After hours and hours of debate, Hawaii's Senate Judiciary Committee approved a proposal to legalize same-sex marriage. The bill now goes to the full Senate.
The vote was 5-2 Monday night after 12 hours of debate, according to a story by the Associated Press.
A second reading of the bill in the full Senate is set for Tuesday.
Georgia Equality announced today in a press release that the Georgia Department of Revenue is providing guidance for same-sex couples filing state tax returns in responsee to the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling striking down a major portion of the Defense of Marriage Act.
The state Department of Revenue states:
Tennessee is jumping on the marriage equality bandwagon and a federal lawsuit is expected to be filed today demanding the red state legally recognize same-sex marriage from states where they are legal.
Avondale Estates, the home of state Rep. Karla Drenner, the first openly gay state legislator in Georgia, has now established a domestic partnership registry for its residents. The registry extends to lesbian and gay couples as well as opposite-sex couples.
While a domestic partner registry does not offer any legal recognition of a couple's relationship due to Georgia's 2004 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, the registry does add a level of symbolic recognition to couples and their relationships.
This new resolution should also help boost Avondale Estates' ranking from an 8 out of 100 with the Human Rights Campaign in its next "municipal equality" ranking.
Jim Galloway at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an interesting column on "Kasim Reed and his same-sex marriage dilemma."
It's a good read and you should check out the full column which also discusses Reed's relationship with President Barack Obama — who one month ago endorsed marriage equality — and the Facebook page started by gay high school teacher Charlie Stadtlander urging the mayor to fully evolve and support gay marriage.
On "Meet the Press" this morning, Vice President Joe Biden told host David Gregory he believed gay couples deserve full marriage equality.
Administration officials, however, are slow-stepping what Biden said to say that Biden's intent was to say he and Obama agree on this issue — all loving couples deserve "all the civil rights, all the civil liberties" — whether gay or straight, said progressive political blog Think Progress.
"I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights. All the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that. […]," Biden said this morning.