Uruguay approves gay civil unions

Isn't it sad that countries around the world continue to pass the states of the United States of America on issues of gay marriage and civil unions!

The Eastern Republic of Uruguay's congress has approved a bill which would allow civil unions for both gay and unmarried straight couples.

It is the first country in Roman Catholic-dominated Latin America to approve such a measure nationwide.

The Uruguayan President, Tabare Vazquez, is now expected to sign the bill into law.

Under its provisions, couples who have lived together for five years will have rights similar to those already enjoyed by married couples.

Couples will have to register their relationship with authorities to gain the cohabitation rights - covering areas such as inheritance, pensions and child custody - and will also be able to formalise the end of their union.

Several cities across Latin America, including Buenos Aires and Mexico City, have recently adopted similar measures.

Gay marriage remains illegal in Uruguay.

Uruguay has traditionally been better off than many other countries in South America, and is known for its advanced education and social security systems and liberal laws governing social issues such as divorce.

Civil union supporters lead White House race - Democrats could win if election held today

In the long and crowded race for the White House, candidates who support civil unions are pulling ahead.

New polls by Rasmussen Reports, Quinnipiac University and others show civil union supporters Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, all Democrats, could beat their Republican rivals if the election were held today.

Clinton, in a poll of 800 likely voters done Aug. 15-16 by Rasmussen, beat Sen. John McCain of Arizona by two points and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney by 11 points. Neither GOP candidate supports civil unions.

In earlier polls by Quinnipiac, NBC News and Fox News, Clinton also beat former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani by an average of five points.

Quinnipiac’s poll of 1,545 registered voters was conducted Aug. 7-13; the NBC News poll of 1,005 adults was done July 27-30; and the Fox News poll of 900 registered voters collected its data July 17-18.

Giuliani’s campaign, which has long opposed civil unions that represent “the equivalent of marriage,” told the Boston Globe this month that the GOP frontrunner backs only domestic partnerships similar to those extended to couples in New York City.

Joe Tarver of Empire State Pride Agenda said the city law, which primarily ensures benefits to the partners of public employees, does little for other gay city residents.

“Unless you’re a city employee, you don’t get much of anything except a piece of paper,” he said. “And you may or may not be in a position to use that with your employer.”

Tarver said the nation’s next president should support civil unions, if not marriage equality, and Giuliani’s stance comes up short.

“It has been disappointing to see him pivot away from some of our issues,” he said, “particularly where he stands on recognizing our families.”

Giuliani also comes up short in polls when pitted against Obama and Edwards.

Obama and Giuliani tied in this month’s Quinnipiac poll. That poll also shows Obama besting McCain by four points, while a Rasmussen poll of 1,029 likely voters conducted July 16-17 shows Obama topping Romney by nine points.

Edwards faired similarly. Quinnipiac’s poll shows him one point ahead of Giuliani and beating McCain by eight points. In last month’s Rasmussen poll, Edwards won by seven points against Romney.

Dan Pinello, a gay City University of New York government professor, said it’s unusual for early polls to so heavily favor one political party.

“Usually, you’re pitting the lead candidate of one party against the lead candidate of another party,” he said. “It seems that any Democrat is going to beat any Republican.”

But not all Democratic candidates are celebrating the early polls.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who supports marriage equality for same-sex couples, lost in a Rasmussen poll that pitted him against Giuliani. In that poll of 1,200 likely voters, conducted July 27-29, Kucinich lost by 14 points.

Despite the favorable polling for civil union supporters, Pinello noted that a win by one of those candidates could represent only a symbolic victory for gay Americans.

He said presidents have “no real power” over civil unions or marriages.

“States are the primary sources of regulation of marriage and other related issues,” Pinello said. “So at most, the president can serve as the kind of figurehead or bully pulpit person, to be a voice of inspiration for others to act.”

Activists, however, noted White House support would be a key step toward achieving expanded rights for gay couples. Solmonese said it’s therefore important that the leading candidates support civil unions.

“To me, how they move us in the direction of marriage or civil unions or the benefits that same-sex couples would like to enjoy, that is a much more comprehensive conversation,” he said. “It’s about moving public opinion.”

Tarver agreed. He said that’s why gay Americans should be working to move public opinion — because where the public goes, politicians will follow.

“I think it’s important for us to continue pushing the candidates to be for equality,” he said. “And when it comes to marriage, that means marriage equality.”

