Civil Unions in FranceThere was an interesting article just a couple of weeks ago in the NY Times, In France, Civil Unions Gain Favor Over Marriage, which talked about the overwhelming number of straight couples opting out of marriage and utilizing the partnership arrangement which had been created primarily for same-sex couples.

Some are divorced and disenchanted with marriage; others are young couples ideologically opposed to marriage, but eager to lighten their tax burdens. Many are lovers not quite ready for old-fashioned matrimony.
Whatever their reasons, and they vary widely, French couples are increasingly shunning traditional marriages and opting instead for civil unions, to the point that there are now two civil unions for every three marriages.

Of the 173,045 civil unions signed in 2009, 95 percent were between heterosexual couples. Even the Catholic Church has backed off its initial opposition to the unions as a threat to traditional marriage.

Considering why my great-grandparents left Irelandthe irony of the reasons I may end up saying “screw it” and go back is physically painful.

The best moment of the Civil Partnership debateMichael D Higgins…one of my heroes!

Thanks for the link.I’m amazed that this is the first I’m learning about this.  I’ve been hearing for years about civil unions in France, but now I see, as I took for granted in each instance, that everybody who I’ve read posting about it on the Internet got their facts wrong (imagine!).
They have it half-right in France: it’s great that civil unions are open to everybody but it’s not the least bit okay that marriage isn’t.  It’s even hypocritical/illegal by their own laws.  I’d be fine with a national civil union system in the States, as long as it and marriage were available equally.
I don’t believe that will ever happen here, though, so simple marriage equality is the way to go.

Fantastic!Thank heavens for YouTube because it is necessary from time to time to see that we’re not entirely alone, that there are true, passionate, equality-minded legislators dedicated the pursuit of justice.  And they’re not afraid of quoting King or of naming piles of rubbish when they see it.

A note on Equal LoveI initially linked in error to an Australian organization called Equal Love.  However, the Equal Love campaign for marriage equality in the UK is a project of OutRage!  The links have been fixed.
Check out the Equal Love campaign on Facebook.

Michael D is a moral titan in an assembly of miserable leprechauns.I am friends with several members of this marvellous man’s family and with the man himself and he is the wisest, most upright and the kindest man I have ever known in politics. Imagine a government composed of people like this, instead of the corrupted dregs of humanity we have suffered with so far, who have bankrupted our nation and sold the remnants in a yard sale to unelected external economic powers. How DARE they style themselves ‘the Republican Party’. This is a true Irish Republican! This is what patriotism looks like.

Apparently, no relationship of a civil partner to her partner’s children is recognized in this bill.I wonder how this compares to civil union arrangements in other EU countries.

Civil unions, absent the full benefits and rights of civil marriages, are a form of second class citizenship.Civil unions, far from being ‘great news’ are nothing to write home about. Most often they’re a sop and act as roadblock to further progress. That’s clearly demonstrated in this case. Ahern, who proposed the bill, is a notorious right wing insect who tried to add the crime of ‘blasphemy’ to the statute books to stifle the rising tide of criticism of rapist priests who infest the Republic.  He’s a strikebreaker and opposed to immigrant rights.
It’s clear that Ahern,  a tool of the priestly class, meant this bill to derail the movement for same sex marriage, just as Obama and Clinton do in this country.

“During the debate on decriminalisation of Homosexuality in the Dáil in 1993, he agreed with a statement by Fine Gael TD, Brendan McGahon which reads: “Homosexuality is a departure from normality and while homosexuals deserve our compassion they do not deserve our tolerance” and who described homosexuals as being “like lefthand drivers driving on the right-hand side of the road.”
Ahern himself added: “Will we eventually see the day in this country when, as has happened in the USA, homosexuals will seek the right to adopt children? We should think seriously about this possibility”.wiki

The most important thing this demonstrates is the further erosion of the once formidable roman cult of rapist priests in Ireland.
Secondly it demonstrates the unsuitability of right wing parties like Fianna Fáil, Ahern’s party and Fine Gael to rule. They’re both as bankrupt as the Democrats and Republicans in the US. Both Irish Labour and Sinn Féin have come out for same sex marriage.

“Sinn Féin Equality Spokesperson Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD has said legislation covering civil partnerships should not be a substitute for the rights of gay and lesbian couples to marry and adopt children.”

yeah, like the all or nothing approach would have worked. right.you say

Civil unions, far from being ‘great news’ are nothing to write home about. Most often they’re a sop and act as roadblock to further progress.

when the last 10 years of American history prove otherwise.  civil unions are a stepping stone in places not willing to take the full leap all at once (see vermont, connecticut, new hampshire).  just because you (and I) think the full leap should be taken everywhere immediately doesn’t mean we have the power to make it happen.  i’m damn happy to have my domestic partnership because although it is a 2nd class insult, it also provides us real and necessary legal protections at a time when my state is not prepared to roll back state doma.  this is reality living in a referendum state, not a sop.  or rather, it is a sop to reality.  

