Chinese lawyer calls for civil partnerships as first step towards gay marriage

Rainbow flag. Symbol of gay pride. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Andrew Potts | Gay Star News | August 19, 2013

One of ten lawyers who petitioned Chinese lawmakers to allow same-sex marriage in May said over the weekend that introducing civil partnerships might be the first step towards that goal.

Liu Wei, a lawyer with the Beijing-based Angelo Chen Law Office, made the comments at the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) sponsored 2013 China LGBT Community Consultation conference.

‘Same-sex couples should enjoy equal rights and responsibilities as civil marriages. In recent years, an increasing number of them have consulted us about the issue,’ Liu Wei told the conference according to the state owned Xinhua news agency.

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Obama Has Not Delivered on May’s Promise of Transparency on Drones

Official portrait of United States Senator . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Guardian | Naureen Shah | AlterNet | August 17, 2013

The past two weeks have seen an escalation in drone strikes more dramatic than any since 2009.

The media estimate that more than  37 people have died in a series of strikes in  Yemen. The US government has refused to officially acknowledge the strikes surge or  reports of potentially unlawful deaths – just as it did, for years, refuse to confirm reports of the more than 300 drone strikes in Pakistan. On  drones, secrecy is business as usual – and it carries on.

Earlier this summer, however, there was hope for a different way forward. In late May, the White House released more information about US drone strikes than it ever had before. Following a  major address on national security by President Obama, the government pledged to keep sharing “as much information as possible”.

In fact, since May, the White House has not officially released any new information on drone strikes (though leaks still abound). While NSA surveillance has taken center-stage, the government’s policy of secrecy and obfuscation on drones persists, too. Past critics of the drone program – ranging from Senator Rand Paul (Republican, Kentucky) to Senator Ron Wyden (Democrat, Oregon) – should take notice. It is time to renew and expand the demand for answers about who is being killed.

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