summary of recent gay rights stories

In the past couple days there has been some interesting news about gay rights. A ruling from the Army Court of Appeals "overturned the guilty plea of an Army specialist who had oral sex with a female civilian in the barracks." The crime here is based on the Army's sodomy law that prohibits "unnatural carnal copulation," including oral and anal sex. The law extends to homosexual or heterosexual couples. (The same sort of law existed in Virginia until the Lawrence vs Texas ruling overturned it last year.) Anyway, this ruling may be appealed, but as it stands, it seems to "uphold the right to sexual privacy" which would apply to homosexuals as well. And that could (should) affect the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. There's currently a lawsuit challenging "don't ask, don't tell." Simianbrain describes the lawsuit pretty well and presents a nice, common-sense solution to the problem.

In other news, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is consistent with their constitution and it it's likely that the Canadian Parliment will legalize same-sex marriage throughout Canada next year. At the moment 6 of Canada's 10 Provinces and 1 of the 3 territories allow same-sex marriage. Other countries allowing same-sex marriage are: Belgium and the Netherlands.

Also yesterday New Zealand passed a Civil Union bill.

"The bill allows same-sex couples and common-law spouses to have the same rights and obligations as married couples once it goes into effect April 26. The bill does not change New Zealand's Marriage Act, which claims marriage is only between a man and a woman."