You accept crumbs. You think crumbs are good news. I don’t. We’ll starve if all we get is crumbs. I agree with Desmond Tutu:

“I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.”

Civil partnerships and civil unions are just the Democrats way of stalling same sex marriage. Wake up and smell the crumbs, Lurleen. If Obama and Clinton like it then it can’t be any damn good. That should be clue number one.  

You accept crumbs. You think crumbs are good news. I don’t. We’ll starve if all we get is crumbs. I agree with Desmond Tutu:

“I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.”

Civil partnerships and civil unions are just the Democrats way of stalling same sex marriage. Wake up and smell the crumbs, Lurleen. If Obama and Clinton like it then it can’t be any damn good. That should be clue number one.  

Tell me donal1944, do you really think we could have fended off an anti-marriage referendumin Washington in 2007, when DPs were first instituted here?  If so, you are out of touch with the facts on the ground.  If you’re going to persist in alleging that the votes for full marriage equality exist in an legislature that only passes civil unions, and that a referendum repeal can always be thwarted, please lay out your evidence.  
All I see from you in diary after diary is spitting in the face of hard work and step-wise progress.  Time for your to put some meat on the bones of your arguments.  I challenge you to do it.  Who were the legislators in 2007 in WA who would have voted for marriage equality?  Who were the legislators in Ireland who would have voted this year for marriage equality?  I’m waiting.  Prove to us that we threw away equality.

Reliance on right wing and bigoted legislators – Democrats. Republicans and their Irish counterparts, Fianna Fáil, and Fine Gael – is part of the problem.
You ask “If you’re going to persist in alleging that the votes for full marriage equality exist in an legislature that only passes civil unions, and that a referendum repeal can always be thwarted, please lay out your evidence.” Tell me, Lurleen, where you found those ideas in my comments? I never said either.
Democrat and Republican politicians and their system are not subject to reform and are irretrievably corrupt. Both parties are willing tools or the evangelists and priests who make money defaming us. Democrat and Republican politicians are not our allies, they’re open enemies of GLBT equality.    
Perhaps your deep confusion flows from the error errors inherent in campaigning for second class citizenship. What you really see me doing is rejecting the idea of being a second class citizen or thinking that deliberately creating legislation that makes us second class citizens is somehow ‘good news’. It’s not, it’s a step backwards.
Our goal should not be to bend to their bigotry and fight for our own second class citizenship but to fight for real equality.
We won’t get real equality until a worker’s party forms a workers government. And that process is being speeded up by an economy circling the drain and by Democrats and Republicans who cannot and will not take real measures to end the current Depression.

we would already have a workers party if people wanted a workers party.I’m sorry you can’t see that getting civil unions is a step towards getting full equality.  Nobody is asking you to be satisfied and stop there.  While you spend your time and energies in the futile attempt to create a new party that most voters don’t want, I’m going to spend my time fighting on for full equality.
I’ve heard others promise that if we just installed this or that other system of government, all the anti-LGBT legal hurdles would vanish and we’d magically have our rights.  I ask you, how is this different than a Christian minster telling me that I’ll gain entry to Paradise if only I believe?  It sure looks the same to me.

Please back up your comment. You ask “If you’re going to persist in alleging that the votes for full marriage equality exist in an legislature that only passes civil unions, and that a referendum repeal can always be thwarted, please lay out your evidence.” Tell me, Lurleen, where you found those ideas in my comments? I never said either.
“It sure looks the same to me.” That’s because you’re confused. Socialists can’t be confused with christian cult leaders. For one thing, we’re against raping boys and girls.
The fight to get a workers party, as opposed to drowning oneself in the sewer of Democrat politics, is being speeded up by Bungles Obama and the idiots who run your party.
Democrats (with Republican help) voted for TARP and other giveaways to the rich.
Democrats (with Republican help) continue genocidal wars against the peoples of Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
They refuse to reinstate and strengthen Glass Steagal, the Depression Era laws that regulated banking and finance, which were abolished by Democrat Clinton and super majorities of both parties in Congress.
They refuse to eliminate unemployment by providing tens of trillions to green the economy and the infrastructure and . refusing to pay unemployment at trade union rates, similar to the pay of a teamster or railroad conductor with 20 years seniority.
They refuse to pass a bill creating a socialized medical system. In its stead they gave away additional trillions to medical insurance companies and big Pharma.
They gave the rich another tax break.
It sure looks the same to me.
Democrats (with Republican help)refuse to indict and jail tens of thousands of bankers and other predators who looted the real estate market like Democrat John Edwards, whose fortune was made by the company that foreclosed on Katrina victims. They refuse to indict and jail the Boards of Directors of BP and Haliburton and those managers implicated in the murder of oil rig workers on the Deepwater Horizon and the subsequent pollution of the GULF and the Board of Directors and managers of Massey Energy for the murder of 29 miners and the spoliation of the local environment.

