Wyoming House Rejects Domestic Partnership Bill in 35-24 Vote

The first pro-gay legislation that has reached Wyoming's House floor for debate was defeated Wednesday as the House voted 35-24 to reject a domestic partnership bill that would have given same-sex couples in the state the opportunity to gain most of the legal rights of marriage,

The Billings Gazette reports:

Opponents warned that the bill threatened to open the state to legal action seeking to force it to approve same-sex marriage.

Rep. Mark Baker, R-Rock Springs, spoke against the measure, saying: "We all know that this is about same-sex marriage and civil unions." Baker also contended gays and lesbians have particular health issues, and said approving the bill would increase health care costs.

"The fact of the matter is that this is something that's pushed on us to be politically correct. 'Let's be the Equality State,'" Baker said, mimicking bill supporters. "The fact of the matter is that there are disastrous consequences to this bill."

Jason Marsden, director of the Denver-based Matthew Shepard Foundation, said the vote was disappointing. He said the bill had offered the Legislature a chance to sidestep the issues of religion, marriage and social tradition while still recognizing that there are thousands of gay people in the state. "These families are going to live and grow up and die in the absence of meaningful legal protection for their families," Marsden said.

Wyoming House Panel Rejects Marriage Equality Bill in 5-4 Vote, but Advances Domestic Partnership Bill

The Wyoming House Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Committee rejected HB169, a marriage equality bill, in a 5-4 vote, before advancing HB 168, a domestic partnership bill, to the full House in a 7-2 vote this afternoon.

An update from Wyoming Equality:

The law, which was authored by Representative Cathy Connolly, would provide essential protections to LGBT families. The Domestic Partnerships Rights and Responsibilities Act (HB168) would ensure that both opposite-sex and same-sex couples have basic legal protections, such as the ability to make emergency medical decisions for each other and to make joint decisions about their children’s health and wellbeing.

"This is a historic day for equality," said Jeran Artery, the Chair of Wyoming Equality. "Today marks the first time a bill has moved forward in the Wyoming legislature which would provide essential protections for LGBT families."

Mr. Artery provided testimony to the committee, explaining that the laws would not only protect his partner and his teenage daughter, but all families across the state. "We know that there are LGBT people living in nearly every county across the state, and many of those people are raising families. All families deserve to live safely and securely without fear that basic decisions about their loved ones will not be honored. We know there is still a lot of work to do, but we applaud the actions of this committee and are committed to working with our lawmakers to ensure that legal protections are extended to all families throughout Wyoming."

HB168 will now move to the full House of Representatives as early as tomorrow.

Here's the bill.

News: Cooper As Armstrong, Palin's Media Future, 78, Body Image

Simply revolted over the idea of two men marrying, an Episcopal priest has decided to stop having sex with his wife in order to become a Catholic priest.

President Obama thanks Hillary Clinton during a joint interview that will air on 60 Minutes tonight. He added, "It has been a great collaboration over the last four years. I'm going to miss her, wish she was sticking around, but she has logged in so many miles I can't begrudge her wanting to take it easy for a little bit."

Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton's Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters topped the box office this weekend, but was still considered a disappointment with only an $19 million domestic haul.

The tweet in which Darren Criss plays with his keyboard.

And of course we all know how to play the plastic recorder.

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How valuable is your DNA information? Not very, according to New Scientist: "Having your genome open to public scrutiny obviously raises privacy issues. Employers and insurers may be interested. Embarrassing family secrets may be exposed.But overall, personal genetic information is probably no more revealing than other sorts. In fact there are reasons to believe that it is less so: would an insurance company really go to the trouble of decoding a genome to discover a slightly elevated risk of cancer or Alzheimer's disease?"

After being booted from Fox News, Sarah Palin is optimistic about her future in media: "As far as long-term plans, the door is wide open... I know the country needs more truth-telling in the media, and I'm willing to do that. So, we shall see."

Bradley Cooper as Lance Armstrong in a JJ Abrams-directed biopic?

Beyonce lives it up.

The Republicans continue to lose their grip on the West.

Same-sex desire in the fur trade: "William Drummond Stewart, a member of the lower Scottish nobility and the subject of this biography, came primarily to hunt and to experience the wide-open freedom of the northern Great Plains and Rockies (think modern-day African safaris). Stewart’s story, however, and as the subtitle of this book implies, has a twist: He was an openly gay man at a time when being gay was to risk ignominious public punishment (including hanging in some areas of the British isles) and the certain ruination of reputation and fortune."

