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| Gay married in Utah! Photo courtesy of Reddit. |
A federal judge in Utah on Friday struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, saying the U.S. Constitution offers the same equal protection and due process rights to same-sex individuals to marry the person of their choice that it gives heterosexual individuals.
"The state’s current laws deny its gay and lesbian citizens their fundamental right to marry and, in so doing, demean the dignity of these same-sex couples for no rational reason," wrote U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby in the 53-page decision. "Accordingly, the court finds that these laws are unconstitutional."
In the ruling, Shelby enjoined the state from enforcing two different statutes that ban same-sex marriage as well as Amendment 3 to the state’s constitution, approved by Utah voters in 2004.
As news of the ruling broke, hundreds of people descended on county clerk offices around the state to request marriage licenses. At the Salt Lake County Clerk’s Office, a First Baptist pastor was on hand to conduct wedding ceremonies. Michael Ferguson, 32, and Seth Anderson, 31 were the first same-sex couple to receive a license there and be married.
I was amazed to learn the other day that same sex marriage is now legal in 17 states. Seventeen!
I had apparently lost track of how much progress was being made on this issue, but now that I know I am very excited about the future.
Let's face it, if this can happen in Utah it can, and will, happen everywhere.
So good to be on the right side of history, don't you think?
the duck people are all fakes. images start @3:15.
ReplyDelete"a manufactured image by rich assholes to sell you guys shit"....
http://linkis.com/demu.gr/Eeim
Well, I'm gonna be a married gay man on the 27th, when me and my partner of 37 years travel a half hour up into Maryland from Virginia. We already got the license on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteOf course we'll immediately not be legal once we get home, but in January we'll have a democratic governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, so I'm optimistic. McAuliffe is an Obama man all the way, pro-marriage equality included, so maybe even if Robert E. Lee has to roll over in his grave, there might be blue skies here to come yet.
Best of luck to you and your husband. 37 years is a long time and I congratulate you both!
DeleteWhat a great way to start a new year!
DeleteCongratulations and may you have many happy years together!
Happily I can tell you we got the honeymoon acrobatics out of the way in the 70s, because they'd surely kill us now. :)
DeleteMy best to you both! May the happiness you feel now and on your wedding day remain fresh are your lives!
DeleteBest Wishes! My hope is that future social scientists will prove gay marriages are more stable. loving and long-lasting than hetero marriages.
DeleteThis is truly joyous news, dviaries. I rejoice in your love and commitment.
DeleteCongrats, I'd wish you a log and happy marriage but you have been together longer than our 36 yrs :)
DeleteI wonder how many couples would still get married after that time? You two have something very special in each other.
Best wishes and congratulations! I am so happy for you! I live in MD, used to live in VA and still visit there frequently, and I'm overjoyed that VA will soon have a 100% Dem administration. They will have their work cut out for them, because of the throwbacks in the general assembly, but it's a massive improvement from that tragic day four years ago when McDonnell/Cucinelli/Obenshain darkened VA's door.
DeleteSorry. My reply at 11:39 should read "...fresh ALL your lives."
DeleteSO happy to hear the good news! Listen for the popping of champagne corks as you pass through the District of Columbia, as Casa Biscuitbarrel celebrates your nuptials!
DeleteThank you all you kind fellow posters :)
DeleteTo anon 1:35, even though the Democrats took the state, my county went to Cuccinelli, Jackson and Obershain :o just as McCain/Palin took it in '08 and Romney & Ryan in '12. We are shins-deep here in teabaggers, modern day Archie Bunkers with no laughs about them.
Barry & Michelle and Bill & Hillary all personally stumped for Terry, maybe making the difference in what put him over, and I'm sure he won't forget the favor.
Sorry for being late, but I wish you both all the best life has to offer!
DeleteCongrats to you and your partner, dvlaries!
ReplyDeleteSome wag on another blog left a message saying he was pleased that Utah passed ME because now Mormons could have polygamous gay marriages.
It was funny in the context...
Thank you, and 10:32 also.
DeleteSeriously, I think those polygamous sects have found ways to conceal closet-case gay men in their midst, simply in the way the girls are raised not to question their husbands doings. Unless I'm wrong too, the women don't get to leave the compounds at all, or without heavy chaperoning, while the men are free to do as they please. About as ideal as setups get for men who want hide anything.
Reminder: the second "m" is silent.
DeleteUtah judge also struck down law about marital cohabitation. The first wife you can legally marry but after that it would not make any legal difference if the "sister wives" were common law. Unlicensed Co-habitation. So they have managed to get around the bigamy problem and polygamy would thus be allowed. LDS came out not approving but FLDS is on their way to getting what they want, Fundies really need to control their nooky....and will get their holy books translated to cover their needs.
