Capitol Hill Blue Forums We shall overcome

Wow,thanks for the homework. If I am reading the spreadsheet correctly the total population from column B is 216 million. The various single categories in column B sum to 92 million. You are right. Not a majority, but still a sizable group.

A year after the state Supreme Court entertained arguments on extending marriage to gay couples, many of the same lawyers will be back before the same justices this week arguing why California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage should stand or fall.

The passage of Proposition 8 last November changed the state constitution to prohibit gay marriage and trumped the high court's decision as few months earlier to legalize it. But the ballot measure was appealed and the justices on Thursday are getting the final word on whether marriage is an institution that must accommodate two women or two men.
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The stakes are high — for the 18,000 couples who married while same-sex weddings were legal, for gay marriage opponents who object on religious grounds and for others who are deeply divided on the issue. And whatever the court decides is likely to have ramifications not only for millions of Californians but also for other states grappling over gay marriage.

Popular will vs. constitutional law
The question is whether a majority of the justices will defer to popular will or, having already declared that preventing gay people from marrying was unconstitutional, will do so again. Legal experts say it is a tough call and that the court's decision, due within 90 days, will be debated for years to come.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts marks the first major challenge to the constitutionality of a federal law denying gay and lesbian couples access to more than 1,000 federal programs and legal protections, gay advocates say.

The suit was brought by the same lawyers who led a successful campaign to legalize gay marriage in Massachusetts in 2003, paving the way for the nation's first same-sex marriages a year later. They won a similar fight last year to make Connecticut the second U.S. state to allow gay marriage.

Vermont legislators are holding hearings this week on a measure that could make the state the third to allow same-sex marriage.
The state pioneered civil unions, becoming the first to grant them in 2000, but advocates of same-sex marriage have said civil unions are inadequate, and they are pressing for the further rights and recognition that such marriages could bestow.
Democratic leaders, who control both chambers of the Vermont Legislature, pledged earlier this month to pass a same-sex-marriage bill before adjournment in May. The State Senate Judiciary Committee is taking testimony on the legal, social and practical implications of same-sex marriage and is to hear from the public Wednesday night at the State Capitol.
This is a highly charged political issue, and many remember that more than a dozen legislators were voted out of office after they supported civil unions in 2000. The governor, Jim Douglas, a Republican, opposes the bill, saying civil unions go far enough, but he has not specifically said he would veto it.

The Obama administration will endorse a U.N. declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality that then-President George W. Bush had refused to sign, The Associated Press has learned.

U.S. officials said Tuesday they had notified the declaration's French sponsors that the administration wants to be added as a supporter. The Bush administration was criticized in December when it was the only western government that refused to sign on.