LGBTQ news and entertainment
From the Michelangelo Signorile Show on Sirius XM Radio:
On Friday, the Supreme Court handed down it’s historic ruling on marriage equality in the US.
Michelangelo Signorile took calls from listeners and Robert in Wisconsin told him how his parents left him money is their will for him to finally get married.
Robert said during the call that the SCOTUS decision “Made me feel that I was valued, and that I matter as a person now.”
Via the Austin Statesman:
County clerks can refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples based on religious objections to gay marriage, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Sunday. Paxton noted that clerks who refuse to issue licenses can expect to be sued, but added that “numerous lawyers stand ready to assist clerks defending their religious beliefs,” in many cases without charge. The formal opinion did not specify what constitutes a sincerely held religious belief, noting that “the strength of any such claim depends on the particular facts of each case.”
“Friday, the United States Supreme Court again ignored the text and spirit of the Constitution to manufacture a right that simply does not exist. In so doing, the court weakened itself and weakened the rule of law, but did nothing to weaken our resolve to protect religious liberty and return to democratic self-government in the face of judicial activists attempting to tell us how to live,” Paxton said. Paxton’s opinion also noted that judges and justices of the peace can refuse to perform same-sex marriages.
Bolding is mine.
This has been my question: WHAT will constitute a “sincerely held religious belief?” Will folks be able to suddenly claim such beliefs out of thin air?
I believe some folks may have such deep religious tenets, but what if someone is just a hater and decides to use “deeply held religious beliefs” as a shell of a defense?
And by the way – if you are a civil governmental employee like a county clerk or a judge, you should have to do your job. Suddenly state employees can decide what tasks they want to do?
Here’s the full “opinion.”
The Rhodes Brothers capture the energy on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in the moments leading up to the historic ruling on marriage equality.
This is joy.
From Matt Baume at American Foundation for Equal Rights:
Last Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution protects marriage for everyone — including same-sex couples. It is a decision we have been waiting decades for.
And now, all our work is, well, actually, not quite done yet. Let’s take a look at what the court just decided, and what comes next.
Very sensitive piece by CBS’ Sunday Morning chronicling the journey of marriage equality in the US, the historic ruling this past Friday, and the dignity of same-sex marriage.
CNN’s Jake Tapper asks GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump how he can say he only support “traditional marriage” when he himself has been married three times…?
Trump’s answer? He really doesn’t give one.
Tyne Daly, currently starring on Broadway in IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU, took a few moments at Friday’s curtain call to celebrate the historic news of marriage equality with the audience.
During her curtain speech Tyne explained her own very personal connection to the issue of marriage equality for all.
Very touching, heartfelt and worth your three minutes.
Watch below:
Yes, it’s true that four Supreme Court justices dissented from Justice Kennedy’s ruling that granted the freedom to marry nationwide.
But that doesn’t mean that everything those in the minority wrote makes complete sense.
Matt Baume takes a look at the reasons they gave for objecting to marriage equality — and why their reasoning really does not hold up.
Reuters reports that although the ruling by SCOTUS makes marriage equality the law of the land in the United States, two states remain holdouts:
Same-sex marriage remained on hold in Louisiana and Mississippi, even as a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Friday legalizing it nationwide led to gay couples joyously tying the knot in other states that banned such weddings before the decision.
In Louisiana, Republican Attorney General Buddy Caldwell’s office issued a statement saying that it had “found nothing in today’s decision that makes the Court’s order effective immediately.”
The Louisiana Clerks of Court Association advised clerks not to issue licenses for 25 days, the period in which the Supreme Court could be petitioned for a rehearing, said New Orleans lawyer Brandon Robb, who works with the gay community.
Mississippi was waiting until a lower court lifted a stay to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, said state Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat, adding that his office would not stand in the way of the ruling.
