Georgia just came 3 votes (it lost 50-117) from passing the state constitutional ban on gay marriage, which would turn the issue over to the Georgia voters (who would likely pass it). http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/election/0204nation/27gaymain.html
It’s not over yet, though, as it will be reconsidered on Monday.
The state’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday mustered the needed two-thirds majority for a proposed constitutional amendment limiting marriage to “a man and a woman” and barring the state from recognizing any type of “domestic union.” The amendment, approved 56-16, now heads to the Senate. If approved it will be placed on the November election ballot for ratification by Utah voters.
Just last week, the House and Senate approved changes to the state’s marriage laws that would essentially have the same effect. They are awaiting the governor’s signature.
According to Andrew Sullivan, “Massachusetts’ marriage licenses, to cite the current controversy, are even issued on the condition that they are void elsewhere if unapproved in other states”, and that Full Faith & Credit does not apply to marriage licenses, making the fear of “activist judges” in a few liberal states overblown, to say the least.
How much of a despicable pandering coward do you have to be to not just ban marriage, but to go above and beyond and prevent the state from even recognizing civil unions, even allowing gays to have the same legal rights as straights? Is there any way to view that as anything but a statement of “We hate gays. Quite frankly, we wish they didn’t exist, but since they do, we’d like them to get the hell out of our state.”
And the bit in Utah, where the legislators defended their right to ammend their constitution to “declare what’s in the nature of God’s law,” actually, you fucking asshole, NO, YOU SPECIFICALLY DO NOT HAVE THAT RIGHT. One of the nice bits about the “seperation of church and state” is that it means you don’t get to craft fucking laws with no god damned basis beyond “we think that this part of the bible means gays should be second class citizens.”
Argh. This bullshit, this blatant, open, proudly-proclaimed sort of bigotry, makes me so angry that I can’t fucking see straight.
Going to be hilarious when straight couples start moving to other states only to have to marry again.
Well, you’d have to find a state that doesn’t accept straight marriage before that happens :)
I think Georgia will pass the amendment :(
The voters who want it are a majority, and it looks like they can come up with the three missing votes on Tuesday. At least it feels like it in this AJC column: http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/wooten/2004/022904.html
Interesting quote: “We are allowed to vote on all sorts of issues that marginally affect our lives, but in its supreme arrogance the black and urban liberal caucus refuses Georgians the right to vote on something as fundamentally important to society as the definition of marriage.”
Say, that sure couldn’t have been said at another time, could it?
