LGBTQ news and entertainment
Every state in the US which has a law outlawing marriage equality now has a legal challenge filed in court.
Seven couples filed suit in Fargo, North Dakota, today taking aim at the state’s same-sex marriage ban AND the state’s failure to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
North Dakota passed it’s ban on marriage equality in 2004.
Currently 19 states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex couples to legally wed.
According to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, 50% of Americans believe that same-sex marriage is protected by the US Constitution under the Equal Protection clause. Forty-three percent do not agree.
It is the Equal Protection clause that has been cited in case after case, in state after state, as the basis for successful passage of same-sex marriage rights.
To the broader point of support for marriage equality in general, 56% of Americans support the freedom to marry while 38% oppose.
The Washington Post has an interactive map which shows the current status of same-sex marriage state by state.
FOX News has no idea that marriage equality is being legalized across the country.
Via Media Matters:
For the four states – New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Pennsylvania – where same-sex marriage has taken effect as a result of court rulings post-Windsor, Fox News has provided a scant two minutes and 14 seconds of coverage, compared with nearly 16 minutes from CNN and more than an hour from MSNBC:
Regarding the 13 court rulings since United States v. Windsor – all favoring marriage equality – FOX News has spent barely 10 minutes covering the rulings.
So much for “fair and balanced.”
More at Media Matters.
The Parliament of Slovakia voted today, 102 out of 150 lawmakers, to change it’s constitution banning same-sex marriage. Only 18 lawmakers voted against the measure.
Although a 2012 poll showed 47% of Slovaks support civil unions, there is no legal recognition of same-sex relationships in Slovakia. Gay couples are also not allowed to adopt.
In 1992, Czechoslovakia split into the two countries of Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic allows for civil unions and is considered to be one of the more gay friendly countries in Central Europe.
The US Supreme Court has just announced it will NOT put same-sex marriage in Oregon on hold.
From LGBTQ Nation:
The court issued an order Wednesday declining to block any new same-sex unions in the state while a federal appeals court considers whether an anti-gay marriage group can intervene in the case.
The order follows an emergency appeal by the National Organization for Marriage that seeks to overturn the May 19 ruling of U.S. District Judge Michael McShane. The group had unsuccessfully tried to intervene in the lower court proceeding after Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum declined to defend the same-sex ban.
Hundreds of same-sex Oregon couples have obtained marriage licenses since McShane’s order.
The full court considered the request from NOM, and it was denied without comment.
Take that, haters!
News site Vox shares this handy-dandy animated GIF of the progress of marriage equality through the years to now.
Using data from the Census Bureau, the GIF shows the growth state by state AND by population percentages of Americans who can now enjoy the freedom to marry.
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| Idaho Gov. Butch Otter |
Gov. Butch Otter of Idaho has filed a request with the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court to hear his state’s appeal regarding the recent same-sex marriage ban’s repeal to be heard by a full 11-judge panel instead of the usual 3-judge panel.
From the Spokesman.com:
“Because the marriage issue is so passionately contested and so divisive among the citizenry, the perception of the legitimacy of this court’s resolution of it must be of paramount concern,” attorneys for the governor argue in their motion. “A decision by an 11-judge panel stands far higher and stronger than does a decision by a three-judge panel, just as a decision by a three-judge panel stands far higher and stronger than does a decision by a single judge.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale last month overturned Idaho’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, saying it violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process; four Idaho couples had sued, saying their constitutional rights were violated by the state not allowing them to marry or not recognizing their legal marriages from other states.
The appeal was immediately filed with the Ninth Circuit Court when the initial ruling was issued. However, it is unusual to go directly to a full “en banc” hearing. Normally, an appeal works it’s way through a 3-judge panel, and then to “en banc” as an appeal or directly to the US Supreme Court.
The Ninth Circuit Court has ordered that the case be handled swiftly, with briefing over the summer and arguments in the second week of September.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit against the state of Florida filed on behalf of eight same-sex couples seeking recognition of their out-of-state marriages.
With an argument NO state has yet to find successful in court, AG Bondi writes in court documents that recognizing the marriages would “impose significant public harm.”
From ABC News:
Bondi’s office also argues that the state has a legitimate interest in defining marriage as between a man and woman. Florida first banned same-sex marriages nearly two decades ago and voters reinforced that ban when they passed a constitutional amendment in 2008.
“Florida’s marriage laws, then, have a close, direct, and rational relationship to society’s legitimate interest in increasing the likelihood that children will be born to and raised by the mothers and fathers who produced them in stable and enduring family units,” Bondi’s office said in court documents.
The state’s legal position also notes that there would be significant financial and logistical problems for the state’s pension and health insurance programs if same-sex marriages were recognized.
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| Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch |
Seven term Republican Senator from Utah Orrin Hatch indicated during a radio interview with KSL Radio’s “Doug Wright Show” that he views marriage equality as inevitable, and anyone who doesn’t think so “Isn’t living in the real world.”
“Let’s face it, anybody who does not believe that gay marriage is going to be the law of the land just hasn’t been observing what’s going on. There is a question whether [the courts] should be able to tell the states what they can or cannot do with something as important as marriage, but the trend right now in the courts is to permit gay marriage and anybody who doesn’t admit that just isn’t living in the real world.
“We have an excellent federal bench [in Utah]. Other federal judges down there might not have arrived at the same conclusion that these two have. But I think it’s a portent of the future that sooner or later gay marriage is probably going to be approved by the Supreme Court of the United States, certainly as the people in this country move towards it, especially young people.
“I don’t think that’s the right way to go; on the other hand, I do accept whatever the courts say.”
It should be noted that Hatch played a key role, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in the nominations of both Robert Shelby (who ruled Utah’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional) and Dale Kimball (who recently declared Utah must recognize those same-sex couples who married in Utah during the brief window between late December and January 6).
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, in a Google Hangout with El Tiempo, says he supports equal marriage rights for same-sex couples:
“Marriage between homosexuals to me is perfectly acceptable and what’s more I am defending unions that exist between two people of the same sex with the rights and all of the same privileges that this union should receive.
“If these unions are called marriage or not is secondary to me. For me it is important that they have their rights.”
In South America, same-sex marriage is presently legal in Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.