GUAM: First Weddings Take Place

Via the Associated Press:

There were no flowers. There was no music. The onlookers witnessing Guam's first wedding of a gay couple were mostly members of the media. "It's my privilege to officiate at this. Do you take each other to share your lives, to promise to take good care of one another for as long as you live?" Public Health Director James Gillan asked. "I do," said Deasia Johnson of Killeen, Texas. "I do," answered her bride, Nikki Dismuke of New Orleans. "By the power vested in me by the laws of Guam, I pronounce you married," Gillan said before the two military members kissed to solemnize their vows. With those words, in a ceremony that lasted less than a minute in Gillan's office, Johnson and Dismuke became the first gay couple to be legally married in a U.S. territory. Guam got that distinction Tuesday after a federal judge last week struck down the island territory's ban, saying it was unconstitutional.

GUAM: Marriage Licenses Begin

Same-sex marriage licenses are about to issued in Guam, where it's currently about 8AM on Tuesday. Guam has a mandatory five-day waiting period, but judges in other jurisdictions have waived that requirement in the early days of same-sex marriage, so it's possible that the first weddings will occur today. Which is tomorrow in Guam.

GUAM: Court Strikes Down Marriage Ban

Via Pacific Daily News:

Guam's chief federal judge this morning struck down the local law that restricts marriage to opposite-sex couples. A written opinion is expected Monday and the ruling will take effect on Tuesday. In her ruling, Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood said the laws denying marriage rights to same-sex couples were unconstitutional, citing a previous decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Guam. The ruling came after about an hour and a half of arguments over whether Tydingco-Gatewood was obligated to act immediately in striking down local law. Following her ruling, the courtroom erupted into applause for Loretta M. Pangelinan and Kathleen M. Aguero, the couple who filed the case. Before making their way out, friends, family and supporters lined up in the gallery to offer hugs to the women. Pangelinan and Aguero filed the case in April after they were denied a marriage license application at the Department of Public Health and Social Services. Their attorneys argued that the case had already been decided by the 9th Circuit in 2014 and, as a result, Guam had no choice but to follow suit.

Editorial Of The Day

From the Pacific Daily News:

Gov. Eddie Calvo needs to retake civics after he passed the buck on the attorney general's legal memorandum on gay marriage to lawmakers and voters. Calvo could have made the courageous decision to end discrimination against homosexuals in Guam. Instead, he essentially abdicated his power to enforce our island's and our nation's laws to senators and voters. By choosing to ignore the AG's opinion and thus the 9th Circuit's ruling, Calvo is violating the oath he took to enforce the Constitution of the United States by permitting the same-sex marriage license ban to stand. Calvo should follow the lead of Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla. Padilla said Puerto Rico will no longer defend the Commonwealth's ban on same-sex marriage, months after U.S. District Court Judge Juan Perez-Gimenez dismissed a case that sought to overturn the ban.

Calvo was due to issue a decision on the AG's edict today, but local news outlets report that he is currently "off island." Guam would become the first US territory to legalize same-sex marriage.

GUAM: AG Directs Territory To Issue Marriage Licenses, Governor Says No

Following a lawsuit filed last week, Guam Attorney General Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson has declared that same-sex marriage licenses are to be issued immediately, saying that the ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court in the case brought against Idaho is applicable. Guam would become the first US territory to issue same-sex marriage licenses, but for now GOP Gov. Eddie Calvo is standing in the way.

Gov. Eddie Calvo and Lt. Gov. Ray Tenorio issued a statement on the gay marriage issue. Although they respect the opinion of Attorney General Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson that Guam should allow same-sex marriage immediately, the administration is deferring a decision, according to the statement. "If it is the will of the people of Guam to make same-sex marriage legal on Guam, then the Guam Legislature, the people of Guam’s representatives, can take action to change the law, or a referendum can be held giving the people of Guam a direct voice in this issue," the statement read in part. The administration's legal team is reviewing the matter, according to the written statement. A federal lawsuit challenge on Guam's marriage laws will not be withdrawn despite the Guam attorney general's decision to direct the local public health agency to "immediately" start issuing marriage licenses to qualified same-sex couples. Attorney General Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson was "doing the right thing" by directing the Department of Public Health and Social Services to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, Loretta M. Pangelinan and Kathleen M. Aguero said through their attorneys. Pangelinan and Aguero filed the federal suit Monday following Public Health's rejection of their marriage license application last week.

Guam has a population of 160K and is about twice the size of Staten Island. See the statement of Guam's attorney general below.

RELATED: There are five US territories: Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Yesterday the First Circuit Court of Appeals deferred making a ruling on same-sex marriage in Puerto Rico until the US Supreme Court hands down its decision.

PhoboQuotable - Anthony Apuron

"The culture of homosexuality is a culture of self-absorption because it does not value self-sacrifice. It is a glaring example of what John Paul II has called the culture of death. Islamic fundamentalists clearly understand the damage that homosexual behavior inflicts on a culture. That is why they repress such behavior by death. Their culture is anything but one of self-absorption. It may be brutal at times, but any culture that is able to produce wave after wave of suicide bombers (women as well as men) is a culture that at least knows how to value self-sacrifice.

"Terrorism as a way to oppose the degeneration of the culture is to be rejected completely since such violence is itself another form of degeneracy. One, however, does not have to agree with the gruesome ways that the fundamentalists use to curb the forces that undermine their culture to admit that the Islamic fundamentalist charge that Western Civilization in general and the U.S.A, in particular is the 'Great Satan' is not without an element of truth. It makes no sense for the U. S. Government to send our boys to fight Al Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan, while at the same time it embraces the social policies embodied in Bill 185 (as President Obama has done). Such policies only furnish further arguments for the fundamentalists in their efforts to gain more recruits for the war against the 'Great Satan."" - Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron, saying that suicide bombers are better than gay people. The local Catholic Archdiocese is vigorously opposing Guam's proposed Bill 185, which would allow gays to enter domestic partnerships.

(Tipped by JMG reader Larry Mac)

Guam Considers Domestic Partners

The tiny U.S. territory of Guam is considering domestic partners legislation. The island's Democratic leadership would like to pursue full marriage equality, but have struck a compromise with the Catholic Church.

“Guam's bill is domestic partnership, unfortunately. It is not the marriage, it is not the civil union. I have promised the Archbishop [Anthony Apuron] not to use either one of those two words though the bill does provide the same benefits that married heterosexual couples receive. I had to try to meet everybody half way. I recognize that the archbishop is concerned about the the use of the word marriage and civil union. I didn't have a ceremony because he didn't want a ceremony, it is now just an application.” “It's like applying for a driver's license,” he added. Despite Cruz's compromises with the church, Archbishop Anthony Apuron called the new bill an affront to marriage.

Local GOP leaders have offered a watered-down version of the bill that would only grant hospital visitation rights to gay couples.