Senator John Kerry now supports gay marriage. Who knew? He neglected to tell Bostonist.
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Gay marriage was legalized 5 years and one day ago, and the sanctity of marriage is apparently holding steady. [Boston Herald]
And it's been good for the economy! [WHDH]
The FBI is looking into the questionable suicide of an Amherst student in India. [The Republican]
The next leg of the Volvo Ocean Race got off to a rough start. [Boston Globe]
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Results tagged “gaymarriage”
A week after New York legalized gay marriage and a day after Rhode Island's state Senate voted in favor of same-sex civil unions, the state of Maine's gay marriage supporters were preparing a referendum on gay marriage to join the rest of New England in a state of marriage equality.
President Obama and his family will spend 7-10 days on Martha’s Vineyard in August for a family vacation. It'll be the family's third straight summer vacation on the island. [Boston Globe] Remember to follow Bostonist on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Bostonist got a huge surprise this week as James "Whitey" Bulger was captured after 16 years as a fugitive. The 19-time alleged killer apparently spent the bulk of that time in one place: a bland, rent-controlled apartment in Santa Monica. He returned to Boston with Catherine Greig for an initial court appearence, saw brother Billy Bulger, was denied bail and is now a guest of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility. Welcome home, Jimmy! Remember to follow Bostonist on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Boston College chemistry student Hee Yeon Cho suffereda cut and some burns after a small explosion involving thionyl chloride at the Merkert Chemistry Center. [Boston Globe] Remember to follow Bostonist on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Yes, there's more Kennedy news. Various state tax subsidies are criticized. The Globe profiled the Miss Massachusetts and the Polaroid chairman (separately). Remember to follow Bostonist on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
- Mayor Thomas M. Menino is still pushing to get voters out as the city's turnout is low, a fact that hurts Governor Deval Patrick. [Boston Herald]
- Boston School Superintendent Carol R. Johnson wants to delay a School Committee vote to delay closing schools until December. [Boston Herald]
Voters in New England's least appealing state told approximately one tenth of its population that it could go f*ck itself but without the sanction of marriage. Maine, also home to Olympia Snowe, did not include a trigger option in its narrow repeal of the state's same-sex marriage law. [Globe]
- While the Mass. ballot question on poker folded, Attorney General Martha Coakley’s ruled 25 ballot questions are constitutional. Backers of each can now gather signatures in support of each question. [ Boston Business Journal]
- In November, Maine residents will vote to uphold or repeal the state's gay marriage law. [Bangor Daily News]
The AP reports that Massachusetts filed suit in federal court over the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman and limits the rights of same sex married couples. The first state to legalize gay marriage, and the cornerstone of a five-state New England bloc of marriage equality, the Commonwealth argues that DOMA "constitutes an overreaching and discriminatory federal law." President Obama pledged during his campaign to repeal the law, and there's no word on his administration's reaction to the lawsuit.
Rhode Island is a nice, plucky state. Bostonist loves to have the Ocean State in our neighborhood. It beats having Florida's panhandle on the southern border. But, recent headlines emanating from Rhode Island have resulted in a resounding "HUH?" from this Bostonist. Rhode Island is having an identity crisis and it's time for an intervention.
On Tuesday, CNN reported that President Obama will extend "health care and other benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees" by signing a memorandum on Wednesday. As more states begin to recognize gay marriage, this could be seen as another reason for supporters of gay marriage to be optimistic that gay marriage will be allowed in any state. As Bostonist recently illustrated, attitudes on this issue still inspire heated exchanges and intense emotions. The President has recently been criticized by gay rights groups because his Justice Department supported the Defense of Marriage Act in court despite candidate Obama's pledge to try to repeal it. Obama has also not carried out his promise to drop the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
You know what’s annoying? Opening your daily Metro on the T only to find one of those giant Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons getting in the way of your sudoku. You know what’s tragic? Opening your daily Metro on the T only to find a steaming pile of bigoted anti-gay bullshit.
