(Make sure to read Night Owl’s comment – promoted by buhdydharma )
(Crossposted from The Free Speech Zone)
SAN FRANCISCO – Proposition 8, the same-sex marriage ban that California voters approved last year, will stand as a constitutionally acceptable exercise of voters’ free will, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, but the estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who wed last year will still be recognized as married.
After the pre-ruling chants of “Equality now!”, hundreds of same-sex marriage advocates booed, hugged and wept while a relatively small number of their opponents cheered on McAllister Street as readers recited from copies of the 136-page, 6-1 ruling, issued on the courthouse steps at 10 a.m.
Beneath the buzz of helicopters and amid a jungle of television trucks, same-sex marriage advocates vowed to bring the issue back before voters either next year or in 2012.
Later, a large group of protesters peacefully blocked the intersection of Van Ness Avenue and Grove Street outside City Hall for several hours. Police led them away, arresting them one by one, as hundreds more looked on, cheering. Police said 175 protesters were arrested.
So today, the court upheld a decision that the word “marriage” does not hinder the ability of same-sex couples to have the same rights as “married” couples in the state of California so the court sees no reason to disregard the vote on Prop. 8 to define marriage in their state constitution as “only being between a man and a woman”.
If you haven’t punched the fucking computer screen by now, here, watch this:
These people won in California today.
The religious right are so desperate and declining in importance that this one issue is going to be their flagship.
A word, a single word that stands between the federal recognition of the love of two people is being held hostage by the religious for their own selfish principles to be imposed on others as if to remind everyone that “god” does not approve of gays.
And that’ll make the LGBT do….what exactly?
Go “oh, well, I guess your right, i’m saved now and dumped the fag, tell me more about this ‘Jesus’ you speak of!”
I would really like to know what their all out strategy is on this. I don’t think they’ve thought this through past “Rally parish, raise money, post ads, vote down gay marriage.”
Then when all the gays are not allowed to get married you’ve….bought time for “god” to come and “save” them?
I don’t mind the religious until they cut into “secular” territory like “laws” and use faith instead of rationality to justify their position on an issue.
Being an atheist (only by definition and not subscribing to a group equal to a religion that are bonded by a single belief) it allows me to think. I honestly love it. For example, look how easy it is to make decisions by cutting out an imaginary middle man.
Do you believe gays should be allowed to marry?
Yup.
Why?
why not?
Well, some believe that it is a sin and against the will of God.
Lots of decisions in life are complicated enough without worrying about looking up what it says on the decision in a religious book that is the recorded history equivalent of 2000 years of the game “telephone” where the original message is most likely lost or made up as it gets passed from person to person. Why bother ya know?
I think there’s a non-religious reason these people are working hard to “preserve the institution of marriage”.
Religion is the only thing keeping their family together in most cases. It’s all they have.
Some of these families, without belief in god and rejection of homosexuality, are empty shams that are being propped up only by laying down the religious foundation and erecting the faux christian stilts to display the billboard of “real marriage” to the gays. In a sense, when they say “without god in our family we are not a family” is more rational truth then you can usually get from people of faith opposing gay marriage. Also, gay bashing is sometimes the hobby of those that are gay themselves and feel they can’t be openly (married and unmarried individuals) or have some other underlying issue that isn’t wholly on the basis of scripture as they proclaim, but the use of scripture is just convenient justification and great cover in front of the public for an otherwise empty or simply “hate-only” argument.
So chin-up LGBT community. We’ll fight the bastards tooth and nail because we all know they’re delaying the inevitable and the righteous. Civil rights movements always win in the end. Years from now, our children will read about these days in their history books with the same “wow, people were fucking stupid back then” perspective that I had when reading about the laws against blacks in the south.
Hate is ignorance that grows into stupidity only to be destroyed by intelligence.
With that said, I wish I could see the look on the faces of the religious when they die and find out there’s no god or afterlife.
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13 years of Catholic school.
Anytime you wanna go toe to toe on translating scripture mofo’s!
I’ll go first, god gave people up to homosexuality as if it was punishment for thinking him to be in the forms of many mythic beasts. Therefore, god did nothing to stop homosexuality and only furthered it’s cause as if to be punishment for not recognizing him. We can then conclude that god is responsible for allowing homosexuality.
Romans 1:1-32
While the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the US Constitution should hypothetically be applied to same-sex marriage to force the States to recognize each others’ same-sex marriage laws (as well as domestic partnership laws for that matter), there is as of yet no case that has determined that to be the true. Moreover, your source complete ignores the fact that at least 39 states have already passed laws outlawing the recognition of same sex marriage performed in other states.
So no, same sex ‘marriage’ is not recognized by all 50 states, and is in fact only recognized by very few of them.
Please don’t misunderstand my motives here. I fully support same sex marriage on both legal and moral grounds, but it seems that a lot of people were so ready to be outraged by the California Supreme Court’s ruling today, that they are now searching for reasons to be upset that simply aren’t there, and in the process are throwing up all sorts on factually inaccurate arguments that only serve to confuse rather than enlighten people on what really happened today.
the California Supreme Court is troubling in 2 ways. One it reinforces the anti-gay movement’s appeal to disallowing marriage between 2 consenting adults. Secondly, the decision upholds the marriages of 18,000 same sex couples while upholding the proposition that barred same sex marriage.
This is the big issue coming out of the decision. This reminds me of several court cases during the 50’s and 60’s that reinforced the concept separate, but equal, in addition to the illogical framing of those people who were already, and continue to be, same sex married couples.
How can 18,000 people be allowed to be married, yet anyone else who seeks a same sex marriage cannot. This won’t fly in the long run and this point will be brought up in future cases at the state level and, more than likely, at the federal level when this case is eventually brought before the Supreme Court.
I fully support same sex marriage and I haven’t seen it ruin the state in which I reside, Massachusetts. So, while this may be a roadblock, it’s a temporary roadblock at best. More and more Americans are realizing that same sex marriage is not the end of society and the moral failing of it’s inhabitants. Indeed, it has done nothing more than to allow individuals the opportunity to enjoy all of life’s pleasures.
Best regards.
…absent a huge change in supreme court doctrine, the federal challenge to prop 8 is likely “died a-bornin'”.
the explanation is a bit long, and i’ll post a diary as soon as i can catch up, but for those who want to see the bad news for themselves, see the majority ruling in “andersen v. king county”, the unsuccesful challenge to washington state’s “defense of marriage act”.
That was a brilliantly done piece of work. It punched so many buttons on so many levels and sowed confusion and doubt from start to finish. I guess the saying remains true – never underestimate your enemy.
I worked at Lotus Development for 13 years. We were the first American corporation to extend same-sex partner benefits. That was a HUGE deal the day that went down. Then again, we were based in the People’s Republic of Cambridge and founded by a guy who was into transcendental meditation. The place was part software business and part social experiment. Acceptance of otherness was just there in the air we breathed. At least for some of us.
Legally, the CA SJC probably made the correct ruling. Law is law. For those people out there who can’t abide the intolerance, we have plenty of room here in MA. And it’s starting to look like all of NE. Given the ongoing climate change you may want to give a thought or two. We can always use more talented, creative, intelligent people here.
The American Revolution was over and done here March 17, 1776. We’ve always been a little bit ahead of the curve.
It’s a good place to liove free. (That was a typo but I’m going to let it stand.)
Shanti.