Subject: Marriage Update
From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 12:44:27 -0500

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PRESS RELEASE
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
2320 17th St. NW; Washington, DC 20009
Contact: Tracey Conaty (202) 332-6483 [email-masked]
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NGLTF ANTI-MARRIAGE UPDATE
 
GEORGIA JOINS IDAHO, SOUTH DAKOTA AND UTAH 
IN BANNING SAME-GENDER MARRIAGE

KENTUCKY AND ARIZONA BILLS DEFEATED WHILE
 KANSAS MEASURE GOES TO THE GOVERNOR

Washington, D.C., April 5, 1996...Georgia Governor Zell Miller made his state
the fourth in the nation to explicitly prevent gay and lesbian couples from
marrying.  Miller signed into law a bill similar to ones passed this year in
Utah and Idaho prohibiting same-gender marriage.  South Dakota put their
anti-marriage law on the books during the 1995 legislative year. 

 In Kansas, similar legislation is now making its way to the Governor's desk
after it was passed by the state Senate late this week.  Currently,
same-gender marriage is not legal anywhere in the United States.  The Georgia
bill, and measures like it, have been introduced throughout the country this
year by anti-gay legislators.  Right wing groups, in anticipation of the
possible legalization of same-gender marriage in Hawaii sometime next year,
have launched an all out assault on the right to marry.

 In other recent marriage legislation developments, Kentucky activists were
victorious in having an anti-marriage amendment withdrawn from an unrelated
bill.  In Arizona, an anti-marriage amendment was thwarted when it was
replaced with a broadly worded amendment asserting the importance of "strong
family values."  In Delaware, a measure was introduced banning both
same-gender marriages in the state and recognition of legal, same-gender
marriages from other states.

 According to NGLTF, with information provided by Lambda Legal Defense and
Education Fund and grassroots activists across the country, 14 states
currently face legislation intended to ban same-gender marriage.  Those
states are AL, AK, CA, DE, FL, HI, IL, KS, MI, MO, OK, SC, TN, and WI.
  Anti-marriage measures in 13 other states have been withdrawn or defeated.
 Along with AZ and KY, they are CO, IA, MD, ME, MS, NM, RI, VA, WA, WV, and
WY.  
 
 Activists interested in obtaining a copy of the map (free) or NGLTF's
marriage organizing manual, To Have and To Hold  ($10), should contact Tracey
Conaty at the number listed above.  Those interested in obtaining talking
points on same-gender marriage and other materials should contact Lambda
Legal Defense and Education Fund at (212) 995-8585.

 The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is a progressive organization that
has supported grassroots organizing and pioneered in national advocacy since
1973.  Since its inception, NGLTF has been at the forefront of virtually
every major initiative for lesbian and gay rights.  In all its efforts, NGLTF
helps to strengthen the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender movement at
the state level while connectin these activities to a national vision for
change.

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