ReplyDeleteRJ in Brownbackistan
Not the way I read it. Bigmy still exists. Unless they try to legally (not Mormonly) marry their extra wives, they can't be arrested fro shack up.
Delete1:15: Read it again. Bigamy is more than one licensed and married under the law wives. Co-habitation is allowed.....Mormons have done it that way on the compounds for many, many years but it wasn't legal under Utah law....until now.
DeleteI look forward to the day when this does NOT make the news because ALL of the states allow same-sex marriage.
ReplyDeleteAnd that day is coming sooner than I would have imagined just a few years ago!
It will be just a few years I believe. What on earth will the religious folk bitch about then?
DeleteAint' it the truth!
DeleteI credit the increasing acknowledgement of the supremacy of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to this quickening momentum. Holy Marinara, we Pastafarians are happy as penne in puttanesca. Extra parmigiana, per favore!
Like hrh. R'amen.
DeleteAdd me to the line. There should be no distinction between "Gay" and "Straight". It's simply "Marriage". I never understood the outrage "Straight" people have made over this issue, after all, Straights are historically not that good at it, yet they claim to be "experts" on marriage.
DeleteThat should be 18 states. The link you posted didn't include Utah.
ReplyDeleteThe governor is in conference to try to determine what can be done to appeal the ruling. They WILL be filing for a higher court. Count on it.
DeleteWell, it's taken you guys long enough but finally, you're beginning to catch up to us folks in the GWN (Great White North, and I don't mean Alaska)!
ReplyDeleteOh! and they have already filed for an immediate hold on the ruling to stop any more marriages from happening.
ReplyDeleteThe floodgates have been blasted open and gay marriage is becoming accepted in more and more states. Soon it will be universal, ubiquitous, everyday... no big deal.
ReplyDeleteIn many way it mirrors mixed-race marriages in that less than fifty years ago it WAS a HUGE deal and today - meh...
In 1964 (or thereabouts) Captain Kirk kissed Lt. Uhuru right on the mouth and TV stations across the country got bomb and burning threats. Today we have a cute commercial for Cheerios that features a black dad and a white mom and except for a few batshit crazy Xtians hardly anyone else even noticed.
It will be that way for our gay brothers and sisters sooner than you think. And that is as it should be.
But it makes one wonder...
WHO are the Christians going to hate next?
woman have filled that role for centuries.
DeleteAs soon as it's legal in Alaska Todd can dump the witch and get him a real man like he's always wanted.
ReplyDeleteBristol Bay Mounting! *LOL*
DeleteAhh, the "Patriarch" of the northern contingent of the "Quack Die Nasty", Purses and all!
DeleteOne thing is rather profound with the election of a black President, same sex marriage sweeping the nation and the Republican political sinking like a ship after hitting an ice berg. White christians sure are not adapting to becoming a minority group very well.
ReplyDeleteIt's ironic the three states Mitt Romney claims residency, Massachusetts, Utah and Claifornia all allow same sex marriage. Hey, Mitt, keep the tide going, buy homes in the other 32 states that currently think they can ban same sex marriage!
ReplyDeleteIt's very, very good news! Even though the ruling is being appealed, I don't see how the state appellants can win, based on the U.S. Supreme Court's own ruling.
ReplyDeleteThe far right wing "Christians" have had a rough time this past week, and are probably thinking our time on earth is about to come to an end. It's again the activist judges who are pushing us toward the end with their sinful rulings. And the liberals also must take a large portion of the blame in this for even questioning the Constitutionality of the law against gay marriage.
ReplyDeleteDespite the fact we thought Palin's 15 minutes of fame is about to come to an end, she just got a little more support from the far right giving her a few more minutes to voice what the far right is thinking. That's the real sin in this ruling as well as the same ruling a couple of days ago.
Serves them right for sticking their noses in California's business.
ReplyDeleteOf all the accomplishments President Obama has made in his first five years in office, the progress of Marriage Equality is the one that surprised me the most. In five short years, people who never dreamed they'd live to see Marriage Equality in their lifetimes (Me included), especially after the GWBush Presidency and his "Faith Based Initiative" (to prejudge according to writings in the bible), All the rights of marriage are being extended to my LGBT Brothers, Sisters, nephews, nieces and parents.
ReplyDeleteIt took the first African American President, because he knows the meaning of history, bigotry and hate for no good reason, and wants to right that wrong for ALL Citizens.