After The Arguments: GETTIN' SASSY WITH How Will SCOTUS Rule? GINGER MINJ – PG. 18 Michigan Womyn's Fest Says 2015 Is Last Year The Word Of REBAA Country Icon Stands Up For Gay Marriage WWW.PRIDESOURCE.COM APRIL 30, 2015 | VOL. 2318 | FREE COVER 14 The word of Reba Photo: Big Machine GETTIN' SASSY WITH After The Arguments: GINGER MINJ How Will SCOTUS Rule? – PG. 18 Michigan Womyn's Fest Says 2015 Is Last Year The Word Of A Country Icon Stands Up For Gay Marriage REBA FREE APRIL 30, 2015 | VOL. 2318 | WWW.PRIDESOURCE.COM NEWS Cool Cities 4 Supreme Court hears same-sex Ferndale marriage cases 6 Michigan’s SCOTUS courtside campers 8 MiRFRA heard before Senate judiciary committee 9 Michigan Womyn’s Fest says 2015 is last year 12 Pro and anti-LGBT activists hit Lansing OPINION 10 Parting Glances 10 Viewpoint YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD • YOUR MARKET 12 Creep of the Week Pinpoint your ad dollars where LIFE they will do the most good . 16 Dine Out in Ferndale to save Advertise in the next Cool Cities Michigan lives TO PLACE AN AD CALL 734.293.7200 18 A taste of Ginger Minj 22 Happenings 26 Puzzle www.PrideSource.com April 30, 2015 | BTL 3 Supreme Court Hears Same-Sex Marriage Cases BY LISA KEEN society until 2001 ever had it,” Scalia told Bonauto. The very first question from Justice Alito took the discussion the U.S. Supreme Court bench back even further than Ginsburg Tuesday morning was about the and Scalia, to ancient Greece, noting rights of states to regulate marriage that same-sex relationships were and, though attorneys for same-sex accepted then but that there were couples tried numerous times to no marriages between same-sex refocus attention to the damage that couples. bans on same-sex marriage inflict “So their limiting marriage to on the rights of LGBT people, the couples of the opposite sex was focus stayed largely on states’ rights not based on prejudice against gay throughout the historic argument. people, was it?” asked Alito. For two and a half hours – more Bonauto tried to make the point than twice the time most cases that a big difference between other get – an animated bench grilled cultures and other times is that the attorneys for same-sex couples and United States, from its inception, the four states that seek to ban their made “a commitment to individual marriages. liberty and equality.” Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Breyer brought up the Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan states’ “wait and see” rationale and Stephen Breyer asked most of for denying marriage to same-sex the tough questions to challenge couples, to which Bonauto noted that the governmental interest served states, including Virginia in Loving by banning same-sex couples from v. Virginia, offered that rationale marriage. Chief Justice John Roberts to justify miscegenation laws. The and Justices Antonin Scalia and Supreme Court struck down those Samuel Alito asked most of the tough laws, noted Bonauto, even though GLAD Attorney Mary Bonauto, who argued question 1 for plaintiffs speaks to media immediately following the U.S. Supreme Court questions to parties seeking to strike hearings Tuesday. Photo courtesy Freedom To Marry 80 percent of the public supported down those bans. Per his routine, such bans and the Supreme Court’s Justice Clarence Thomas asked no unconstitutional. In asking her striking down of those laws was questions, and true to his role as question, Ginsburg referred to the True to his role as the court’s most considered a “profound change.” the court’s most unpredictable vote, court’s 2013 landmark decision in Solicitor General Don Verrilli Justice Anthony Kennedy asked U.S. v. Windsor, in which the court unpredictable vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy repeatedly reminded the court that a tough questions of both sides. emphasized states’ rights to regulate “wait and see” approach to the issue The packed courtroom was marriage as it struck down the key asked tough questions of both sides. leaves “the nation as a house divided” equally lively, laughing frequently, provision of the federal Defense of in the same way racial segregation applauding once and, at one point, Marriage Act (DOMA), which had did. And leaving the issue to voters, a man at the back of the courtroom prohibited the federal government he said, “will be saying is that the as the role of women, but that the Ginsburg seemed to respond to jumped up and began ranting loudly from recognizing marriages licensed demeaning, second-class status that equal protection clause of the 14th Kennedy’s comment when she said and incessantly about the Bible, to same-sex couples in some states. gay and lesbian couples now inhabit Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to