Ireland Approves Same-sex Civil Partnerships

From La Figa comes the news that Ireland has enacted a same-sex civil partnerships law that goes into effect on January1. Apparently one has to pay €150 to register one's union and wait 3 months so the first gay civil partnership ceremony will not occur until April 1, 2011.

Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern signed the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act of 2010 (which had been passed by the Irish Parliament on July 19 2010) on December 23rd and said:

Gay couples, whose relationships have not previously been given legal recognition by the State, may now formalise their relationships in the eyes of the law and society at large. Their relationships will be legally recognised and protected.

Congrats, Eire!

Black, Gay and Polish!

Kristian Legierski is the first openly
gay and Black elected official in Poland

This is a great story. Poland has recently elected its first openly gay official, when Krystian Legierski (pictured above) won a Warsaw City Council seat on November 21st. Legierski, a 32-year-old lawyer is biracial (his father is from Mauritania and his mom is Polish) and the first Black elected official in the Eastern European country as well.

Rod 2.0 reports:

Legierski discussed the intersections of race and sexuality in his election: "In Poland there are so few blacks that nobody has ever done research on how many there are. It would not pay to do it. But without a black-emancipation movement, and without a strong organization of sexual minorities, after just 20 years of democracy, we have achieved what elsewhere sometimes took generations. Poland showed its tolerant and nondiscriminatory face."

Poland becomes the most recent Eastern European nation to elect a Black to public office. On October 25, a Ghanaian-born doctor won local elections in Slovenia's coastal town of Piran, becoming Slovenia's first black mayor. Russia elected its first Black elected official in July, a city councilman north of Moscow.

EU Rules All Member Nations Must Recognize Civil Partnerships

There is good news from Europe today on the relationship recognition front, via Joe.My.God.

Pink Paper reports:

The European Parliament has declared that civil documents – birth and death certificates, marriage certificates, etc. – must be recognised the same in every European Union nation.

That means countries that don't allow same-sex marriage or civil unions are expected to recognise such unions from countries that do.

On 23 November, the Parliament said it "strongly supports plans to enable the mutual recognition of the effects of civil status documents" and "stresses the need to ensure mutual recognition" of them.

The next step is for the European Commission to propose ways to achieve mutual recognition of all partnerships and marriages throughout the EU.

"This is a great development for the many couples and families who see their fundamental rights diminished every day when crossing a border inside the EU," said Ulrike Lunacek, co-president of the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights.

Co-President Michael Cashman said the statement adopted by the Parliament "follows the Commission's assertion in September that freedom of movement must be guaranteed for all citizens, regardless of sexual orientation."

"Claims that mutual recognition will undermine national sovereignty are plain wrong; it won't affect national marriage or partnership laws, but simply recognize civil unions that already exist," Cashman said.

Member nations of the European Union are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Currently seeking to join the EU are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Iceland, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.

Same-sex marriage is legal in Belgium, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Elsewhere, it is legal in Argentina, Canada, South Africa, Mexico City, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C.

Interestingly, in most of the countries which have civil partnerships (which are basically like the civil unions and comprehensive domestic partnerships in the United States) they are restricted to be accessed by same-sex couples only.

Portugal President Enacts Marriage Equality

Portugal will become the tenth jurisdiction in the world (sixth country in Europe) where marriage between same-sex couples is legal after President Anibal Cavaco Silva agreed to allow the measure become law today, the International Day Against Homophobia, despite direct lobbying from the Pope, who had decried gay marriage when he visited the country last week.

The bill was a priority of Portugal's recently elected prime minister Jose Socrates who had included the measure in his election portfolio. However, to become law the measure needed the assent of the President.

"I feel I should not contribute to a pointless extension of this debate, which would only serve to deepen the divisions between the Portuguese and divert the attention of politicians away from the grave problems affecting us," Cavaco Silva said.

He said that, in ratifying the law, he was setting aside "personal convictions."

Elsewhere in Europe, gay marriage is permitted in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Norway.

Five U.S. states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage, as have Canada and South Africa.

Portugal is nearly 90 percent Catholic. However, only around 2 million of its 10.6 million people describe themselves as practicing Catholics and in recent times Portugal has drifted away from the church's teachings.

The current Socialist government has defied the church before. It passed a law in 2007 allowing abortion. The following year, it introduced a law allowing divorce even if one of the spouses objected. It has argued that the legislation is part of Portugal's "modernization."

