News
Australia high court strikes down same-sex marriage law
27 gay couples tied the knot in capital territory over last five days
Lawmakers in the Australian capital in October approved a same-sex marriage bill.
The Australia High Court unanimously ruled the statute that ACT lawmakers narrowly approved nearly two months ago cannot remain in effect alongside a federal law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.
“Only a marriage conforming to that definition may be formed or recognized in Australia,” the decision reads. “The provisions of the ACT Act which deal with the rights of parties to marriages formed under that Act and with the dissolution of such marriages can have no valid operation.”
The Star Observer, an Australian LGBT newspaper, reported 27 gay and lesbian couples married in the ACT in which the country’s capital of Canberra is located since the same-sex marriage law took effect on Dec. 7. The Australia High Court decision nullifies these unions.
Ivan Hinton of Australian Marriage Equality married his partner, Chris Teoh, on Dec. 7.
The Associated Press reported the couple on Wednesday applied to change their last names to Hinton-Teoh once they received their marriage certificate.
“It is personally devastating that my marriage to Chris has only enjoyed legal significance for five days,” Hinton told the Washington Blade. “But our commitment to one another is lifelong and our resolve to achieving marriage equality for all Australians is only more resolute.”
Australian Marriage Equality National Director Rodney Croome further categorized the ruling as “just a temporary defeat.”
The decision said only the federal government can decide whether to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples.
The Star Observer reported a group of Australian senators on Wednesday pledged to form what the newspaper described as a “working group” to push the issue of nuptials for gays and lesbians in the country’s Parliament. Prime Minister Tony Abbott opposes marriage rights for same-sex couples, even though his sister is a lesbian and his wife and daughters back the issue.
“We now have a clear political and constitutional path forward for marriage equality, and call on the prime minister to grant his party a free vote on the reform,” said Croome.
Amy Coopes, an Australia-based correspondent for Agence France-Presse, told the Blade that advocates remain optimistic about the prospects of marriage rights for same-sex couples in the country in spite of their obvious disappointment with the ruling.
“It ruled that the Parliament does have the power to change the Marriage Act and that gay marriage is, in effect, legal if they want it to be,” said Coopes. “Seems to be common sense, but this is the first time it’s been stated.”
Miles Heffernan, who is the features editor for the Star Observer, noted to the Blade during a telephone interview from Sydney the decision in fact opens the door to adding same-sex couples to the federal marriage law.
“So they were part very conservative, part a little bit activist,” said Heffernan.
New Zealand is among the 15 countries in which gays and lesbians can legally marry.
Same-sex couples will be able to legally marry in England and Wales on March 29. The Irish government last month announced a referendum on whether to extend marriage rights to gays and lesbians will take place in 2015.
Iran
Grenell: ‘Real hope’ for gay rights in Iran as result of nationwide protests
Former ambassador to Germany claimed he has sneaked ‘gays and lesbians out of’ country
Richard Grenell, the presidential envoy for special missions of the United States, said on X on Tuesday that he has helped “sneak gays and lesbians out of Iran” and is seeing a change in attitudes in the country.
The post, which now has more than 25,000 likes since its uploading, claims that attitudes toward gays and lesbians are shifting amid massive economic protests across the country.
“For the first time EVER, someone has said ‘I want to wait just a bit,” the former U.S. ambassador to Germany wrote. “There is real hope coming from the inside. I don’t think you can stop this now.”
Grenell has been a longtime supporter of the president.
“Richard Grenell is a fabulous person, A STAR,” Trump posted on Truth Social days before his official appointment to the ambassador role. “He will be someplace, high up! DJT”
Iran, which is experiencing demonstrations across all 31 provinces of the country — including in Tehran, the capital — started as a result of a financial crisis causing the collapse of its national currency. Time magazine credits this uprising after the U.N. re-imposed sanctions in September over the country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
As basic necessities like bread, rice, meat, and medical supplies become increasingly unaffordable to the majority of the more than 90 million people living there, citizens took to the streets to push back against Iran’s theocratic regime.
Grenell, who was made president and executive director of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last year by Trump, believes that people in the majority Shiite Muslim country are also beginning to protest human rights abuses.
Iran is among only a handful of countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain punishable by death, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Virginia
Mark Levine loses race to succeed Adam Ebbin in ‘firehouse’ Democratic primary
State Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker won with 70.6 percent of vote
Gay former Virginia House of Delegates member Mark Levine (D-Alexandria) lost his race to become the Democratic nominee to replace gay state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) in a Jan. 13 “firehouse” Democratic primary.
Levine finished in second place in the hastily called primary, receiving 807 votes or 17.4 percent. The winner in the four-candidate race, state Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, who was endorsed by both Ebbin and Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger received 3,281 votes or 70.6 percent.
Ebbin, whose 39th Senate District includes Alexandria and parts of Arlington and Fairfax Counties, announced on Jan. 7 that he was resigning effective Feb. 18, to take a job in the Spanberger administration as senior advisor at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority.
Results of the Jan. 13 primary, which was called by Democratic Party leaders in Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax, show that candidates Charles Sumpter, a World Wildlife Fund director, finished in third place with 321 voters or 6.9 percent; and Amy Jackson, the former Alexandria vice mayor, finished in fourth place with 238 votes or 5.1 percent.
Bennett-Parker, who LGBTQ community advocates consider a committed LGBTQ ally, will now compete as the Democratic nominee in a Feb. 10 special election in which registered voters in the 39th District of all political parties and independents will select Ebbin’s replacement in the state senate.
The Alexandria publication ALX Now reports that local realtor Julie Robben Linebery has been selected by the Alexandria Republican City Committee to be the GOP candidate to compete in the Jan. 10 special election. According to ALX Now, Lineberry was the only application to run in a now cancelled special party caucus type event initially called to select the GOP nominees.
It couldn’t immediately be determined if an independent or other party candidate planned to run in the special election.
Bennett-Parker is considered the strong favorite to win the Feb. 10 special election in the heavily Democratic 39th District, where Democrat Ebbin has served as senator since 2012.
Congress
Van Hollen speaks at ‘ICE Out for Good’ protest in D.C.
ICE agent killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is among those who spoke at an “ICE Out for Good” protest that took place outside U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s headquarters in D.C. on Tuesday.
The protest took place six days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis.
Good left behind her wife and three children.
(Video by Michael K. Lavers)
Grenell: ‘Real hope’ for gay rights in Iran as result of nationwide protests
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Mark Levine loses race to succeed Adam Ebbin in ‘firehouse’ Democratic primary
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Van Hollen speaks at ‘ICE Out for Good’ protest in D.C.
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