Marriage Equality in California - About Damned Time Culture War of Intolerance by the Right Is Defeated!

I was so pleased to see that there has been a consistent view on overturning the terrible Proposition 8 in the courts at every level.  This represents one more appeal that has ruled in favor of dumping 'Prop 8' as it is referred to colloquially in favor of respecting the long term committed and family relationships of same sex couples.

It is worth noting that the passge of Prop 8 in the first place was funded in large part by contribution of the Mormon Church, and represents the far right wing politics in this country, notably the religious right that has attempted to force their religious beliefs on others, all while giving loud but empty lip service to the word freedom.  I for one am sick of haivng bigoted right wing intolerance be the standard for normal or acceptable, and I am heartily sick of their attempts to force conformity to their world view on the rest of us.  Certainly not all right wingers condemn same sex orientation, as is the case with Log Cabin Republicans.  But it is true of enough of them, and particularly some of the less legitimate fundie religious righties who engage in a hate campaign against same sex relations.  We have had some of our own notable shameful sin-preachers here in Minnesota who promote ignorance and bigotry on the right, who for example make a false assertion about same sex oriented individuals being pedophiles which is factually a LIE.

They have a right to their opinions, however ill-founded and badly grounded, although they like to represent it as fact too much of the time when it is fact-averse.  We have the right not only to reject it, but to prevent it from becoming the intolerant law of bigotry here in MN, should it appear on the 2012 ballot as an amendment.  The right has despaired of successfully forcing their narrow and unpopular views on the majority through legislative attempts; now they hope to find an end run around their legislative failures by using the ballot initiative for a constitutional amendment.  Presumably they are hoping for a large enough voter turn out.  Even if there was passage of such a state constitutional amendment, it is far less likely now that it would survive a legal challenge, given this from the Prop 8 decision:

"Although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different classes of people differently. There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted," the ruling states.

It was perhaps most telling in the earlier lower court hearings that the lawyers on behalf of Prop 8 couldn't come up with any plausible explanation of why it was or how it would be that a gay marriage harmed a hetersexual marriage.  That is because there is no way in which it is a threat to 'traditional marriage'. While it is possible that the SCOTUS would take up this case, I think it is more likely they will not - just a gut feeling from following their cases.  I will be surprised if the Appellate Court agrees to hear this case en banc either; it seems such a meticulously argued case by the winning side, and the rulings seem so careful in their wording and scope that I can't see it being worthy of their time and expense, given competing case loads on their dockets.

Gay rights used to be one of the right wing wedge issues.  Maybe they haven't noticed, that despite the support of religious conservatives, like the Mormons, it isn't a successful wedge issue any more - a wedge issue tends to be one that turns out the base to vote in elections.  In fact the turnout for the 2012 Republican Presidential candidates which typically is dominated by the more extremist factions has had a lower turnout this year, consistently in every state so far, including last weekend in Nevada, than the 2008 and 2010 election cycles.  Given the poor turnout for the Republican candidates, who don't tend to have strong support anyway, given their respective approval and disapproval ratings, I don't see the strategy for a strong supportive vote against Marriage Equality in 2012 for Minnesota Constitutional Amendment like Prop 8.  But one of the things I've noticed about the conservative movement here in Minnesota is that they sincerely believe that most people agree with them, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary - here, next door in WI which tends to be so very similar to us in Minnesota, and across the rest of the nation. Sadly, the conservatives have, as so many people I know put it, abandoned their party members, not the other way round.  The GOP and it's subordinate Tea Party has become reactionary, intollerant, rigid, and reactionary.  They no longer seem as rooted in objective reality as they were in the past - say back around the time of Eisenhower.  Moderate conservative has not always been a derogatory term.  Fiscal responsibility did not alwasy equate to stupid about the economy either, or bought and paid for by the wealthy individuals and corporations to the extent that it does now.

There is by no stretch of the imagination complete consensus on the matter of gay equality or marriage equality, but the trend has been consistently in the direction of a fair recognition of the rights of people to the dignity of respect, including legal respect, for their relationships.  This article from the Center for American Progress last summer covered some of the polling which has shown a strong and steady trend towards support and respect for the relationships and the individual dignity and rights of same-sex oriented Americans.  Just this past month the state of Washington had begun the legislative process to become the next state that legalizes same sex marriages. 

From NBC.com and the wire services, by way of MSNBC.com:

Court: Calif. ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional
Ruling paves way for a likely Supreme Court showdown on voter-approved Prop 8
NBC News and news services
updated 2 hours 15 minutes ago 2012-02-07T18:24:17
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court has declared California's Proposition 8 unconstitutional, paving the way for a likely U.S. Supreme Court showdown on the voter-approved law, NBC News reported.


A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that a lower court judge correctly interpreted the U.S. Constitution when he declared in 2010 that Proposition 8 was a violation of the civil rights of gays and lesbians.


The passage of the ban followed the most expensive campaign on a social issue in U.S. history.


It was unclear when gay marriages might resume in California.


Lawyers for Proposition 8 sponsors and for the two couples who successfully sued to overturn the ban have said they would consider appealing to a larger panel of the court and then the U.S. Supreme Court if they did not receive a favorable ruling.


"Although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different classes of people differently. There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted," the ruling states.


The panel also said there was no evidence that former Chief U.S. Judge Vaughn Walker was biased and should have disclosed before he issued his lower-court decision that he was gay and in a long-term relationship with another man. Walker publicly revealed he was gay after he retired.


Proposition 8 backers had asked the 9th Circuit to set aside Walker's ruling on constitutional grounds and because of the judge's personal life. It was the first instance of an American jurist's sexual orientation being cited as grounds for overturning a court decision.


Walker's successor as the chief federal judge in Northern California, James Ware, rejected the claims about Walker's personal life.


California voters passed Proposition 8 with 52 percent of the vote in November 2008, five months after the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage by striking down a pair of laws that had limited marriage to a man and a woman.

The ballot measure inserted the one man-one woman provision into the California Constitution, thereby overruling the court's decision. It was the first such ban to take away marriage rights from same-sex couples after they had already secured them.


The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and the Law, a think tank based at the University of California, Los Angeles, has estimated that 18,000 couples married during the four-month window before Proposition 8 took effect. The California Supreme Court upheld those marriages but ruled that voters had properly enacted the law.


With same-sex marriages unlikely to resume in California any time soon, Love Honor Cherish, a gay rights group based in Los Angeles, plans to start gathering signatures for a November ballot initiative asking voters to repeal Proposition 8.
Check back for more details on this breaking news story.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Hooray for REAL freedom, real equality, real rights for everyone fairly and without unreasonable prejudice, not the right wing bastardization of narrow ideas that lie about facts, and rigid reactionary conformity to their religious interpretations.  The right's idea of freedom isn't free, not for them, not for the rest of us.  They abuse the word in the way they use it.