The new law removes the previous legal stipulation that marriage is between two people of different sexes.

Portugal's Constitutional Court validated the bill's legality last month.

[...]

Portugal lifted a prohibition on homosexuality in the early 1980s. In 2001, it passed a law allowing "civil unions" between same-sex couples, which granted couples certain legal, tax and property rights. However, it did not allow couples to take a partner's name, nor inherit his or her possessions or state pension.

Congratulations! Anyone fancy a trip to Lisbon to celebrate?

Austria Approves Civil Union Legislation

Austria's parliament approved a civil unions bill by a vote of 110 to 64 this week.

The bill, slated to become law Jan. 1., will give same-sex couples a series of rights enjoyed by their heterosexual counterparts, including access to a pension if one partner dies and alimony in the event of a split. It bans the adoption of children or artificial insemination.

"We are living in the 21st century and I'm very glad this step is being taken today," Justice Minister Claudia Bandion-Ortner said during parliamentary debate leading up to the vote.

Christian Hoegl, co-president of the Homosexual Initiative Vienna, Austria's oldest group of gays and lesbians, agreed.

"It's a relief, a big success and a reward for two decades of lobbying," Hoegl said.

Bizarre that it bans adoption or artificial insemination at the same time that it offers all the other rights and responsibilities of marriage that the state can provide. I know that equivalent federal legislation would be an unacceptable compromise to most LGBT advocates in the United States.

Portugal Plans To Enact Marriage Equality Soon

The newly re-elected prime minister of Portugal, José Sócrates, ran on a promise to legalize marriage for same-sex couples.

Gay couples in Portugal are waiting to see whether their re-elected prime minister will follow through with his campaign promise for gay
marriage.

José Sócrates and his Socialist Party government were returned
to power last weekend but without a parliamentary majority.

However, the left wing occupies a majority of the seats, with all left wing parties agreeing with gay marriage.

Portugal, which has a large Roman Catholic population, has seen all previous efforts to instigate same-sex marriage hit by heavy resistance from the country's religious groups and conservative politicians.

This year, a lesbian couple tried to challenge the gay marriage ban as unconstitutional.

Teresa Pires and Helena Paixao, two divorced mothers in their 30s who have been together since 2003, challenged the country's law when they were turned away from a registry office in Lisbon in 2006 after trying to wed.

The registry office rejected their attempt to marry on the grounds that the law states that marriage is between people of different genders.

In July, the Portuguese constitutional court upheld the ban on same-sex marriage.

Sunday's voting also saw an openly gay politician elected in Portugal for the first time.

Miguel Vale de Almeida is an independent MP for the Socialist Party.

Hat/tip PinkNews

Eye Candy: Emil Dostovic

Ahhh, Eastern Europe! Enjoy the Eye Candy of Emil Dostovic, courtesy Queerty.com, as usual.

Sweden Becomes 7th Country To Legalize Marriage Equality

On May 1, 2009 Sweden will become the seventh country in the world in which marriage is a gender-neutral contract between two individuals after a vote in the Swedish Parliament on Wednesday. The vote in the Riksdag was 261 to 22 with 66 abstentions.

From The Advocate's website:

Gender-neutral marriage licenses will begin to be issued starting May 1, replacing a civil union option that has been offered since 1995. Religious institutions will not be compelled to perform ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples. A majority of bishops in the Church of Sweden said that churches should not be allowed the task of handling legal registrations of marriages.

The Netherlands (2001), Norway (2008), Belgium (2003), Spain (2005), Canada (2005), and South Africa (2006) already allow same-sex marriage.

Hmmmm, as evidenced in the links above I notice that 5 of the 7 countries which have legalized gender-neutral marriage have done so since this blog came into existence in January 2005. Coincidence or cause and effect?

Iceland To Name Lesbian Prime Minister!

Johanna Sigurdardottir will become the first openly gay or lesbian leader of a modern country on Saturday when she is named the Prime Minister of Iceland.

Sigurdardottir, 66, is currently the social affairs minister and once was a flight attendant and union organiser.

Now she is the consensus pick of the two main parties forming the next parliamentary governement as well as the most popular politician in her financially distressed country.

