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2 FEBRUARY 20, 2014 METROWEEKLY.COM METROWEEKLY.COM FEBRUARY 20, 2014 3 Now online at MetroWeekly.com Poliglot: Obama blasts Ugandan bill NewsLGBT Elsewhere: Copenhagen’s big wedding invitation Marriage Momentum As marriage-equality victories stack up, sights remain on the Supreme Court COURTESY AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR EQUAL RIGHTS Plaintiffs in the Virginia case Tim Bostic (left) and Tony London by Justin Snow of today’s opinion, whatever disappear- in many cases pointing to an aspect of the ing trail of its legalistic argle-bargle one Windsor decision in their rulings. chooses to follow, is that DOMA is moti- The latest such ruling came Feb. 13 in AST JUNE, WHEN THE vated by ‘bare ... desire to harm’ couples Virginia, where U.S. District Court Judge Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that in same-sex marriages,” Scalia wrote in Arenda L. Wright Allen found that the Section 3 of the Defense of his fiery dissent. “How easy it is, indeed state’s marriage laws “unconstitutionally Marriage Act defining mar- how inevitable, to reach the same con- deny Virginia’s gay and lesbian citizens the Lriage as between a man and a woman was clusion with regard to state laws denying fundamental freedom to choose to marry.” unconstitutional, Justice Antonin Scalia same-sex couples marital status.” “Justice has often been forged from made a prediction: In the not so distant Scalia’s prediction has not yet come fires of indignities and prejudices suf- future, the question of whether same- to fruition, but the groundwork for such fered,” the ruling declared. “Our triumphs sex couples have a constitutional right a landmark ruling by the nation’s highest that celebrate the freedom of choice are to marry would once again be before court has certainly been set. Indeed, near- hallowed. We have arrived upon another the high court, and the rational set forth ly eight months later, every federal judge moment in history when We the People in that Windsor decision would all but — whether appointed by a Democratic becomes more inclusive, and our freedom ensure a sweeping ruling that legalizes president or a Republican president — to more perfect.” same-sex marriage nationwide. consider state same-sex marriage bans The victories that have been racked “As I have said, the real rationale has found them to be unconstitutional, up in less than a year since June — not 4 FEBRUARY 20, 2014 METROWEEKLY.COM Marriage Momentum COURTESY AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR EQUAL RIGHTS METROWEEKLY.COM FEBRUARY 20, 2014 5 LGBTNews only in federal courts from the South osition 8 case that same-sex couples confident their case would have standing to the Midwest, but also in state courts have a constitutional right to marry, before the Supreme Court because of the from New Mexico to New Jersey — illus- instead deciding last June that Proposi- defense put on by county clerks.) Appeals trates the injection of momentum to the tion 8 supporters did not have standing of decisions in the Utah and Oklahoma marriage-equality movement the Wind- to bring the case before the Supreme cases will be heard by the 10th Circuit sor decision has provided. Court in the first place, and that a lower Court of Appeals, and the 6th Circuit “Federal courts are consistently, regu- court’s ruling striking down California’s Court of Appeals will hear the Ohio and larly now affirming the right of gay and same-sex marriage ban would stand. To Kentucky cases. Any one of those cases, lesbian citizens to be a part of the popu- many observers, the move was seen as a or one of the more than 40 other lawsuits lation and the rest of our citizens with punt by the Supreme Court justices not filed in dozens of states, could make it equal rights to the fundamental right to yet ready to declare a national right to before the Supreme Court. marry,” said Ted Olson, the conservative same-sex marriages. “There are a number of cases that half of the star legal duo who, with David But while that may have been the are winding their way to the Supreme Boies, successfully challenged Califor- case, the brisk pace at which challenges Court,” said Boies. “I think they will nia’s same-sex marriage ban and is now to same-sex marriage bans have worked all get to the Supreme Court at about challenging the Virginia ban. their way through the court could place the same time. The Supreme Court Indeed, in the past two months alone the issue before the Supreme Court soon- can decide to take them all and con- five federal judges have struck down er than anyone anticipated. solidate them, they can take one or constitutional amendments that prohibit “The cases are percolating but they’re more of the cases but not