US: Minneapolis Mayor takes to the road to promote new equal marriage law
The mayor of the US city of Minneapolis is to hit the road in order to participate in a new ad campaign aiming to draw same-sex couples to the city in order to marry.
Mayor R T Rybak hopes to generate tourism revenue by inviting same-sex couples from other states to marry in Minneapolis. She will travel to Chicago this week in order to launch the “Marry in Minneapolis”, ad campaign.
The mayor will also visit Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Denver, Colorado.
While the mayor hopes that US same-sex couples will travel to Minnesota in order to marry, he said he still hopes that people in other states, such as Illinois, will soon have equal marriage rights.
In August, Minnesota become the 12th US state to legalise same-sex marriages.
Since that time, at least 1,640 same-sex couples have applied to be married, making up a third of all claims to marriage licenses in the state.
As well as Minnesota, equal marriage also came into effect in the state of Rhode Island.
Lawmakers in the US state of Illinois also a heartfelt open letter apologising to advocates of equal marriage in the state as the bill failed to be called for a vote, despite passing in the Senate on Valentine’s Day. Illinois is expected to take up the bill again in the autumn.
Meanwhile in New Mexico, State District Judge Alan Malott handed down the ruling last Monday, which stated that equal marriage should be made legal, as he ruled that prohibiting same-sex marriages is a form of sexual discrimination.
The New Mexico constitution does not expressively prohibit same-sex couples from marrying but no recognition of same-sex relationships previously existed within the state.