New Hampshire legalized gay marriage earlier today, becoming the sixth state in the union to do so and leaving Rhode Island as the only backwards New England state. It remains unclear whether New Hampshire is just doing this as another crazy libertarian protest of government intervention in our lives, but regardless of the reason, we're for it. And we hope Rhode Island gets on the gay marriage express soon.
Despite overwhelming House and Senate votes in favor of the it, Governor Jim Douglas is poised to veto Vermont's marriage equality bill. In the meantime, the Green Mountain State was beaten by freaking Iowa, which became the third state in the U.S. to allow everybody to marry the person whom they want to marry. The other two, of course, are Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Connecticut has joined Massachusetts, California, Belgium, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands, South Africa and Spain as a part of the world where gay people share the same right to marry their lovers that straight people have. In a 4-3 ruling, the Connecticut Supreme Court overturned the state's law prohibiting same-sex marriage today. Welcome to the club, Nutmeggers. [Globe]
1913 MARRIAGE LAW REPEALED At noon today, Governor Patrick made official the repeal of the 1913 law that bars out of state couples from marrying in the Commonwealth. Originally drafted in response to interracial marriage, proponents of the law claimed that the issue was one of states' rights and that a repeal would be a way for liberal Massachusetts to export gay marriage to the rest of the country. Whether we will become the "Las Vegas of gay marriage" as some have foretold remains to be seen; keep an eye out for an influx of particularly flamboyant Elvises to the Commonwealth.
The House of Representatives has voted 118-35 to strike down the state's 1913 law that prevents people from getting married here if they couldn't legally get married in their home state. Originally passed as a way of preventing uppity interracial couples from coming here for a quickie wedding, it looked like one of those quaint and ridiculous "no putting squirrels down your pants for the purpose of gambling" laws. Until it became relevant again, when Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex marriage. Now, gay couples from Alaska to Arkansas can come here, get legally married, and then go home and try to get their own states to recognize it. Critics like former Governor Mitt Romney say this will turn Massachusetts into the "Las Vegas of gay marriage"; proponents, seeing how much moolah flows in and out of Vegas (mostly in) on a daily basis, wonder why exactly that's a bad thing. The repeal now needs to be signed by Gov. Patrick, but he seems enthusiastic about doing so.
As any Massachusetts resident well knows, former governor and Republican presidential aspirant Mitt Romney can transform himself overnight. One minute, he's the moderate governor of a liberal state. The next, he's a staunch conservative who claims that he somehow tamed the residents of that state.
--When word got out that Mayor Menino wanted to bring in a petting zoo to revitalize Downtown Crossing, we thought it was a joke. But it turns out that the barnyard animals are at the crossing on weekends outside Filene's Basement. Animal activists are underwhelmed, and how can looking at sad, cold animals inspire people to shop? [Boston Herald] --Wondering what all the screaming was about early yesterday evening at Downtown Crossing? It didn't...
Former Massachusetts governor and current presidential aspirant Mitt Romney is probably off somewhere kicking himself right now. One of his biggest supporters, Senator Larry Craig, a Republican from Idaho, allegedly engaged in "lewd conduct in a men's room" at the Minneapolis airport. We'll let you use your own imagination - just see our past post about individuals who are "Lewd at Logan." On paper, Craig was an ideal match for Romney in the nonsexual sense....
--Lowe's Home Improvement stores have been getting a heap of negative publicity. First, their banner on the Boston Globe website's home page obscured the big news that legislators voted down the gay marriage ban. (See Adam and Spatch's appropriate sarcasm regarding these obtrusive Internet ads.) But it gets worse. The Lowe's brass is probably cringing at the news that a shootout erupted at the Danvers Lowe's last night. Imagine, you're at Lowe's, you're picking up...
Protestors on Beacon Hill voiced their opposition to a great many things today—gay marriage, a proposed (and soon defeated) ballot question on gay marriage, Nazism, and even specific sexual positions:...
Lawmakers voted down the proposal to add a measure to ban gay marriage on the 2008 ballot. The vote was 45 for adding the ban to the ballot and 151 against. WBZ has also posted the roll call vote so you can find out who to send a thank-you card. Or a nastygram, depending on the case. Now that Pride has wrapped up, it couldn't have happened at a better time. A whole lot...