Here's a poll showing marriage equality passing comfortably in Switzerland. There was never any doubt that it would pass, but 69% (hehe) is a little underwhelming to me. I was secretly hoping they would break 80%, now it may not even hit 70. But a win is a win, and I'll certainly take it.
https://www.expatica.com/ch/uncategorized/poll-fi...

That's actually something of an improvement from the previous rumor that Ra'am made no votes on gay rights issues a condition for it joining the government. Nobody would expect Ra'am to vote for any gay rights legislation, probably not Yamina either. But if there are open votes, then a chunk of Likud would support it, unless they decide to block everything this government puts forward out of spite.

But it probably doesn't matter, as absolutely nobody expects this government to last very long.

Umm, I'm COMPLETELY aware of the requirements about redrawing the boundaries of the District. Anything that did not do that would be unconstitutional by definition. I was just giving some background for those who may not be aware of the complexities of the issue.

The point is, it's not going to happen with 50 Democratic senators. Period. No GOP senator will go along with it, so it would require ditching the filibuster, and Manchin and Sinema at a bare minimum have said they will not do that. Now if the GOP does something crazy, like filibustering some important COVID legislation, maybe things will change.

Any election in California is expensive. TV ads, direct mail, you get the picture. And right now voters are CRANKY. Remember, most people thought the Democrats would pick up seats in the House, and instead they almost lost it. No way in hell I would want to take the chance on losing an election like this, especially when as of yet the Supreme Court has shown no real appetite for overturning Obergefell.

And I said before, I don't like referenda. But now that we are winning them fairly regularly, it's nice to be able to shove them in the faces of the bigots when they claim the people don't support us.

Although I'm an Independent, I voted for Biden and was glad to see Trump gone in November last year. I was also overjoyed to see the Democrats get "control" of the Senate with the two pickups in Georgia. That said, some of the things expressed by Democrats are simply completely out of touch with reality.

At least 2 Democratic senators have said they will not support ending the legislative filibuster. Unless something changes, the legislative filibuster is not going anywhere, period.

D.C. and Puerto Rican statehood are so complicated that it would be tough for the Dems to do it with 55+ seats, to say nothing of only 50. Giving out COVID checks is insanely popular in this country and they can't even manage to do that. Adding two new states is NOT popular.

D.C. statehood is problematic for various reasons. For starters, the US Constitution expressly forbids it. So D.C. would have to be redrawn to only include say the White House and Congress, and a new entity would have to be created. I hate to say this, but a lot of people see this as what it is - a Democratic power grab. If the people of D.C. being "disenfranchised" is that big of a problem, there's a (somewhat) easy solution. Reattach the city back to Maryland. Then they would be able to vote for House/Senate. Only about half of Americans support statehood for D.C., so it's not going anywhere.

Puerto Rico is even worse. Unlike for D.C., there is no real indication that the people of Puerto Rico even WANT to become a state. Their non-binding referendum only had about 55% percent turnout (presumably because many were boycotting it), and only 53% said yes to statehood. Until the U.S. says to P.R. very bluntly, "Piss or get off the pot," there isn't going to be any movement there either.

In 2012 Washington State also passed marriage equality by popular vote. Had the courts not acted first, you would have started seeing these votes all over the place.
Also, a marriage amendment was defeated in Minnesota (yes, that obviously doesn't legalize marriage but it was still a referendum on the idea).
The Australia vote was "non-binding", but do you seriously think Australia would have marriage equality today if it had failed?

As far as why the constitutional amendments haven't been repealed? Because they can only be undone with ANOTHER constitutional amendment and those can be very expensive to undertake, depending on the state. Many people in the USA would see it as a huge waste of money, especially in COVID times, and might respond angrily at the ballot box. I certainly wouldn't want to take that chance. Yes, we need to start undoing these, but we have bigger fish to fry in the meantime.

I don't hold out much hope for Latvia in the near future. There are way too many Russians there. Even Estonia, while clearly the most liberal of the Baltics, might be too much to hope for, but the leadership change does at least open the possibility.

Like scream4ever, I wish we could hear more regarding the Czech Republic. Maybe even Slovenia might give it another go. (Maybe Melania could go campaign for it haha!) I REALLY would like to see a Slavic country to take the plunge on marriage equality and be that trailblazer.

We've had this discussion periodically ever since the marriage legislation movement started in Switzerland. The good guys have always claimed to be ready for a referendum because 50,000 signatures is a joke. For comparison, in my state of Arizona our population is more than a million less than Switzerland but it takes 350,000 signatures to get something on the ballot.

Obviously, the COVID world is a different one, but I still wouldn't hold my breath hoping they don't make it. I'm not a huge fan of referenda on our rights either, but that precedent has already been set, in many states in the USA, in Ireland, and in Australia.

I'm also not worried in the least about us losing. The bigots even realize they have no chance on straight-up gay marriage, so they are trying to focus on artificial insemination. It didn't work in Ireland and it won't work in Switzerland either. But hopefully the government will step in if the debate gets ugly, unlike the government in Ireland which did not.

F*ck Mexico. Seriously, this is some kind of a joke. I guess in the West we're spoiled, but it's absolutely jaw-dropping how hateful some people on this planet are, all the way to the bitter end.

People may get really angry at me for saying this, but I REALLY don't want people with those attitudes allowed to come here and poison us with this venom.

Lots of good info and analysis here, just one real correction to make. The 2016 law was actually about ending the tax penalty on married couples. The right wing were assholes to throw in the definition of marriage part. So instead of being depressed about the vote being so close, I think it's amazing that so many straight Swiss people were willing to give up a potential tax break to support us.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_of_same...

When (because it WILL go to a referendum one way or another) marriage equality is on the ballot, I think we've got a great chance to break 70% in Switzerland. There actually were quasi-legitimate free speech concerns about this latest law. I'm not worried in the least about marriage equality failing.