Ms Sigurdardottir has two grown-up sons. She entered politics via the labour movement, was first elected to parliament in 1978 and was given her first ministerial office in 1987. She will be Prime Minister of a minority caretaker government composed of her Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Greens, with outside support. It is only expected to hold office for two or three months, until fresh elections are called.

"In opinion polls Johanna has repeatedly been chosen as the most popular politician in Iceland," said the government source. "She is a good choice, because one of the problems the government is facing is lack of trust. Getting Johanna to become Prime Minister was a way of saying trust is an issue. Politicians want a fresh mandate from the electorate and, before they get it, they need to rebuild trust. Choosing Johanna is a way of saying, 'Let's bridge this gap, let's have peace to be able to implement the emergency measures'."

[A] poll in November [that] gave Ms Sigurdardottir a 73 per cent approval rating, she was the only minister to improve on the previous year's score.

"She is often described as the only politician who really cares about the little guy," wrote Icelandic journalist Iris Erlingsdottir in a blog this week.

She did stand for the leadership of her party back in 1994 and lost badly, but in her concession speech she predicted "my time will come". And some 15 years later, it truly has.

(When) do you think that America will have an openly gay President?

REVIEW: Euro Pane Bakery (Pasadena, CA)

Flourless chocolate cake

Bee sting

Almond cookie (left), chocolate chip with walnuts (right)

Euro Pane is an amazing bakery found in Pasadena (950 E Colorado Blvd, (626-577-1828) near the corner of Lake and Colorado Boulevards. It has truly delicious, European-style pastries. Sadly, the prices are pretty European also, but they are worth every centime!

MadProfessah samples their wares pretty frequently. Recently, I tried their flourless chocolate cake, bee sting, and some cookies. Everything was absolutely excellent. Europane is a great place to spend an hour or so on the weekend, basking in the lovely Southern California weather!

Obama in Berlin

Barack Obama with 200, 000 of his German friends.

Norway Enacts Gay Marriage Law

Norway is poised to become the sixth country in the world to give full marriage rights to same-sex couples. Currently, The Netherlands (2001), Belgium (2003), Spain (2005), Canada (2005)and South Africa (2006) all allow same-sex couples to enter into civil marriage. The state of Massachusetts allowed same sex marriage starting May 17, 2004.

Starting at 5:01 pm on June 16, 2008 same-sex couples will be able to get married in California. Professor Art Leonard of New York Law School has noted that most of these countries have smaller populations than California (38 million). To wit:

The largest is South Africa, with a population of almost 48 million, then Spain with about 45 million, then California, with about 38 million, followed by Canada, 33 million, the Netherlands, 16.5 million, Belgium, 10 million, and little Massachusetts, rounding out the list with 6.5 million.

In a few weeks we can add Norway to the list, with about 4.5 million. Surely the other Scandinavian countries of Sweden (9 million) and Denmark (5.5 million). Finland (5 million) and Iceland (300k) are not Scandinavian, but they are culturally related. All of these countries (like most of Europe) currently have "registered partnerships" which are a countrywide version of domestic partnership or civil union.

Red Death: Federer, Henin, Serena Lose On Clay

Yup, it's the red clay season in tennis. Roger Federer lost today to Radek Stepanek 7-6(4) 7-6(7) at the Roma ATP Master Series tournament, a few days after Rafael Nadal suffered a shock loss on clay. It was Federer's sixth loss of the year; in 2007 he lost nine matches.

Dinara Safina defeated World #1 Justine Henin and Serena Williams in consecutive matcheson consecutive days at the German Open. Henin had made the finals of this tournament 6 years in a row (winning 3 times) and Serena was on a sixteen match winning streak. Safina beat Serena 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(5) and Henin 5-7 6-3 6-1.

Trip to Northern Italy Jan 1 to Jan 17

Mad Professah and the other half are going to be spending the first two weeks of 2008 in northern Italy. We'll be spending 3 nights in Milan, 8 nights in Turin and 4 nights in Florence.

Uruguay and Hungary Enact Civil Unions Laws

Flag of Uruguay	Flag ofHungary

Blabbeando alerts us to the fact that Uruguay is poised to become the first country in Latin America to enact civil unions for unmarried couples (both same-sex and opposite-sex).

On the same day came the news that Hungary has enacted the Registered Partnership Act, which would allow same-sex couples to have access to many of the rights and responsibilities of marriage in the eastern European country.