Marriage equality update

Compiled from AP dispatches.

OREGON: Gov. Kitzhaber signs gay marriage petition 

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Gov. John Kitzhaber and former Gov. Barbara Roberts attended a Valentine's Day kick-off event for a campaign to reverse Oregon's voter-approved ban on gay marriage, a spokesman said.

Both signed a sponsorship petition for the effort, said Kitzhaber spokesman Tim Raphael.

Basic Rights Oregon, the state's leading gay-rights group, formed a campaign organization to get a constitutional amendment on the November 2014 ballot. For a measure to reverse the gay-marriage ban, the group first needs to collect 1,000 valid sponsorship signatures.

Basic Rights Oregon spokeswoman Amy Ruiz said the group sponsored 14 events Wednesday night and Thursday across Oregon.

"I'm fairly confident we have met our 1,000-signature mark and probably have much more than that," she said late Thursday. "We believe we have met our goal."

The Portland event drew more than 700 people, she estimated.

To qualify for the November 2014 ballot, supporters will need 116,284 signatures.

Oregon voters in 2004 approved a ban on gay marriage 57 percent to 43 percent. Basic Rights Oregon contends that since then, approval of gay marriage in other states and vocal public support from President Barack Obama have helped shift momentum.

Roberts, Oregon's only female governor, said, "As more and more people come to understand that committed couples, whether they are gay or straight, hope to marry for similar reasons, they're coming to realize that this is much more than a political issue."

"This is about love, commitment and family," she said in a prepared statement.

But the Oregon Family Council said it has been preparing to oppose such a measure and both sides would have a difficult fight.

A 2007 Oregon law allows same-sex couples to register a domestic partnership that provides the same rights as marriage under state law. Last year, Oregon had 558 domestic partnerships through October, according to the Oregon Health Authority, which tracks vital statistics.

Basic Rights Oregon decided against seeking a same-sex marriage initiative in the 2012 election, saying at the time that it wasn't clear the effort could win.

OHIO: Obama player joins same-sex marriage effort 

CLEVELAND (AP) — A key player in President Barack Obama's re-election campaign in Ohio has joined the effort to overturn the state's 2004 ban on same-sex marriage.

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer (http://bit.ly/XJriGb ) reports that Greg Schulz has joined the executive committee of FreedomOhio, a group seeking a reversal of the ban.

Schulz previously served as state director of Obama for America in Ohio.

He told the newspaper a petition drive that began last year could place a constitutional amendment on the ballot later this year or in 2014. The measure seeks to overturn the 2004 constitutional amendment that banned gay marriage. It was supported by 62 percent of Ohio voters at the time.

The FreedomOhio amendment would not require churches and other religious institutions to perform or recognize a marriage.

ALASKA: House GOP leaders apologize for laughter 

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Leaders of the Alaska House apologized Monday for the laughter that erupted from some caucus members when asked about same-sex partnerships.

During a news conference Friday to outline the caucus' guiding principles, members were asked if they supported domestic partnerships or civil unions for same-sex couples. That drew scattered laughter.

Some websites and blogs cast this as majority members laughing off or laughing at the idea of civil unions.

In a statement Monday, House Majority Leader Lance Pruitt, R-Anchorage, and House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, called the reaction inappropriate.

Chenault said it is clear "from the totality of the response and circumstances the laughter was in reaction to which legislator had to field the difficult question, and did not go to the merits of the issue. Regardless, laughter was not appropriate and for that we sincerely apologize."

Pruitt said it was a serious question and issue, just not something the caucus had taken a position on.

The GOP-led caucus identified its guiding principles as affordable energy, building a strong economy, fiscal responsibility, education reform and workforce development and healthy communities.

Pruitt said Friday that the issue of same-sex partnerships did not come up during discussion of the principles. He said the GOP-led caucus focused on things that allow people to "have a great life," including issues related to the economy and opportunities for Alaskans. He said there was not a discussion on "what happens inside your home."

GERMANY: court strengthens gay adoption rights 

GEIR MOULSON,Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's highest court strengthened gay couples' adoption rights in a ruling Tuesday that the country's justice minister greeted as "a historic step."

The Federal Constitutional Court ruled that one member of a civil partnership should be able to adopt the partner's stepchild or adopted child. Until now, they could only adopt a partner's biological child.

Germany has allowed same-sex couples to register civil partnerships that legally fall short of formal marriage since 2001. Unlike many other European countries, including Spain, the Netherlands and, most recently, France and Britain, it hasn't moved toward allowing full gay marriage.

The court ruled on a challenge to the existing rules from a woman who was denied permission to adopt a Bulgarian girl whom her partner had adopted. It ordered the government to draw up new legislation by June 2014.

It said the German constitutional provision that "marriage and the family shall enjoy the special protection of the state," cannot be used to justify ruling out same-sex partners adopting the other partner's adopted child.

"In marriage as in a civil partnership, adoption provides the child in the same way with legal security and material advantages in terms of care, support and inheritance law," presiding judge, Ferdinand Kirchhof, said.

Though the ruling means that same-sex couples can now adopt the same child on an individual basis, they still cannot adopt children together as a couple. Germany's main gay rights group called for that to be changed after the ruling.

In a separate case, the court is considering whether gay partnerships should be granted the tax breaks given to married couples; it's unclear when a ruling will come.

