Celebrating 41 Years! Issue 33 Volume 42
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Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
No delay of Virginia marriages, 4th Circuit says AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR EQUAL RIGHTS
Timothy Bostic and Tony London
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for Gay and Lesbian couples to begin marrying in Virginia with a short August 13
ruling denying a request for a stay in the case of Bostic v. Rainey. Marriages could begin on August 18. Previously, on July 28, the Fourth Circuit upheld a lower court decision striking down Vir-
ginia’s ban on same-sex marriages. That decision by a three-judge panel was 2-1 in favor of marriage equality, and the same 2-1 majority voted to deny the stay. Prince William County Clerk Michèle McQuigg had asked the
appellate court to stay their ruling while she seeks U.S. Supreme Court review of the case. The ACLU and Lambda Legal opposed the stay on behalf of approximately 14,000 Virginia samesex couples. McQuigg may still ask the Supreme Court to stay the Fourth Circuit ruling. “We hope that the Supreme Court will leave this ruling in place, so that same-sex couples may begin marrying right away,” said Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, Executive Director of the ACLU of Virginia. “Our clients have already waited far too long to exercise their constitutional right to marry, or to have their marriages from other states recognized.” While McQuigg has petitioned the Supreme Court to review the Fourth Circuit’s decision on marriage, the high court is not obligated to take the case. In fact there are questions whether McQuigg has standing to pursue an appeal. Virginia’s chief law enforcement officers, Governor Terry McAuliffe and Attorney General Mark Herring, support marriage equality and did not defend the discrimina-
tory state law. In fact McAuliffe declared himself “overjoyed” by the Fourth Circuit decision. Equality supporters say McQuigg is only charged with administrative tasks related to marriage – issuing licenses to qualified couples – and not law enforcement, and therefore does not have standing to appear in court on behalf of Virginia’s marriage laws. Attorney General Herring filed her petition for a stay with the Fourth Circuit in order to get them to make an authoritative ruling on when marriages may begin. A second federal suit challenging Virginia marriage law, Harris v. Rainey, is also pending, but the process was stayed by the trial judge until the Fourth Circuit disposed of the Bostic case. As a result of the Fourth Circuit’s July 28 decision, the state of North Carolina, which is also under the Fourth Circuit’s jurisdiction, dropped the defense of its own discriminatory marriage laws. A March 2014 Quinnipiac poll found that 50% of Virginians support same-sex marriage while 42% oppose it.
American Bar Association As Catholic Church firings continue, endorses LGBT rights Catholics are speaking out against them Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune
The American Bar Associa- tion under the law of all LGBT people; tion’s annual convention unaniFURTHER RESOLVED, That mously passed the following reso- the American Bar Association lution on August 12: urges other bar associations and attorneys in jurisdictions where RESOLVED, That the American there are such discriminatory Bar Association recognizes that les- laws or incidents of targeting of bian, gay, bisexual and transgender LGBT people to work to defend (LGBT) people have a human right victims of anti-LGBT discrimito be free from discrimination, nation or conduct, and to recogthreats and violence based on their nize and support their colleagues LGBT status and condemns all laws, who take these cases as human regulations and rules or practices rights advocates; and that discriminate on the basis that an individual is a LGBT person; FURTHER RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urgFURTHER RESOLVED, That es the United States Government, the American Bar Association urges through bilateral and multilateral the governments of countries where channels, to work to end discrimisuch discriminatory laws, regula- nation against LGBT people and tions, and practices exist to repeal to ensure that the rights of LGBT them with all deliberate speed and people receive equal protection ensure the safety and equal protec- under the law.
Colin Collette
by Shaun Knittel SGN Associate Editor Last December I found myself surrounded by a tremendous amount of high school students – turned activists – and they just so happened to be Catholic. I know. Crazy, right? Well, not so much anymore. The students, who attended Eastside Catholic and Holy Names (there were more) numbered in the hundreds and I led
them in a chant outside of Seattle’s Archdiocese’ office, “CHANGE THE CHURCH!” The students were angry, as were a whole heck of a lot of parents and alumni, that Mark Zmuda, the school’s vice principal, was forced to leave his job because the Church found out he had legally married a man earlier that summer. Allegedly, the Archbishop ordered the firing, but the nun who was in charge said that wasn’t the case and, well,
to this day, nobody is really sure exactly why or how it went down. The point is though, that the students – the future leadership and membership of the Church – had had enough and wanted to do something about it. And we are starting to see this happen again and again around the rest of the country. [NOTE: Mark Zmuda has since see Catholics page 13