I never said the Democrats have done no wrong.But they do sometimes do things right, especially at the state level where marriage law is established.  What do you have to say about the democratic-led legislatures of California, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont and democratic governors of ME, NH & ME (CA has an R governor) choosing to pass marriage equality laws without a judicial mandate to do so?
Yes I asked you to lay out your evidence that we could have had marriage equality just by demanding it, because that is the implication of your statement that we accepted crumbs in the form of domestic partnerships.  You imply that the main course or marriage equality was there for the demanding.  Well, prove it.  If your answer is that there is no way to demand this from dems because only a workers party will make it all better, then show me the roster of viable workers party legislative candidates from any year of your choosing, because I seem to not be able to find it.  No hurry, I’ll wait.  And wait.  And wait.

I wonder if this will happen in Illinoissince we have the same legal setup for CUs

Waiting for bigots to give us equality is, to put it mildly, unproductive. But that’s ok Lurleen. Just keep waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Again. Please back up your comment.
You say “If you’re going to persist in alleging that the votes for full marriage equality exist in an legislature that only passes civil unions, and that a referendum repeal can always be thwarted, please lay out your evidence.” Tell me, Lurleen, where you found those ideas in my comments? I never said either. Nothing I said even remotely implied that I hold those ideas.
People who promote the idea that second class citizenship is a victory are wrong. It’s a defeat, a sidelining of the goal of equality. Those whose perspective is limited to lobbying and electoral work often lack experience in building mass action movements and fall for the idea that their only option is to accept the crumbs offered by bigoted parties like the Democrats and Republicans.  
Those who invest their efforts in trying to reform bigots are wasting their time. The real choice is between mass action aimed at full equality, an end to empire building and economic democracy thru the vehicle of a workers government or bending to the bigots, the warmongers and the looter classes.
This is a banana republic. We won’t make fundamental or needed progress legislatively, incrementally or by dependence on bigots like Obama.
The California Supremes, led by, of all things, a Reagan appointee, granted same sex marriage under the equal rights provisions of the California Constitution. Much the same happened in Massachusetts and Iowa. Sometimes local legislatures bend to the will of the movement but not on fundamental questions and only if our movement has the weight to force the issue.
DADT and DOMA repeal will be welcome but the need for a tough, enforceable, inclusive ENDA is, without question, far and away the most important item on our agenda.  

even if you were able to make the changes to government structurethat you’re talking about, it wouldn’t guarantee that bigots would just magically go away.  there’s plenty of bigots in the rank and file.  overcoming the plutocracy won’t change that fact.
i come from the blue-collar state of michigan which also remains one of the most gay-hating states in the north.  i will never forget that a supermajority of voters voted me and mine off the island (passed constitutional anti-equality amendment) when they had the chance in 2004.  so don’t give us this crap about some mythical pro-equality government that would automatically happen with some kind of worker revolution, because i know workers and they’re not some magically angelic pool of people.  they’re a mixed bag like any other group and certainly not lacking in their fair share of bigots.

There will always be bigots until it becomes unprofitable and dangerous to be a bigot. The difference is how you approach them. Bend to them or fight them. I say fight.
You say “If you’re going to persist in alleging that the votes for full marriage equality exist in an legislature that only passes civil unions, and that a referendum repeal can always be thwarted, please lay out your evidence.” Tell me, Lurleen, where you found those ideas in my comments? I never said either. Nothing I said even remotely implied that I hold those ideas.  I’ve asked you several times because I want you to admit that I never made such ridiculous assertions.
It’s in the interests of working people to end bigotry, racism and misogyny. The opposite is true of the rich who own and run the Democrats and Republicans. Same sex marriage has always been centered on a defensive fight responding to the aggressive bigotry of the two right wing parties.
Bill Clintons federal DOMA followed by the Bush-Rove state DOMAs were aggressive attacks on our communities that have successfully blocked progress and ignored shifting legal and public opinions about marriage for 15 years.
There are no signs that the Democrats are willing to reverse themselves on this issue, in spite of the political wet dreams of naive political innocents. Inside the GLBT communities there are increasingly sharp divisions reflected in dozens of national and local groups where, with few exceptions, people with money and connections to the Democrats call the shots. These divisions reflect the broader polarization of society as reaction to the depression passes from shock to anger.
If accommodationist LGBT groups are allowed to draw up an agenda of compromise sidestepping the real fight at hand because of the inability of the LGBT left we’ll continue to be saddled with an agenda of defeat. That’s in spite of the vast changes in public attitudes and the militancy of the grassroots movement in response to Obama’s aggressive attack against retaining same sex marriage in California in 2008.  
Absent a national organization of grass roots activists with internal democracy, a mass action perspective and explicit independence from the two parties of bigotry, little progress will be made developing an agenda and a leadership that represents the goals of working class LGBT folks.