Is Wyoming thawing on gay issues: "It remains to be seen whether gay rights supporters in the overwhelmingly Republican Wyoming Legislature can pass measures that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, create civil unions or even gay marriage. So far, nine of the legislature's 78 Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors of the various bills. Eight of the Legislature's 12 Democrats are on board with at least one of the bills. Committee hearings on two of the bills were scheduled for Monday."

French sailor Francois Gabart only needed 78 days to go around the world.

On gay men and body image.

Wyoming Lawmakers to Consider Marriage Equality on Monday

Wyoming lawmakers will consider marriage equality legislation and other LGBT rights legislation this coming Monday.

From the National Center for Lesbian Rights:

NCLR is working hand in hand with our friends at Wyoming Equality, the Human Rights Campaign, and other supporters to pass the first-ever LGBT equality bills in Wyoming—The Equality State. Three bills—marriage equality, domestic partnership, and non-discrimination—have just been introduced, and the first committee votes are only days away.

At noon on Monday, January 28, the House Corporations Committee will hear testimony on the marriage equality and domestic partnership bills. If one or both pass committee, they will proceed to a vote by the entire House of Representatives a few days later. On Wednesday, Jan 30, at 8 a.m., the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear testimony on the non-discrimination bill.

NCLR urges Wyoming residents to TAKE ACTION NOW and have provided contact information for lawmakers HERE.

As I noted last week, the legislation has bipartisan support.

Read more HERE.

Marriage Equality Bill Introduced in Wyoming has Bipartisan Support

Marriage equality in Wyoming? Could it happen?

Perhaps:

The Jackson Hole Daily reports on a pair of bills that have been introduced with bipartisan support, backed by Jackson Republican Rep. Keith Gingery (pictured) and Laramie Democratic Rep. Cathy Connolly:

House Bill 169 would change the state’s definition of marriage to say that marriage is a civil contract between “two natural persons.” Current law says that marriage is a contract between “a male and a female person.”

This piece of legislation would plug gay marriage into the state’s existing framework for marriage, Gingery said. It simply would open the rights afforded to heterosexual couples to gay couples as well.

“Legally speaking, I would prefer the gay marriage bill,” he said. “We already know how it works.”

House Bill 168, which Connolly filed Monday, would create a legal framework for domestic partnerships, allowing same-sex couples to “obtain the rights, responsibilities, protections and legal benefits provided in Wyoming for immediate family members.”

The law would consider a member of a domestic partnership to be a spouse under all state rules and laws.

Gingery is a Catholic and says the bills protect church policy.

The paper adds:

The dual approach already has won the backing of Reps. Ruth Ann Petroff, R-Jackson, and Gingery. Both Teton County lawmakers said they would prefer to see gay marriage allowed in Wyoming but are willing to debate whether civil unions might be a better way to go.

“It’s a basic human rights and fairness issue,” Petroff said Monday. “It’s a basic constitutional issue. There should just be no reason why same-sex couples shouldn’t have the same rights as everyone else.”

Gingery is the chairman of the judiciary committee, which will be the first to debate the bills. He said the issue poses a legal problem that state officials need to resolve. “The population of gay couples in the state is increasing, and the law is not very clear about what rights they have,” he said.

Wyoming Supreme Court Grants Divorce to Same-Sex Couple

The Wyoming Supreme Court yesterday unanimously overturned a lower court ruling and granted a divorce to a same-sex couple legally married in Canada, the Casper Star-Tribune reports:

District Judge Keith Kautz of Niobrara County earlier dismissed the 2010 divorce petition of Paula Christiansen against Victoria Lee Christiansen for lack of jurisdiction.

The women were legally married in Canada in 2008.

The Supreme Court opinion, written by Justice Michael Golden, made clear the court's decision only addressed the divorce issue.

"Nothing in this opinion should be taken as applying to the recognition of same-sex marriages legally solemnized in a foreign jurisdiction in any context other than divorce," Golden wrote in a footnote. "The question of recognition of such same-sex marriages for any other reason, being not properly before us, is left for another day."

Igor Volsky at Think Progress, writes:

"The opinion lays out three different types of marriages: legal marriages between a man and a woman that are recognized by the state of Wyoming, marriages that the state does not recognize but are common in other states (like common law marriages) and a third very low form of marriage that is “deemed contrary to the law of nature.” Significantly, the Court found that same-sex marriage fit into the second category and likened them to common law marriages which, while not recognized by the state, can be dissolved within it."

Read the opinion HERE.