Domestic Partnerships to be Banned in Arkansas?
Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 8:41 pm
DAR
An important article from Richard Drake's news blog.
Street Jazz
Commentary from Northwest Arkansas
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Representative Brian King: Follow me, boys! The Dark Ages are calling us!
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” July 4, 1776
This week Arkansas Representative Brian King introduced a bill, HB 2176, which proposes further increasing the state’s control over a city’s authority by prohibiting any city or county from offering Domestic Partnerships.
To date, Eureka Springs is the only city in Arkansas to offer such Domestic Partnership Registries. There are many who had hoped that Fayetteville would follow suit, but we’re not quite as brave as Eureka in that regard.
In 2004, the state of Arkansas - in a statewide ballot initiative - passed the Defense of Marriage Amendment, which states, “Marriage consists only of the union of one man and one woman.” This amendment was supported by over 75 percent of the voters that year.
In 2007, the Eureka Springs City Council passed a measure (three times) which created the Domestic Partnership Registry. True, while the DPR doesn’t actually confer legal rights upon any couples who choose to take advantage of it, it was a nice symbolic move. That’s how progress is made sometimes, with small symbolic moves.
And it was also good for tourism, in a town which thrives on it. But for all the reaction it inspired, one would have thought that the city council had voted to close down the local Creation Science Museum, and sell the “dinosaurs” on eBay.
The American Family Association produced a vile propaganda film, They’re Coming to Your Town, which pretty much depicted Eureka as a town taken over by the forces of Godlessness, and warned that other cities in Northwest Arkansas were in similar danger. Yeah, right.
The rest... and see the mayors excellent response
An important article from Richard Drake's news blog.
Street Jazz
Commentary from Northwest Arkansas
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Representative Brian King: Follow me, boys! The Dark Ages are calling us!
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” July 4, 1776
This week Arkansas Representative Brian King introduced a bill, HB 2176, which proposes further increasing the state’s control over a city’s authority by prohibiting any city or county from offering Domestic Partnerships.
To date, Eureka Springs is the only city in Arkansas to offer such Domestic Partnership Registries. There are many who had hoped that Fayetteville would follow suit, but we’re not quite as brave as Eureka in that regard.
In 2004, the state of Arkansas - in a statewide ballot initiative - passed the Defense of Marriage Amendment, which states, “Marriage consists only of the union of one man and one woman.” This amendment was supported by over 75 percent of the voters that year.
In 2007, the Eureka Springs City Council passed a measure (three times) which created the Domestic Partnership Registry. True, while the DPR doesn’t actually confer legal rights upon any couples who choose to take advantage of it, it was a nice symbolic move. That’s how progress is made sometimes, with small symbolic moves.
And it was also good for tourism, in a town which thrives on it. But for all the reaction it inspired, one would have thought that the city council had voted to close down the local Creation Science Museum, and sell the “dinosaurs” on eBay.
The American Family Association produced a vile propaganda film, They’re Coming to Your Town, which pretty much depicted Eureka as a town taken over by the forces of Godlessness, and warned that other cities in Northwest Arkansas were in similar danger. Yeah, right.
The rest... and see the mayors excellent response