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We'll Have a Gay Old Time
Author: BobR    Date: 02/14/2014 13:48:32

During the Republican heydey of the last decade, there was an explosion of anti-gay sentiment across the nation, as state after state added anti-gay-marriage amendments to their state constitutions. In 2004, 11 states passed amendments prohibiting gay marriage, and sometimes civil unions as well. It was deliberate, hateful, and - as we are seeing more and more - unconstitutional. It also would seem to go against conservative small-government principals, but hypocrisy has never been seen as a fault in those people.

Late last year, a federal judge in Utah struck down that state's gay marriage ban as unconstitional. Late last night, Virginia joined the "gay marriage club" when that commonwealth's statute was also struck down by a federal judge. The judge immediately stayed the ruling pending appeal, so for now there's still no equality, but it's on the way. At this point - it's inevitable. The equal protection clause ensures that states cannot deny marriage rights afforded in other states, and at the federal level. Like a doomed swimmer standing on the beach watching a tsunami rolling in, the religious conservatives are watching their pet talibanistic project get washed away by the rule of law set forth 230 years ago.

Naturally, they are outraged that the rule of man and the rule of law trumps their chosen religious beliefs. The very amendment which protects their right to believe what they want also protects those who disagree with those beliefs. The last gasp of desperation is apparent in their attempts to hold onto what little enforcement they can achieve. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is trying to introduce a bill that prevents the federal government from regulating marriage:
The Obama Administration should not be trying to force gay marriage on all 50 states. We should respect the states, and the definition of marriage should be left to democratically elected legislatures, not dictated from Washington. This bill will safeguard the ability of states to preserve traditional marriage for its residents.

Naturally, this bill is going nowhere. Just the same, the way it's presented sends a false premise. The failure of anti gay marriage laws in the states isn't about President Obama "forcing" gay marriage on the states - it's about protecting married couples from having their legal rights - guaranteed at the federal level - abrogated from one state to the next. States cannot pass laws that take away rights guaranteed at the federal level.

Kansas is taking a different approach, trying to impose Jim Crow-like laws that would make life miserable and - in some cases - deadly for gay couples and gay people in general:
Gay rights advocates are outraged over a bill — passed by Kansas lawmakers earlier this week — that would allow businesses and state government employees to deny services to same-sex couples if “it would be contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs.”
[..]
Any government employee is given explicit permission to discriminate against gay couples — not just county clerks and DMV employees, but literally anyone who works for the state of Kansas. If a gay couple calls the police, an officer may refuse to help them if interacting with a gay couple violates his religious principles. State hospitals can turn away gay couples at the door and deny them treatment with impunity. Gay couples can be banned from public parks, public pools, anything that operates under the aegis of the Kansas state government.

This is another case of an unconstitutional law that has zero chances of passing the sniff test with a federal judge, when a case inevitably comes before it. Here's hoping this bill dies before someone in Kansas does due to denial of life-saving treatment or service.

It's time for the Supreme Court to take up one of these cases and finally put the nail in the coffin of these religion-based unconstitutional discriminatory laws.
 

19 comments (Latest Comment: 02/15/2014 02:42:16 by TriSec)
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