Archive Version of
Partners Task Force for Gay and Lesbian Couples Online from 1995-2022 Demian and Steve Bryant originally founded Partners as a monthly newsletter in 1986. By late 1990 it was reformatted into a bi-monthly magazine. Print publication was halted by 1995 when Demian published Partners as a Web site, which greatly expanded readership. In 1988, the Partners National Survey of Lesbian & Gay Couples report was published; the first major U.S. survey on same-sex couples in a decade. In 1996, Demian produced The Right to Marry, a video documentary based on the dire need for equality that was made clear by the data from the survey mentioned above. The video featured interviews with Rev. Mel White, Evan Wolfson, Phyllis Burke, Richard Mohr, Kevin Cathcart, Faygele benMiriam, Benjamin Cable-McCarthy, Susan Reardon, Frances Fuchs, Tina Podlodowski, and Chelle Mileur. Demian has been the sole operator during the last two decades of Partners. Demian stopped work on Partners Task Force in order to realize his other time-consuming projects, which include publishing the book “Operating Manual for Same-Sex Couples: Navigating the rules, rites & rights” - which is now available on Amazon. The book is based on the Partners Survey mentioned above, his interviews of scores of couples, and 36 years of writing hundreds of articles about same-sex couples. It’s also been informed by his personal experience in a 20-year, same-sex relationship. Demian’s other project is to publish his “Photo Stories by Demian” books based on his more than six decades as a photographer and writer. |
On January 1, 2009, Norway became the 6th country to offer full, legal marriage to same-sex couples. The law was enacted on June 17, 2008.
Norway began registering legal partnerships for same-sex couples on April 30, 1993. Now allowing full legal marriage, same-sex couples will be granted the same rights as opposite-sex couples to marry, adopt and access alternative insemination. A parliamentary majority had announced agreement on the legislation in May 2008, and the lower house voted 84-41 in favor on June 11, 2008. On June 17, 2008, Norway’s upper house of parliament voted 23-17 in favor of the gender-neutral marriage law. The King of Norway granted royal assent soon thereafter. The gender-neutral marriage law replaces the 1993 registered partnerships law. The law gives individual congregations and clergy the right — but not the legal obligation — to perform wedding ceremonies for gay couples.
Three separate polls of the Norwegian population indicated the majority support gender-neutral marriage laws:
Family Issues minister Anniken Huitfeldt, when introducing the bill in March 2008, called it “an historic step towards equality.” She told Parliament: “The new law won’t weaken marriage as an institution, rather, it will strengthen it. Marriage won’t be worth less because more can take part in it.”
Should a Norwegian same-sex married couple come to the U.S., the U.S. would refuse to recognize the marriage because the DoMA law.
Also, the majority of U.S. states have made laws denying recognition to any legal marriage licenses held by same-sex couples.
|
© 2022, Demian None of the pages on this Web site may be reproduced by any form of reproduction without permission from Partners, with the exception of copies for personal, student, and non-commercial use. Please do not copy this article to any Web site. Links to this page are welcome. |