According to Kristin Chenoweth – Tony and Emmy Award winner – she is a “shortie,” a Christian, an “Okie” and marriage equality supporter.
More on HRC’s Americans for Marriage Equality campaign here.
Kristin Chenoweth for Marriage Equality
SCOTUS issues stay on 4th Circuit Court ruling on Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban
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As expected, the US Supreme Court has issued a stay on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which struck down Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban.
The application for stay was filed with Chief Justice John Roberts who referred the request to the entire Court.
More from Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed:
Notably, the court stated that the stay will “terminate automatically” if it does not take and denies certiorari in the case — which is the process by which the court formally takes cases. If it grants certiorari, then its stay ends when it “send[s] down … the judgment of this Court.”
Sadly, this again postpones the equal rights of gay and lesbian couples in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Justice delayed is justice denied.
The question now is: Which state’s case will SCOTUS take this fall? We shall see…
Indiana: US District judge strikes down same-sex marriage ban – again
Bilerico has the details:
This afternoon, Judge Young sided with the plaintiffs in Bowling v. Pence, the last remaining same-sex marriage case in Indiana. The plaintiffs sued to force the state to recognize their legal same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
Young ordered the state to stop enforcing all Indiana laws preventing same-sex couples from equal treatment in marriage, allow married same-sex couples to file joint tax returns, and provide the same benefits and services to married same-sex couples as it does to married opposite-sex couples.
Judge Young stayed today’s order until the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals rules in the case, or in any of the other Indiana marriage equality cases.
Read more here.
Idaho: No “en banc” hearing at 9th Circuit Court for same-sex marriage ban challenge
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has turned down Idaho’s request to hear Latta v. Otter, the challenge to the state’s same-sex marriage ban, with a panel of eleven judges.
The state asked the court for an initial en banc hearing; in most circuit courts, that would mean all of the judges in the circuit, but since the Ninth Circuit is so large, en banc review consists of a panel of eleven judges.
Latta will be heard on September 8 along with cases from Hawaii and Nevada. Each side in the Idaho case will have 30 minutes, while each side in the Nevada case, Sevcik v. Sandoval, will have 15 minutes, and each side in Jackson v. Abercrombie, the Hawaii case, will have 10 minutes.
Former senior NOM official predicts 50 states of marriage equality by 2015
Jennifer Roback Morse spent 5+ years battling against same-sex marriage – first as a Proposition 8 spokesperson, followed by a senior position with the anti-gay National Organization For Marriage.
Morse now predicts that by this time next year, same-sex marriage will be the law of the land across all 50 states in the US.
I’d love to see that happen. And in truth, this is very possible.
With Utah, Virginia and Oklahoma all requesting SCOTUS to rule on the repeal of their various marriage equality bans, one is bound to get to the high court this year.
We shall see. Apparently, Morse already does.
Virginia: American Foundation for Equal Rights asks SCOTUS to not stay same-sex marriage ruling
Lawyers for AFER filed their official response with Chief Justice John Roberts regarding a stay on the recent same-sex marriage ruling in the 4th Circuit Court:
Today, lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the Bostic case responded to a petition by defendants seeking a stay of the United States Circuit Court for the Fourth Circuit’s decision that found Virginia’s marriage ban unconstitutional by urging the Supreme Court not to delay the issuance of marriage licenses for same-sex couples in Virginia.
The American Foundation for Equal Rights is the primary sponsor of the Bostic case.
“Virginia’s exclusion of gays and lesbians from the fundamental right to marriage causes painful, irreparable, and immeasurable injury to large numbers of its citizens every day and every moment it remains in existence, and humiliates and stigmatizes these individuals and their children in ways too numerous to enumerate,” said Ted Olson, lead co-counsel for the Bostic plaintiffs. “Courts all over the country are overwhelmingly and with an unprecedented degree of unanimity recognizing that there is no legal basis for continuing to impose this kind of harm on our fellow citizens. There is no justification for staying the effect of the Fourth Circuit’s decision upholding the rights of Virginians to marry the person they love.”
Prince William County Clerk Michèle McQuigg filed her petition to stay the Fourth Circuit Court’s mandate on Thursday, August 14, 2014.
Should Chief Justice Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court Justice responsible for emergency petitions made within the Fourth Circuit, deny the stay request, marriages for gay and lesbian couples would be set to begin at 8 a.m. on Thursday, August 21, 2014.
I would be very happy but stunned if Chief Justice Roberts were to deny the request for stay.
(via press release)
Marriage News Watch – August 18, 2014
From the American Foundation for Equal Rights:
• Major news in Virginia this week, where the Fourth Circuit has refused to delay marriage equality for any longer. Now anti-gay defendants have asked the US Supreme Court to step in at the last minute.
• A judge in Tennessee has upheld that state’s marriage ban, on the basis of outdated arguments regarding procreation.
• And over a dozen couples successfully register marriage licenses in Mississippi during a coordinated day of action.
Adorable Garfunkel and Oates song “Rainbow Connection”
In this week’s episode of Garfunkel and Oates, Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci introduced their new song, “Rainbow Connection” — a sweetly touching ode to marriage equality and how love comes in every shade of the rainbow.
Garfunkel and Oates centers on the aspirations and misadventures of the female comedy-folk duo Riki Lindhome (Garfunkel) and Kate Micucci (Oates), whose career choices – singing satirical and sometimes dirty songs – leaves them with little in common with their peers, and no one but each other to turn to for support and understanding.
New poll shows solid majority of Americans support same-sex marriage
A new McClatchy-Marist Poll shows opinions towards the LGBT community continue to change for the better at an exponential rate.
From the new poll:
• Adults as a whole support marriage equality 54-38 percent
• Young adults 18-29 favor same-sex marriage by 75-18 percent
• Adults 30-44 favor same-sex marriage 55-38 percent
• Adults 45-59 favor same-sex marriage 49-40
• 71 percent of American adults say they know someone who’s gay. In 1999, a Pew poll showed that 60 percent of Americans said they didn’t know anyone who was gay.
• 48 percent said they wouldn’t be upset if one of their children told them they were gay.
I wonder what Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage will think of these results?
Happy Friday, Brian!
Virginia: Alliance Defending Freedom asks SCOTUS to stay 4th Circuit’s same-sex marriage ruling
And… right on cue, the viciously anti-gay Alliance Defending Freedom has filed an official request asking the US Supreme Court to stay the 4th Circuit of Appeals ruling which says Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional.
The request is predicated on the idea that there is a “fair prospect” that SCOTUS will overturn the Fourth Circuit and so, no marriages should take place until that happens.
Or else there will be “irreparable harm.” See the full brief below.
Should SCOTUS does not act on this request, same-sex marriages will begin next Thursday in Virginia at 8AM.