Free Republic

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- The Mayo Clinic says its Minnesota employees who are in same-sex domestic partnerships will have to get married if they want their partners to remain eligible for health insurance -- now that the state has legalized same-sex marriage. Mayo Clinic spokesman Bryan Anderson told the Rochester Post-Bulletin that the clinic hasn't yet determined the deadline for same-sex couples to get married. Same-sex marriages will be legal in Minnesota as of Thursday. "Mayo has long had a policy providing same-sex domestic partner benefits because those affected were not allowed to be married. That policy notes that marriage would...

Media Matters chief David Brock paid a former domestic partner $850,000 after being threatened with damaging information involving the organization’s donors and the IRS – a deal that Brock later characterized as a blackmail payment, according to legal documents obtained by FoxNews.com. In an acrimonious lawsuit settled at the end of last year, Brock accused William Grey of making repeated threats to expose him to the "scorn or ridicule of his employees, donors and the press in demanding money and property." Brock claimed in legal papers that he sold a Rehoboth Beach, Del., home he once shared with Grey in...

(Reader warning: rough language ahead!) What would happen if Sean Hannity, Dennis Miller, Dr. Keith Ablow, or a conservative barbeque salesman, for that matter, expressed on national television the desire to “F--- the sh-t out of” some powerful, prominent and accomplished liberal woman against her will? Or, in other words, rape said señorita? Do you think that would make the evening news? Do you think he would get fired from his job? Do you think that all conservatives far and wide would have to profusely apologize and go through sensitivity training for the next eight millennia? The answer to those...

Sunday, May 06, 2007 Oregon's war over gay marriage ended this week, not with a bang but a whimper. The Senate passed not a bill establishing homosexual marriage or civil unions but one establishing domestic partnerships -- a legal contract giving gay and lesbian couples some of the benefits of marriage. The bang came in 2004. Oregon voters rejected homosexual marriage and passed a constitutional amendment making plain that "marriage" here is between one man and one woman. The vote wasn't even close, despite the fierce opposition of the state's smart set. A full 57 percent voted to etch the...

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire signed into law Saturday a measure to create domestic partnerships, giving gay and lesbian couples some of the same rights that come with marriage. The law creates a domestic partnership registry and provides enhanced rights for same-sex couples, including hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations and inheritance rights when there is no will. "It offers the hope that one day, all lesbian and gay families will be treated truly equal under the law," said state Sen. Ed Murray, who is one of five openly gay lawmakers in the Legislature. To be...

Earlier this morning there was a debate on two ballot initiatives here in Colorado, the 'Domestic Partnerships', Referendum I and the 'Marriage Amendment', Amendment 43. Mike Rosen of 850am KOA radio here in Denver was host and moderator. Mike Rosen is FOR 'Amendment 43' and UNDECIDED on 'Referendum I'. Mike is not a social conservative. He is a fiscal conservative and pro-military. --- Before the debate I thought "Ref I" was going to allow same sex couples visitation rights at hospitals, ability to will death benefits and a few other "rights". It is WAY WAY beyond just that. It will...

There is a same-sex domestic partnership referendum on the Colorado ballot this year called Referendum I. It extends the legal benefits and responsibilities of marriage to registered same-sex domestic partners. Its supporters disingenously insist that domestic partnerships are in no way the same as marriage. The considerable moral concerns about legitimizing homosexual acts are excluded from the opposing arguments in the Colorado voters' Blue Book entry on the referendum. Observing the rampant amorality of our government and the collapse of substantive public ethical discussion, this exclusion is hardly surprising. Yet the Blue Book also neglects fiscal argument nearly as important....

1. Wealth Tax. Tax Rates and Credits. Initiative Statute.Imposes one-time 46% tax on persons with property worth more than $40 million as of January 1, 2006, and who were California residents for at least five years as of July 1, 2005. Adds 6% to income tax for high-income taxpayers. Reduces corporate income tax rate by more than half. 2. Casino-Style Gaming District. Requires State to purchase, through eminent domain, 25 to 50 square miles of undeveloped land in San Bernardino County for casino-style gaming.3. Public Preschool Education. Tax Increase on Incomes Over $400,000 for Individuals; $800,000 for Couples.Establishes right to...

SAN FRANCISCO - Despite a tradition of promoting gay rights, California has long had a conflicted approach to same-sex marriage and it's one that is expected to become even more pronounced in the months ahead thanks to a pair of overlapping voter initiatives. Fearing that courts ultimately will support the rights of gays to marry, opponents want to place before voters an initiative to amend the state Constitution so only heterosexual unions would be valid. But in typical California fashion, the initiative drive for 2006 already has grown contentious and confusing.A rare rift among conservatives has led competing groups to...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Gays and lesbians won a major legal victory Wednesday when the California Supreme Court let stand a new law granting registered domestic partners many of the same rights and protections of heterosexual marriage. Without comment, the unanimous justices upheld appellate and trial court rulings that the sweeping measure does not conflict with a voter-approved initiative defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Justice Janice Rogers Brown, who leaves Thursday to join the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, did not vote. The domestic partner law, which was signed in...

Local officials say they won’t — or can’t — follow San Francisco’s lead More than 3,200 couples have been married in San Francisco since Mayor Gavin Newsom instructed city clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples two weeks ago. While local officials around the country, including Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley, have expressed tentative support for the idea of issuing gay marriage licenses, officials in the Washington area say they have no plans to take Newsom’s approach. Tony Bullock, communications director to District Mayor Anthony Williams, said that his office will not follow San Francisco’s lead and begin issuing same-sex...

McGreevey Statement on the Passage of the Domestic Partnership Act (TRENTON) -- Governor James E. McGreevey issued the following statement today regarding the passage of the Domestic Partnership Act: I want to commend the New Jersey State Senate for their swift action on the Domestic Partnership Act. I would also like to thank the sponsors of the Act: Loretta Weinberg, Bonnie Watson Coleman, John McKeon, Joseph Roberts, and Anthony Impreveduto for all of their effort and hard work. The time has finally come when we can guarantee individuals, who have entered into an enduring, committed relationship, the basic civil rights...