West Hollywood City Council Directs its City Attorney to Investigate Legally Recognizing Same-Sex Marriages
West Hollywood City Council Directs its City Attorney to Investigate Legally Recognizing Same-Sex Marriages
In keeping with its staunch support of same-sex unions and in order to move forward with the recognition of same sex marriages, the West Hollywood City Council has directed its City Attorney to investigate whether City ordinances, policies and procedures need to be modified to provide the same rights and benefits to same-sex married couples as other married couples. In addition, the City Council has passed a resolution supporting San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and urged the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Since its incorporation in 1984, the City of West Hollywood has championed the rights of same-sex couples. In 1985, the City became one of the first cities in the country to establish a domestic partnership registry and enacted the Domestic Partnership Ordinance, which provides equal rights for domestic partners and married couples. Now that counties such as San Francisco are issuing same-sex marriage licenses, the City wants to ensure that these same-sex married couples are given the same rights as other married couples. The West Hollywood City Attorney is investigating what policies and ordinances need to be changed to ensure that these equal rights are legalized and will report his findings to the City Council at their regular meeting on Monday, March 15, 2004.
The City Council also passed a resolution supporting San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for his actions on behalf of equal rights for same-sex couples. The resolution states, in part, "Mayor Gavin Newsom of the City of San Francisco has taken a historic action in support of equality for same gender couples in directing the County Clerk of San Francisco to modify marriage licenses applications to be gender neutral."
The resolution emphasizes the legal importance of marriages in obtaining certain health benefits, hospital visitation rights and pension privileges and restates the City of West Hollywood's commitment to advocating for human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
In a related move, the West Hollywood City Council also urged the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to follow San Francisco County's lead and issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples wishing to marry, and requested that Los Angeles County deputize members of the West Hollywood City Council to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.