"Today's decision marks a historic step finally to put rainbow families in Germany on a comprehensive, secure legal footing," Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said. "Full adoption must be the next step."

The minister is a member of the Free Democrats, the socially liberal junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition.

Many members of Merkel's conservative Union bloc, however, are more skeptical about gay marriage and adoption. Conservative lawmaker Andrea Vosshoff said Tuesday's ruling was "justifiable" but that it was still right not to allow gay couples to adopt a child who is entering an entirely new family environment.

Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the government views the ruling "with great respect" and will now consider how to comply with it.

In a separate decision Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against neighboring Austria's decision to deny a lesbian woman the right to adopt her longtime partner's son.

The court in Strasbourg, France, found there was no persuasive reason to treat the couple differently from an unmarried heterosexual couple in the boy's adoption.

Under Austrian law, allowing the woman to adopt the boy would have severed his mother's parental rights, based on a 2006 Austrian ruling that the term "parents" was intended to mean two people of different sex.

Tuesday's ruling acknowledged that European law on adoption by same-sex couples is in flux, but found that Austria had discriminated against the couple. It ordered the government to pay more than €38,000 ($50,000) in damages.

UNITED STATES: Gay marriage support has risks for GOP lawmakers 

PATRICK CONDON, Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — As more state legislatures around the country consider whether to legalize same-sex weddings, an analysis of gay marriage votes in eight states shows that Republican lawmakers who backed it often faced consequences — including loss of their seats.

According to roll call votes analyzed by The Associated Press, in the eight times nationwide that state legislatures voted for gay marriage, just 47 Republicans bucked the party line out of many hundreds who voted against it.

A vote to allow gay marriage in Minnesota has recently grown more likely in its Legislature, and could come as early as this spring. In Illinois, the state Senate voted 34-21 on Thursday to legalize gay marriage, sending the measure on to the state House. In Rhode Island, a gay marriage bill passed last month by the House awaits a Senate vote. Similar pushes could surface soon in Delaware, Hawaii and New Jersey.

In Minnesota, majority Democrats don't necessarily need Republican votes to pass gay marriage. But a bipartisan effort would improve its chances, because some Democrats from rural areas are nervous about how a vote for gay marriage might be received by their socially conservative constituents. Democratic leaders are also leery of a party-line vote for gay marriage, after years of accusing Republicans of fixating on social issues at the expense of the state's economy.

Still, Republican lawmakers in Minnesota and elsewhere who are inclined to back gay marriage face clear risks.

"It was largely responsible for my loss," said Jean White, a former Republican state senator in Colorado whose 2011 vote for civil unions became an issue in a primary challenge by a fellow Republican. In that contest, a Virginia-based conservative group mailed flyers that showed two men kissing and the title: "State Senator Jean White's Idea of 'Family Values?'"

Of the 47 Republican legislators nationwide who voted yes starting in 2009, only 21 are in office today. In New York, only one of four Republican senators who supported gay marriage is still in the Legislature. One lost a primary, one retired and one lost the general election after narrowly winning a bitter primary. A New Hampshire Republican representative lost a primary after her 2009 vote for gay marriage, and in Maryland the former Senate Republican leader relinquished his leadership post when he started working with Democrats on a gay marriage bill that passed last year.

"I got a lot of flak, a lot," said that senator, Allan Kittleman. He's planning to leave the Senate this year to run for a county office instead. In Illinois, only one Republican senator out of 19 voted for gay marriageThursday.

In Washington, which passed gay marriage in 2012, two of six Republicans who backed the bill are no longer in office.

"One of my colleagues swore at me on the floor of the Senate during the vote," said Cheryl Pflug, a former Washington senator. "It was very difficult. It was kind of like an Amish shunning."

Several Republicans who voted yes said they're still secure in their personal conviction. White, the former Colorado senator, said two of her brothers have gay children. Pflug said she got to know gay colleagues at the Capitol and learned their lives were little different than hers. Kittleman cited his own father, a state senator in the 1960s who was a Republican trailblazer on civil rights for blacks.

Such dilemmas now loom for Minnesota Republican lawmakers. Legal gay marriage, until recently a longshot in Minnesota, has grown more likely in recent weeks. Gov. Mark Dayton is a vocal supporter, and Democratic legislative leaders have said they wouldn't block the bill. A crowd of more than a thousand pro-gay marriageactivists gathered at the Capitol in St. Paul on Thursday for a rally, with Democratic lawmakers and religious leaders arguing that last fall's defeat of the gay marriage ban cleared the path to legalize it. No GOP lawmakers were at the rally.

Minnesota's Legislature has 29 Republican lawmakers who represent House or Senate districts that voted against the proposed gay marriage ban. Many are reluctant to say how they might vote on legalizing it, including Jenifer Loon of socially moderate Eden Prairie, the second-ranking House Republican.

"I'm not drawing any lines in the sand," said Sen. Carla Nelson, a Republican whose Rochester district voted against the amendment.

Autumn Leva, spokeswoman for Minnesota for Marriage, the group fighting the bill, said she expected Republicans who stray would risk conservative primary challengers backed by national groups opposed togay marriage.

Pflug argued that the party's rigid stance on the issue is costing it votes from young people, suburban women and other demographics.

"I think a lot of conservative elected Republicans are going to go down with the ship on this one," Pflug said. "I think the Republican Party is at a crossroads."