Voters Lodge Setbacks To Marriage Equality
Opponents of marriage equality scored victories in Arizona and Florida on Election Day, where anti-gay marriage ballot measures were passed. Those measures will place bans on gay marriage in the Arizona and Florida constitutions. The states join a raft of others that have adopted similar anti-gay marriage measures. Only three states recognize equal marriage rights for gays, Connecticut, Massachusetts and, until early this morning, California.
The New York Times and Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish have reported that the California ballot initiative, Proposition 8, has been approved by voters. The passage of Proposition 8 strips gay couples in California of full marriage rights. The ballot measure was introduced quickly after the California Supreme Court ruled in May that gays have a state constitutional right to marry. Promotion of the measure was funded largely by the Mormon church and socially conservative lobbying groups, such as James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. Sullivan called the approval of Proposition 8 “heart-breaking” and “a brutal rebuke to the state supreme court, and enshrinement in California’s constitution that gay couples are now second-class citizens and second class human beings. Massively funded by the Mormon church, a religious majority finally managed to put gay people in the back of the bus in the biggest state of the union.”
Written By:Lara Heady On November 5, 2008 2:31 PM Written By:Norris Hall On November 5, 2008 5:55 PM
If a Mormon ever comes to my door, I'm going to slam the door in their faces.
How soon they've forgotten that they had to fight a war with the federal government to defend their rights to polygamy.
What a bunch of hypocrites.
And how soon you have forgotten that once the LDS Church was told to stop practicing polygamy, they did. What hypocrites?
I feel the democratic process has spoken. Just like there are some people who hoped that John McCain would be president, there are some people who hoped that Prop 8 would fail. So what you're doing in devisive and dishonest, undermining the will of the majority.
What you don't understand is that the U.S. is not a "majority-rule" country. There are specific protections in the Constitution that protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. That's why all the white people can suddenly decide to make slaves of all the blacks or hispanics. But I'm not surprised that someone with such a simplistic view of the constitution would have so little understanding of it.
sorry, but I can't buy into the outrage: focus on the substance - complete and equal treatment under the law, such as pension recognition; health care co-rights, and inheritance...and let "Marriage" go! What does the form matter?
This is a diversion, and reminds me of Bill Clinton's distraction up the creek with no paddles in 1993 over gay rights in the military. Get over it guys, focus on the real issues facing you, and have a private ceremony if it's that important!
sorry, but I can't buy into the outrage: focus on the substance - complete and equal treatment under the law, such as pension recognition; health care co-rights, and inheritance...and let "Marriage" go! What does the form matter?
This is a diversion, and reminds me of Bill Clinton's distraction up the creek with no paddles in 1993 over gay rights in the military. Get over it guys, focus on the real issues facing you, and have a private ceremony if it's that important!
Why hasn't this been taken to the U.S. Supreme Court
Because it is the not-particularly-secret strategy of the LGBT legal movement to keep the issue of marriage out of federal courts and avoid an all-or-nothing decision for the whole nation by a conservative Supreme Court until such time as public opinion, existing precedent, and/or the makeup of the Court are deemed more propitious.
I shall re-iderate
14th Ammendment
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Why hasn't this been taken to the U.S. Supreme Court