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Just in time for Pride weekend in San Francisco!! My MIL has been with her wife for 22 years and today was a great celebration for our family
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It's kind of funny...I was following SCOTUSblog when the decision was announced, and my heart swelled with pride. But it wasn't until I came here and saw all the hearts and smiles and happy reactions that I started to cry. What an incredible day. I only wish the SCOTUS had ruled similarly on the VRA....
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I'm so glad.
Definitely staying off Facebook today though... Ugh.
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This is thrilling! I'm so excited about the DOMA ruling, and Prop 8 as well. It makes me hopeful for the future and the continued fight for equal rights for ALL in ALL states!!
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I just saw this on reddit, and is pretty much summed up my reaction this morning:
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@FutureMrsMcK: HAHAHA! I love it.
One of my friends just posted this on FB in response to all the hateful messages popping up online about the decision: "A 30-Second Guide to How the Gay Ruling Marriage Affects You"
http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/a-30-second-guide-to-how-gay-marriage-ruling-affects-you/ -
@mrsjazz: lol!! Love that!!! Especially this:
"If You Are a Heterosexual and Do NOT Want to Enter Into a Homosexual Marriage:
You will not be required to marry a gay person. This is a common misunderstanding. This decision actually does not affect you in any way."
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@mrsjazz: Haha. That's great. Thanks for sharing!
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@mrsjazz: That is brilliant!
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yay!
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Woohoo! This is a big step for our country!
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I'm very excited about both of these rulings today. Although I understand why the Governator and JB didn't want to defend Prop 8, I almost wish they had so this case would have been decided on the merits. I'm extremely happy for the effect that these cases will have on gay marriage (especially in my home state of CA), but I am a less thrilled about the other ramifications of the Prop 8 decision.
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Yipeee!!!! Do we even have any families on hb directly affected?? If so, congratulations to them, hope to hear about some weddings soon! So exciting!
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@honeybear: I simply mean that one of the founding principles upon which our country was built is separation of church and state. People's individual religious beliefs should have no bearing on the laws as we are a secular country. To try to impose the beliefs of any religion on our country is a direct violation of the freedoms upon which we were established.
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@Ree723: I have to disagree. The official motto of the U.S. is "In God We Trust." I would suggest that is not the motto that a secular state would adopt (admittedly, it was adopted a while ago).
The Constitution does not imply a government run by legislators operating without regard to their religious views either. The First Amendment says that Congress is not allowed to make laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise of religion. Those are protections for religion, not mechanisms to keep religion out of the public sphere. Article 6 says you can't have a religious test to qualify for public office. Neither of these say, or even suggest, that religious beliefs must be checked at the door to the Capitol building. Quite the opposite, in fact. The principles of religious freedom that exist in America are derived directly from the Judeo-Christian tradition in which it was founded.
It is easy to take the reductionist approach that only hate-filled zealots clinging tightly to some language in Leviticus could be opposed to same-sex marriage, but I don't think that is intellectually honest. The legislators who voted for DOMA, and President Clinton, who signed it into law, never struck me as bigots determined to impose their religious views on others. "It is hard to admit that one’s political opponents are not monsters," as Justice Scalia correctly observed today.
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@TemperanceBrennan: I kind of wish that California gave the prop 8 case standing to give it merit so that the supreme court could have ruled more broadly on merit instead of on standing.
Edited to add: I see you said the same thing @laineysmom
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So happy and so nice to see all of the support here too
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@Mrs. Jacks: great minds think alike..
I guess in the end I always knew that it was going to come down to the petitioners' standing, since that was the issue at the appellate level. I am pleasantly surprised that they decided that they (the SC) were able to hear the case.
I just don't know how I feel about the effect it's going to have on voter initiatives.. It IS limiting the power of the people. Although after prop 8, Californians should probably be banned from placing initiatives in the ballot anyways. Haha.
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@honeybear: That's only been our motto for 50-something years, and was a Cold War reaction to the USSR's governmental promotion of atheism. I think it was as much due to our (the US's) political stance against the USSR during the Cold War than a celebration of our own religious beliefs. I think that motto was a result of the times, must as I think today's DOMA vote is a result of our times now. Like you said, Clinton generally isn't regarded as anti-gay or very conservative and yet he signed it. Times have changed, thankfully! (Even if we haven't updated our motto).
(I mention the motto stuff only because so often people use it as backup as proof of how religious our nation is, when really, it's more a political reaction than a religious one).
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@honeybear: So then how do we decide which religion's views are going to take precedence? Even amongst Christianity, there are many different branches, all with slightly differing beliefs and values. So do we follow Catholic beliefs? What about the Baptists? Will the Methodists feel left out? You can't make laws based on religious views. It is ridiculous to think that in a country of 330 million people, everyone is going to adhere to the same religious beliefs, especially when, as you pointed out, our constitution protects the right of all people to practice whatever religion they want. Maybe my inference is wrong here, but I also interpret that as saying that religious views cannot be imposed upon those who do not choose to believe them.
The point is that the United States is a secular country and when a law is made, affecting the country as a whole, based on the religious views of some, when it causes no harm to anyone, it is just wrong. Just because someone's interpretation of the bible, or Koran, or Torah, tells them homosexual relationships are wrong, does not mean they have the right to impose that view on others. By all means, if someone believes it is wrong, then don't engage in homosexual relationships, but no one has the right to sit in judgment and deny others their 'god given' equal rights.
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@FutureMrsMcK: hahahahaha I love it.
I'm happy that our country made a stride in the right direction!
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@Ree723: I completely agree, especially since it's believed that some of the founding fathers were deists.
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