimes outpaced the U.S.
5. We’ve been laying the groundwork for some major victories.
Bill S.
France is getting closer to legalizing marriage equality. When their bill was defeated, both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies were controlled by the UMP (right-wing party). In the October senatorial elections, the Socialist Party gained control of the Senate for the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic. The elections for the Chamber of Deputies will be held on the 10 and 17 of June.
The President cannot veto laws passed by the French legislature, but the Presidential election will be in April with a possible run-off in May.
Robert in NYC
Matt Baume forgot to mention that in March 2012, England actually begins its marriage equality consultation.
Dan
Lost in translation from Portuguese to English: The Brazil Supreme Court ruling about civil unions was about just that civil unions (not Civil Unions, the English concept). The ruling about civil unions was about unions formed via the civil authority, as opposed to religious unions. The court emphasized that it was speaking of secular unions. English speakers saw the term civil unions and thought Civil Unions, the separate kind of law. The top Brazil Appellate Court affirmed that civil unions – those formed under civil government as opposed to under church rules – provide equality, thus judges have converted Civil Unions (like those in Rio Grand du Sol) into marriages, and judges have overseen couples wishing to marry. So Brazil provides marriage equality.