all of them.” recognition of same-sex marriage. With percolating rapidly because people read- According to Olson, this could hap- the Feb. 13 ruling, Virginia joins Utah ing the decisions from the Untied States pen at some point during the Supreme and Oklahoma in having their bans on Supreme Court can tell what they mean,” Court’s next two terms. same-sex marriage struck down. Federal Olson said during a call with reporters. When those cases do arrive before courts have also declared bans in Ohio “Even the dissent in the DOMA case by the court, it will be seen whether Scalia’s and Kentucky prohibiting recognition of Justice Scalia recognized that the court prediction in the DOMA case, which has same-sex marriages legally performed in essentially had decided gay and lesbian cit- been directly cited by several federal other jurisdictions as unconstitutional. izens could not be deprived of their right judges in their decisions siding with mar- In each case, the rationale for such to fundamental happiness and the funda- riage equality, holds true. a ruling has gone back to the sweeping mental right of marriage and equality.” “[T]hat Court which finds it so horrif- ruling penned by Justice Anthony Ken- No one can predict with certainty ic that Congress irrationally and hatefully nedy in the Windsor case. In that deci- when same-sex marriage will again robbed same-sex couples of the ‘person- sion, which found DOMA in violation of appear before the nine Supreme Court hood and dignity’ which state legislatures the Fifth Amendment, Kennedy wrote justices, but it is certain that it will be conferred upon them, will of a certitude that the 1996 law “undermines both the sooner rather than later. be similarly appalled by state legislatures’ public and private significance of state- The recent ruling on the Virginia mar- irrational and hateful failure to acknowl- sanctioned same-sex marriages; for it tells riage ban is expected to be appealed to edge that ‘personhood and dignity’ in the those couples, and all the world, that their the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. (Olson first place,” Scalia wrote. “As far as this otherwise valid marriages are unworthy says that despite the fact that Virgin- Court is concerned, no one should be of federal recognition. This places same- ia Attorney General Mark Herring has fooled; it is just a matter of listening and sex couples in an unstable position of decided not to defend the state ban, he is waiting for the other shoe.” l being in a second-tier marriage.” “The differentiation demeans the cou- ple, whose moral and sexual choices the Constitution protects,” Kennedy contin- ued, “and whose relationship the State Grand Old Gays has sought to dignify. And it humiliates tens of thousands of children now being Gay Republican candidates are leaving the raised by same-sex couples.” That decision, plus the two other gay- closet behind in 2014 rights decisions made by the court and written by Kennedy — the first in 1996 Council and who is seeking to unseat when the high court ruled an attempt by Justin Snow Democratic Rep. Scott Peters in Califor- in Colorado to prohibit discrimination nia’s 52nd Congressional District — fea- protections for gay, lesbian and bisexual tured images of himself holding hands people was unconstitutional; and the sec- N A SIGN OF THE TIMES, gay with his partner, Johnathan Hale, during ond in 2003 when the court struck down Republicans vying for seats in a Pride parade and waving a rainbow flag. anti-sodomy laws — join together to “cre- Congress are not running away “He believes in equality and diver- ate a unified whole,” said Boies, that will from their sexual orientation this sity and is a defender of our personal lead to the most monumental gay-rights Ielection cycle, but on it. freedoms,” a narrator says in an ad that decision by the high court. In an ad published on YouTube last describes DeMaio as a “new generation The Supreme Court never addressed week, Carl DeMaio — an out gay Repub- Republican.” the arguments put forth by the Prop- lican who served on the San Diego City DeMaio is one of three out Republi- 6 FEBRUARY 20, 2014 METROWEEKLY.COM marketplace METROWEEKLY.COM FEBRUARY 20, 2014 7 LGBTNews cans running for Congress in 2014, each bid to become the first out Republican out Democratic candidates. of whom has done little to hide his per- elected to Congress. Tisei served 26 “It is curious to note that while both sonal life from voters. While DeMaio’s years in the Massachusetts State Legis- Sean Eldridge and Clay Aiken tiptoe ad, originally reported on by The Wall lature and is again challenging Demo- around their sexual orientation, the gay Street Journal, is being pegged as a his- cratic Rep.

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