WV: Gay Friendly?
WTAP News
Denise Alex
A lesbian couple has asked the state Supreme Court to force the Kanawha County Clerk's office to start issuing same-sex marriage licenses. Pat Link and Sheila Chambers filed the petition Friday, after Kanawha County Clerk Alma King told their lawyer she would not issue the license. The clerk cited state law, which describes marriage as a "loving and lifelong union between a woman and a man."
Link and Chambers have been together 23 years. The couple was married in Canada last year and celebrated a civil union in Vermont in 2001.
Chambers' recent retirement and the realization that her married co-workers could leave survivor benefits to their spouses prompted the lawsuit.


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Census Bureau one day may track gay marriages
WASHINGTON - U.S. Census Bureau officials are discussing measuring gay marriage in America, but can't do so under current federal law.


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'We felt like we were part of history'
• Two men from Bremerton join about 1,000 other same-sex couples married this week in Portland.


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Sacramento Bee/Paul Kitagaki Jr.
Spouses for life
Gays, lesbians cite personal, political reasons for marriage


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Wisconsin joins gay marriage brawl
BY JR ROSS
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. — The state Assembly approved a proposed amendment to the Wisconsin Constitution on Friday banning same-sex marriages or civil unions. In another volley in the ongoing national war over whether gay couples should be allowed to marry, lawmakers voted 68-27 to approve the amendment.

The vote came after an all-night session in which opponents decried the proposal as mean-spirited, bigoted and shameful.



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Delegate announces she is gay at hearing
by Thomas Dennison
ANNAPOLIS -- Del. Anne R. Kaiser urged the state Thursday to pass legislation that would establish medical decision-making authority for same-sex couples and announced publicly for the first time that she is gay.

With her family and rabbi in the audience, Kaiser (D-Dist. 14) of Olney told the House Health and Government Matters Committee that as a gay woman, she believes same-sex couples should be allowed to make medical decisions about their partners.