Giuliani continues his conservative shift

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani continues to discard the moderate and liberal positions of his past. The latest is civil unions for same-sex couples, which the Republican presidential candidate has been backing away from in recent months.

A campaign aide told the Globe this weekend that Giuliani favors a much more modest set of rights for gay partners than civil union laws in effect in four states offer.

Giuliani has described himself as a backer of civil unions and is frequently described that way in news reports. But he began distancing himself from civil unions in late April, when his campaign told The New York Sun that New Hampshire's new law goes too far because it is "the equivalent of marriage," which he has always opposed for gays.

Giuliani's aides offered little explanation of what specific rights he would support for same-sex couples.

In an interview and follow-up e-mails, Maria Comella, the campaign's deputy communications director, told the Globe that Giuliani supports domestic partnership laws similar to the one he initiated in New York in 1998.

The New York law primarily ensures benefits to partners of municipal employees. The law created a registry of partnerships that also helps city residents obtain partner benefits from private companies that extend them. However, most of the registrants are unmarried heterosexual couples.

Comella said Giuliani has always supported the New York model of domestic partnership laws but she did not explain what is widely viewed as an inconsistency in his position.

"It's really disappointing he's stepped back from his position on civil unions," said Joe Tarver, spokesman for the Empire State Pride Agenda, a group that advocates for gay rights in New York state that worked with and against Giuliani on a number of issues during his eight years as mayor.

Calling the former mayor's shifting stance "pretty un-Giuliani-like," Tarver said: "It's quite obvious he's playing to the people whose votes he needs to get the Republican nomination."

Tarver has company. Representatives of New York groups who advocate for abortion rights, gun control, and rights for immigrants, also said Giuliani's actions on the presidential trail, presenting himself to a more conservative GOP electorate, bears little resemblance to the man they knew as the stand-up mayor of Gotham in the 1990s who was open to moderate and liberal arguments.

More than any candidate in the Republican presidential field, rival Mitt Romney has been tagged with the flip-flopper label. But Giuliani, with late shifts on civil unions and federal campaign finance laws, is a political makeover in progress.

Giuliani often cites a states' rights rationale as the basis of his new views, though his objection to states adopting civil unions is a notable exception. What was right for his city when he was mayor might not be for other states, he says frequently to explain changing stances. Of Giuliani's past assertions endorsing civil unions, Comella said the definition has changed over time beyond what Giuliani supports.

Giuliani has used the terms civil unions and domestic partnerships interchangeably, as in comments in 2004 to Fox News's Bill O'Reilly. "I'm in favor of . . . civil unions," Giuliani said. "So now you have a civil partnership, domestic partnership, civil union, whatever you want to call it, and that takes care of the imbalance, the discrimination, which we shouldn't have."

"It's about rights and benefits more than the title," Comella wrote in an e-mail to the Globe. "The mayor supports the benefits and rights as they are written in the domestic partnership law in New York City."

Like New Hampshire, civil union laws in Vermont, Connecticut, and New Jersey "confer upon same-sex couples all of the state (though none of the federal) rights, protections, and obligations afforded married spouses," according to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, a national advocacy group.

Benefits of domestic partnerships can also be broader than those under the New York law.

Aliens face gay union 'bias' in U.S.

Tom Richardson and Salvador Valenzuela first marked their commitment to each other with a city domestic partnership in Seattle. When Massachusetts became the first US state to allow same-sex marriage, they married there, and hyphenated their last names.

Now back in Washington state, the Richardson-Valenzuelas plan to register for a state domestic partnership, taking advantage of a new state law giving same-sex couples some of the benefits that married heterosexual couples have. The only problem is that by doing so, they risk getting Salvador, who is from Mexico, deported, because registering could jeopardise the temporary tourist visa he uses to enter the US.

Only Massachusetts allows same-sex marriage, and a handful of other states recognise civil unions or domestic partnerships. Civil unions and same-sex marriage are unrecognised at the federal level, which means Valenzuala cannot get legal resident status through a domestic partnership or gay marriage.

“When it comes to gay and lesbian issues, change is coming at the state level,” said state Senator Ed Murray, sponsor of the domestic partnership law and one of five openly gay lawmakers in the state Legislature.

“It's really important for our relationship to be recognised,” said Tom Richardson-Valenzuela, who said they both realise that the immigration laws may catch up with them. Because immigration law does not recognise same-sex couples, an American citizen would not be able to sponsor his or her partner if her or she is on a temporary visa.