This makes Washington the seventh state to grant gay couples the right to get married.
South Africa will become the fifth country in the world to grant gay couples both the status and attendant rights of a heterosexual marriage.
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He dismisses the idea that gay couples could be granted rights equal to marriage under the rubric of something other than marriage, such as a civil union.
Christine Quinn, the city's first openly gay City Council speaker, marched along with Edie Windsor, whose pivotal case to win the same rights for gay couples as heterosexual couples is before the Supreme Court.
The ruling will give gay couples in "stable" partnerships the same financial and social rights enjoyed by those in heterosexual relationships.
Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for the gay and lesbian couples, told the court that it turned out the Massachusetts justices were right.
In those states, the legislature or the courts extended the right to gay and lesbian couples whereas Maine put the issue on the ballot to let residents decide.
This legislation would uphold the principle that the federal government should not deny gay and lesbian couples the same rights and legal protections as straight couples.
"California's interests in protecting all of its children are best served by allowing these same-sex couples to enjoy the same benefits of marriage as opposite-sex couples, " state Attorney General Kamala Harris said of the estimated 50, 000 youngsters being raised by gay and lesbian couples in the state.
Andrew Pugno, general counsel for ProtectMarriage.com, which is defending the ban in the trial, argues that California's domestic-partnership laws afford gay couples here the economic benefits of marriage.
In 1999 she said she supported the adoption of children by gay couples, although she did not go so far as to advocate a change in the law.
Justice Sotomayor asked why California had an interest in denying gay couples the right to marry.
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He told reporters he'd spoken at two of these churches about the court ruling favoring gay couples.
Sweden joins Denmark, Iceland and the Netherlands in allowing gay couples adoption rights.
Mike Gravel and Congressman Dennis Kucinich, of Ohio, had a big advantage with the studio audience, because they are the only candidates who believe that gay and lesbian couples should have the right to marry.
Myriad cases have come before the courts concerning not just counselling or civil partnerships but such issues as the placing of children for adoption by same-sex parents and the turning away of gay couples from guesthouses.
In Massachusetts today, gay and lesbian couples are celebrating the third anniversary of gay marriage.
One of the problems with that is a 2004 Congressional study that gay married couples, in the aggregate, will end up paying more income taxes if Section 3 of DOMA goes away.
Texas (2003), Kennedy sided with the liberal justices in ruling that a Texas law banning certain types of sexual activity by gay couples which were completely legal for straight couples violated the equal protection clause and, therefore, was unconstitutional.
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Six states and the District of Columbia allow gay couples to legally marry.
However, the draft legislation leaves out measures Obama has promoted on his own, including the recognition of gay and lesbian couples.
The Court is not likely to rule on the bigger issue of whether gay couples have a constitutional right to marry.
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Now the church as a whole seems about to crack apart over a decision to bless the unions of gay and lesbian couples.
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They also warn the numbers may be slippery because it's hard to estimate how many gay couples would marry here if the ban were overturned.
The ruling takes effect in 30 days, at which point gay couples can go to city halls across the state and get married.
But the year that gay marriage became legal in Massachusetts, the number of couples getting civil unions in Vermont dropped by half.
The economists' testimony was used to argue that Proposition 8 hurts not only gay couples and their children, but the economy and government coffers, too.
The report quotes a 2011 public performance survey in which 53% of respondents agreed that gay or lesbian couples should have the right to marry.
Known in France as the PACS (pacte civil de solidarite), the civil union agreement can be entered into by gay or straight couples and confers many but not all of the rights of marriage.
Because same-sex marriages aren't recognized on the federal level, gay and lesbian couples are not eligible for Social Security spousal benefits.
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