This And That In The News

"This And That In The News" is about articles in the news that have caught my eye and I want to share or comment about. These are the articles that caught my attention this week.

This week marriage caught my attention…

State Senate OKs gay marriage
Bill faces uncertain fate in House
Chicago Tribune
By Ray Long and Rafael Guerrero
February 15, 2013

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois took a major step toward giving gay and lesbian couples the right to marry Thursday, as the Democratic-led Senate handed advocates an early win after a fervent Valentine's Day debate over sex and morals.

Now the high-profile social issue moves to a House divided on whether people of the same sex should be allowed to wed — a question of equality for supporters and a matter of biblical proportions for opponents.

Then at West Point (A couple of months old but I just saw the article)…

West Point Cadet Chapel Hosts First Same-Sex Wedding
ABC News
By SYDNEY LUPKIN
Dec. 1, 2012

As her Aunt Sue and Aunt Penny became the first same-sex couple to marry at West Point Military Academy's Cadet Chapel, 15-year-old Amanda Fulton thought she should have gone with waterproof mascara as she felt tears run down her cheeks.
[…]
"When you're a kid, it's so easy to understand that when two people love each other, they want to be together," she said, reflecting on attending the couple's 1999 commitment ceremony as a toddler and asking who the husband was. "I didn't understand the marriage issue until I was much older. ... Knowing that they couldn't get married, that was awful. It was heart-wrenching."
[…]
Fulton was one of the first women to attend West Point more than three decades ago, and she was a key player in the fight to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Last July, President Barack Obama appointed her to West Point's Board of Visitors, making her the first openly gay or lesbian person to serve on it.

Then on the other side of the Atlantic…

French Assembly Passes Gay Marriage, Adoption Bill
ABC News

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press
PARIS February 12, 2013 (AP)

France's lower house of parliament approved a sweeping bill on Tuesday to legalize gay marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt children, handing a major legislative victory to President Francois Hollande's Socialists on a divisive social issue.

The measure, approved in the National Assembly in a 329-to-229 vote, puts France on track to join about a dozen mostly European nations that allow gay marriage and comes despite a string of recent demonstrations by opponents of the so-called "marriage for all" bill.

Polls indicate a narrow majority of French support legalizing gay marriage, though that support falls when questions about the adoption and conception of children come into play.