News

OLYMPIA, WASH. — Within hours of Washington state Gov. Chris Gregoire signing a marriage equality bill into law, opponents filed the paperwork necessary to collect signatures for a referendum to overturn the law.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Singer Clay Aiken, a North Carolina native, said he loves his home state but is deeply unhappy about proposed amendment to the state constitution that would ban same sex marriages. The former “American Idol” contestant spoke out about the amendment in a video posted to YouTube on Monday.

GENEVA — Gays threaten the continuation of the human race, Libya’s delegate told a planning meeting of the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, reported the Geneva-based UN Watch monitoring group.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A joint panel of two committees in the Maryland state legislature on Tuesday approved a bill to legalize same-sex marriage.

Occupy Wall Street protesters nearly drowned out Rick Santorum for 44 minutes as he tried to deliver remarks at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, Washington on Monday night. Speaking from a balcony, Santorum sought to condemn the state’s newly-enacted same-sex marriage law and the Ninth Circuit’s ruling against Proposition 8, but was repeatedly interrupted by protesters yelling, “we are the 99 percent.”

LOS ANGELES — The efforts to collect signatures to qualify an initiative to repeal California’s Proposition 8 law, which bans same-sex marriage, have ceased, following last week’s victory in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Marriage equality took center stage again on Monday, with progress on both coasts — in Washington out west, and in the east, New Jersey.

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum, well known for his opposition to same-sex marriage, visited Washington state on Monday within an hour of Gov. Chris Gregoire signing the state’s same-sex marriage bill into law.

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington Governor Chris Gregoire on Monday signed into law the measure passed last week by the state legislature that legalizes same-sex marriage, making Washington state the seventh in the nation to allow same-sex couples to marry.

TRENTON, N.J. — The New Jersey state Senate on Monday voted in favor of a bill that would legalize marriage between same-sex couples, despite a vow by the Governor to veto such a bill.