Utah Gay Marriage Can Continue, Federal Judge Rules

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BY BRADY McCOMBS & PAUL FOY, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal judge said Monday he will allow gay marriage in Utah to continue, denying a request from the state to halt same-sex weddings until the appeals process plays out.

U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby's decision came three days after he overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriage, ruling it is unconstitutional. Utah lawyers are expected to ask a higher court to put the process on hold.

The county clerk in Salt Lake City immediately began issuing licenses after Shelby's ruling Friday, and hundreds more gay couples were lined up Monday to get married.

The ruling has drawn attention given Utah's long-standing opposition to gay marriage and its position as headquarters for the Mormon church.

Lawyers for the state waged a legal battle on several fronts as they sought to stop the same-sex weddings.

On Sunday, a federal appeals court rejected the state's emergency request to stay the ruling, saying it couldn't rule on a stay since Shelby had not yet acted on the motion before him. The court quickly rejected a second request from Utah on Monday.

Following Shelby's surprising ruling Friday afternoon, gay and lesbian couples rushed to a county clerk's office in Salt Lake City to get marriage licenses. More than 100 couples wed as others cheered them on in what became an impromptu celebration at an office building about 3 miles from the headquarters of the Mormon church.

About 25 couples lined up outside the clerk's office in Davis County on Monday morning. The first couple showed up around 6 a.m. and married immediately after receiving their license.

For now, a state considered one of the most conservative in the nation has joined the likes of California and New York to become the 18th state where same-sex couples can legally wed. Legal experts have said that even if a judge put a halt to the weddings, the licenses that already have been issued likely will still be valid.

Many Utah residents belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Mormons dominate the state's legal and political circles.

The Mormon church was one of the leading forces behind California's short-lived ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8, which voters approved in 2008. The church said Friday it stands by its support for "traditional marriage," and it hopes a higher court validates its belief that marriage is between a man and woman.

In Shelby's 53-page ruling, he said the constitutional amendment that Utah voters approved in 2004 violates gay and lesbian couples' rights to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment. Shelby said the state failed to show that allowing same-sex marriages would affect opposite-sex marriages in any way.

The decision drew a swift and angry reaction from Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, who said he was disappointed in an "activist federal judge attempting to override the will of the people of Utah." The state quickly took steps to appeal the ruling and halt the process, setting up Monday's hearing before Shelby.

The ruling has thrust Shelby into the national spotlight. He has been on the bench for less than two years, appointed by President Barack Obama after GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch recommended him in November 2011.

Shelby served in the Utah Army National Guard from 1988 to 1996 and was a combat engineer in Operation Desert Storm. He graduated from the University of Virginia law school in 1998 and clerked for the U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Greene in Utah, then spent about 12 years in private practice before he became a judge.

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Croatian Gay Rights Activists Protest Ahead Of Marriage Equality Referendum

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Gay rights supporters in conservative and mainly Catholic Croatia staged protests on Saturday on the eve of a controversial referendum that could outlaw same-sex marriage in the EU's newest member state.

More than 1,000 people braved the cold and rainy weather to gather in a square in downtown Zagreb for a protest march against Sunday's vote, which they see as discriminatory.

"We urge voters... to protect minority rights so that no one in Croatia becomes a second class citizen," gay rights activist Sanja Juras told the crowd.

At the end of their hour-long march through the city centre, under a heavy police presence, the protesters unfurled a giant rainbow flag outside the parliament building.

Demonstrators taking part in the "I vote against" march also carried banners in rainbow colours, reading: "Homosexuality is not a choice but hatred is" and "Let's protect all loves".

Sunday's referendum on whether to amend the country's constitution to define marriage as a "union between a woman and a man" is the result of a Church-backed initiative. Croatia's constitution currently does not define marriage.

The vote has sparked a heated public debate, splitting the country's 4.2 million inhabitants.

Many conservatives in Croatia, which joined the European Union this year, began fearing that same-sex marriage would be allowed in the country after the centre-left government announced a bill enabling gay couples to register as "life partners".

In May, the Church-backed In the Name of the Family group collected over 700,000 signatures seeking a nationwide vote on gay marriage.

"We believe that marriage, children and family are so important issues that the whole society has to decide on them," the leader of the initiative, Zeljka Markic, told AFP.

The government, human rights activists and prominent public figures have all spoken out against the referendum, urging people to cast a 'no' vote.

"With this sentence in the constitution we would make lives of our fellow citizens, who are a sexual minority, more difficult," warned Damir Kovacic, who took part in Saturday's protest with his wife.

"And tomorrow a referendum about someone else's rights might be on the agenda," the 34-year-old electrical engineer told AFP.

But in a country where almost 90 percent of population are Roman Catholics, the Church has vehemently urged followers to vote 'yes'.

"Marriage is the only union enabling procreation," said Croatia's Cardinal Josip Bozanic in a letter read out in churches.

"This is the key difference between a marriage... and other unions."

The latest survey showed that 68 percent of Croatians on Sunday would vote 'yes' compared to 27 percent against.

"It is natural and normal that a child grows up in a marriage of a man and a woman," Katarina Mitermajer, a doctor in her 50s, who plans to vote 'yes', told AFP.

Attitudes towards gay rights have slowly been improving since Croatia's first Gay Pride parade was held in Zagreb in 2002, when dozens of participants were beaten up by extremists.

Pride parades are now staged regularly if still under strong security, while gay rights are more openly discussed in the media and people are becoming less fearful of "coming out".

In 2003 Croatia adopted a law recognising same-sex couples who have lived together for at least three years. Yet apart from official acknowledgement, the measure granted them few rights.

Sunday's vote is the first citizens-initiated referendum since Croatia's independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991.

Under Croatian law, a referendum does not require a majority voter turnout to be valid.

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Pennsylvania Gay Marriage Ban Challenge Could Go To Trial In June

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By Daniel Kelley

HARRISBURG, Pa., Nov 22 (Reuters) - One of the first trials to challenge a state ban on gay marriage since the U.S. Supreme Court partially struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act is likely to go to trial in June in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

U.S. District Judge John Jones III, who earlier this month denied the state's request to dismiss the case, said he was looking at a June 2014 date for the challenge to Pennsylvania's Defense of Marriage Act.

The Pennsylvania case, Whitewood v. Wolf, was filed just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in June that struck down part of the federal law defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

"It's an important case and it will give us an opportunity to have a full airing of the record," said Mark Aronchik, a private lawyer for Pennsylvania same-sex couples who are challenging the statute.

The state had argued that the Pennsylvania court lacked the authority to hear the case and it should be dismissed, but Jones rejected that argument and noted that case law dealing with issues of equal protection has recently undergone a "sea change."

At least 36 states have "mini-DOMA" statutes, and challenges have come up in nearly all of them, according to Freedom to Marry, an advocacy group.

The Whitewood lawsuit was the first filed since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling, but another case, filed in Michigan, is slated for trial in February.

Pennsylvania is the only state in the northeast region that does not recognize gay marriages or same-sex civil unions.

Same-sex couples have filed at least five lawsuits challenging Pennsylvania's gay marriage ban. The Whitewood case, in particular, stirred controversy among the state's political leaders after Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced in July that she would not defend the state's statute.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Gunna Dickson)

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