Bonauto: “abominations” and that gays would “States do have primacy over in states that do not provide for provides “enduring guarantees” to “You wouldn’t be asking for “burn in hell.” Such outbursts have domestic relations except that their marriage is consistent with the equal citizens. this relief if the law of marriage occurred in the court recently on laws must respect the constitutional protection of the laws. That is not a Kennedy jumped in next, first was what it was a millennium ago. other issues and the man’s disruption rights of persons, and Windsor wait-and-see,” said Verrilli. “That is noting that it has been about 10 I mean, it wasn’t possible,” said seemed well-timed, given that it did couldn’t have been clearer about a validation.” years since the Supreme Court struck Ginsburg. “Same-sex unions would not interrupt any attorney’s allotted that,” said Bonauto. “And here we John Bursch, a special assistant down sodomy laws – an amount of not have opted into that pattern of time before the bench. have a whole class of people who attorney general from Michigan, time comparable to the time between marriage, which was a dominant But, as is also routine, the are denied the equal right to be urged the court to affirm “every when the court struck down state and a subordinate relationship. Yes, justices engaged in a great deal of able to join in this very extensive individual’s fundamental liberty mandated racial segregation of it was marriage between a man and interrupting attorneys throughout government institution that provides interest” to decide the meaning of schools and when it struck down a woman, but the man decided where the proceeding. protection for families.” marriage by ensuring that voters state laws banning interracial the couple would be domiciled; it Barely a minute into Gay & Chief Justice John Roberts jumped be able to define marriage through marriages. It was an initial ray of was her obligation to follow him.” Lesbian Advocates & Defenders’ on Bonauto’s choice of words, the democratic process. The state’s hope that Kennedy was heading in “There was a change in the Mary Bonauto’s opening comments saying same-sex couples weren’t marriage laws, he said, were the direction of striking down state institution of marriage,” said about how laws banning same-sex seeking the right to “join” marriage developed “to serve purposes that, laws. But then he compared 10 years Ginsburg, “to make it egalitarian couples from marrying convey a but to “redefine” them. The comment by their nature, arise from biology.” to the “millennia” of years during when it wasn’t egalitarian.” “stain of unworthiness,” Justice echoed his remarks in 2013 and Just as the question of whether which people thought of marriage as Justice Scalia soon entered the Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked how hinted early on that Roberts is not a states can ban same-sex marriage being between a man and a woman. fray to say the question “is not the “federal government’s historic likely vote in favor of striking down seemed to rely largely on how “This definition has been with us whether there should be same-sex deference to states when it comes state bans on same-sex marriage. Kennedy will ultimately vote, the for millennia. And it’s very difficult marriage, but who should decide to matters of domestic relations” Bonauto attempted to make court seemed split on the question for the Court to say, ‘Oh, well, we the point.” should influence the court’s decision the point that many things have of whether a state can refuse to know better.’” “And you’re asking us to decide on whether the state bans are changed for society over time, such Within just a few minutes, it for this society when no other See next page 4 BTL | April 30, 2015 www.PrideSource.com ® Supreme Court Amendment’s guarantees of equal protection Continued from p. 4 and due process. The Supreme Court will most likely take recognize a marriage license from another until the end of June to issue its decision. Until state. But the overriding concern Tuesday was then, legal scholars and media will analyze how the court would rule on the first question: the two and a half hours of arguments to find Does the 14th Amendment require a state to clues for how each justice is leaning on both license a marriage between two people of the questions posed and to speculate how the same sex? majority will rule. Gay legal activists at the argument Tuesday The fact that six justices agreed last year expressed optimism that Kennedy will come not to hear appeals from states seeking to through with the majority vote. keep their bans will prompt most to predict a victory for marriage equality. (It takes the support of at least four of the nine justices Now The Wait Begins to take an appeal.