NEW YORK (AP) — Far fewer Americans said "I do" during the first year of the pandemic when wedding plans were upended, a new report finds.
There were 1.7 million weddings in 2020, a drop of 17% from the year before and the lowest recorded since 1963, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's capital has announced it will start recognizing same-sex partnerships to ease the burdens faced by residents in their daily lives, but the unions will not be considered legal marriages.
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Republican Senate hopefuls Adam Laxalt and Sam Brown clashed Monday over Laxalt’s performance as chairman of then-President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign in Nevada and whether he did enough to combat voter fraud when he was attorney general.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom faulted his own political party Wednesday for setbacks in the nation's culture wars and urged Democrats to launch a vocal “counter-offensive” to protect rights from abortion to same-sex marriage.
The United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops, ending a five-day meeting Friday, acknowledged the inevitable breakup of their denomination – a schism that will widen this weekend with the launch of a global movement led by theologically conservative Methodists.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The NFL brings the traveling circus that is its draft to a city where nothing — including 300-pound football players posing with showgirls and circus clowns above the Bellagio hotel fountains — is too outlandish.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee Republican lawmaker's push to create a new marriage contract specifically designed to exclude same-sex couples is dead for this year's annual legislative session amid concerns from both Republicans and Democrats.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Amid several bills introduced in Tennessee that have attracted national attention this year, none has sparked as much alarm among both Republicans and Democrats as a proposal that would create a new marriage contract specifically designed to exclude same-sex couples.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A top leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reaffirmed the faith's opposition to same-sex marriage and “changes that confuse or alter gender” as debates over gender and sexuality reemerge throughout the United States.
ASHLAND, Ky. (AP) — Attorneys for a former Kentucky clerk who wouldn't issue marriage licenses to two same-sex couples have appealed a federal court ruling that she violated the couples' constitutional rights and might have to pay damages.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana said he misunderstood the question when he told reporters that the Supreme Court was wrong to legalize interracial marriage nationwide and should instead allow individual states to decide such issues.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Ana Margarita Rojas and Elena Hernáiz have shared their lives for more than three decades and raised a son together. Their neighbors in Venezuela's capital recognize them as a couple, never questioning them when they refer to each other as “mi esposa” — “my wife.”
A federal judge has ruled that a former Kentucky clerk violated the constitutional rights of two same-sex couples who were among those to whom she wouldn't issue marriage licenses — a refusal that sparked international attention and briefly landed her in jail in 2015.
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala’s Congress voted Tuesday to shelve a controversial law stiffening penalties for abortion, prohibiting same-sex marriage and banning discussion of sexual diversity in schools, acting a week after it passed by a wide margin.
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Two days after Guatemala’s congress passed a bill increasing sentences for women who terminate their pregnancies, prohibiting same-sex marriage and banning discussion of sexual diversity in schools, President Alejandro Giammattei asked the congress to pull it back or face his veto.
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemalan lawmakers have increased prison sentences for women who have abortions, bucking a recent trend in Latin America toward expanding access to the procedures.
As some of Latin America’s largest countries — Mexico, Argentina, Colombia — have expanded abortion access in the past two years, there remain countries where conservative religious trends continue to hold sway.
A group of theologically conservative United Methodists plans to launch a new worldwide denomination on May 1, impatient to get started after yet another pandemic-related delay to a formalized divorce agreement with their denomination.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Ryan Small was trying to keep his ex-wife from moving out of state with their son early last winter when he found out the 16-year-old boy had been secretly married off to another teen, with his mother’s permission, in an apparent bid to end the custody battle.
HARGEISA, Somalia (AP) — Safia Ibrahim’s business was in trouble. COVID-19 had taken hold in Somaliland, in the Horn of Africa. The 50-year-old widow with 10 children to support set out door to door on the capital’s outskirts, a razor at hand, taking advantage of the lockdown to seek work with a question: Have your daughters been cut?
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba's leaders have launched an unusual series of neighborhood meetings across the island to debate a measure that would legalize same-sex marriage and adoption, a measure that pits the daughter of former President Raul Castro against a growing evangelical movement.
Hope Nankunda is fighting to keep young Ugandan girls in school and away from marriages until after they turn 18.
It's a calling that began for Nankunda as a teacher, when she found herself spending more time counseling her students than engaging in classroom instruction.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Republicans in the Virginia House defeated measures Tuesday that would have let voters decide whether to strip legally outdated language prohibiting gay marriage from the state Constitution and automatically restore the voting rights of felons who have served their terms.
“Foreverland,” by Heather Havrilesky (Ecco)
Dear AP book reviewer:
I thought I was doing OK with the pandemic, but the recent surge of COVID-19 cases has really got me down. Can you recommend a book to make me laugh?
MADRID (AP) — The sister of Spain's King Felipe VI, Cristina de Borbón, and her husband, Iñaki Urdangarin, are announcing the end of their marriage after nearly 25 years together, Spain's state news agency EFE reported Monday, citing a statement from the couple.
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Gay rights advocate Jim Obergefell, whose name was atop the U.S. Supreme Court case legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, announced Tuesday that he's running for a seat in the Ohio legislature.
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Critics of outgoing Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring say he bent the law to suit his political goals. Herring, not surprisingly, sees it differently.
“I have just always tried to use the powers of the office for good and do as much good for people as I can, so that’s why I’m making the most of my term as attorney general,” Herring said in a phone interview.
MUREHWA, Zimbabwe (AP) — Inside a sparsely furnished two-room home in rural Zimbabwe, a 3-month-old baby cries. His mother, Virginia Mavhunga, spends her days making trips to the well with a bucket on her head, selling fruits and vegetables at the roadside, cooking, cleaning, washing clothes — she has too much on her hands to offer her child, Tawananyasha, much comfort.
LONDON (AP) — A top European court declined Thursday to rule in a high-profile discrimination case centered on an activist's request to have a cake decorated with the “Sesame Street” characters Bert and Ernie and the words “Support Gay Marriage.”
SHEDAI CAMP, Afghanistan (AP) — In a sprawling settlement of mud brick huts in western Afghanistan housing people displaced by drought and war, a woman is fighting to save her daughter.
Aziz Gul’s husband sold the 10-year-old girl into marriage without telling his wife, taking a down-payment so he could feed his family of five children.
SHEDAI CAMP, Afghanistan (AP) — In a sprawling settlement of mud brick huts in western Afghanistan housing people displaced by drought and war, a woman is fighting to save her daughter.
Aziz Gul’s husband sold their 10-year-old into marriage without telling his wife, taking a down-payment so he could feed his family of five children.
Desmond Tutu is being remembered for his passionate advocacy on behalf of LGBTQ people as well as his fight for racial justice. But the South African archbishop’s campaign against homophobia had limited impact in the rest of Africa, where same-sex marriage remains illegal and most countries criminalize gay sex.
BOSTON (AP) — “The Da Vinci Code” author Dan Brown and his ex-wife have agreed to settle a lawsuit in which she alleged he led a secret life during their marriage that included several affairs.
The couple agreed to voluntary dismiss the lawsuit and “any and all claims and counterclaims in this matter," according to court papers filed Monday in a New Hampshire court.
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis sought Sunday to encourage married couples, acknowledging that the pandemic has aggravated some family problems but urging couples to seek help and always remember three key words in a marriage: “Please, thanks and sorry.”