Christmas came early to New Mexico this year. In a sweeping 5-0 ruling, the state Supreme Court said Thursday that banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.
“We hold that the State of New Mexico is constitutionally required to allow same-gender couples to marry and must extend to them the rights, protections, and responsibilities that derive from civil marriage under New Mexico law,” the justices unanimously concluded.
New Mexico presented a unique case, because there was no law on the books that specifically banned marriage equality. As a result, county clerks in eight of the state’s 33 counties began issuing marriage licenses earlier this year. To clear up the confusion over the status of marriage equality, the clerks sought the opinion of the Supreme Court, building on an earlier ruling favorable to marriage.
The state Supreme Court also made a point of demolishing one of the right’s favorite arguments in favor of banning same-sex marriages: that it will have a negative impact on children. After a lengthy exploration of the issue in its decision, the court reached a pithy conclusion.
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“We fail to see how depriving committed same-gender couples, who want to marry and raise families, of federal and state marital benefits and protections will result in responsible child-rearing by heterosexual married couples,” the justices wrote.
New Mexico becomes the seventh state this year to legalize marriage equality. Coupled with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June, 2013 will go down in the books as the year of wedding bells.
See the full list of The 16 States & 1 District Where You Can Get Marrried Now.
Photo credit: New Mexico Supreme Court
GayTampaCowboy
YA HOOOO!
I hope this happens in FLORIDA real soon! I want to marry my man ASAP!
twoguysbrooklyn
Welcome, welcome, welcome New Mexico! #17. Welcome!
Always wanted to visit NM… hmmmm
From Your Friends in New York.
tom-ba
Thank You New Mexico Supreme Court!!!
ivanw2
From Minnesota, welcome to the club! We all hope it will keep getting bigger!
Cam
Seven states THIS YEAR? Wow. No wonder NOM has taken to attacking people over the Duck Dynasty guy. They have completely lost the battle on Marriage.
the other Greg
@twoguysbrooklyn: New Mexico, an oasis of sanity surrounded by… um… just don’t drive there from the east or west!
jwrappaport
@the other Greg: Hey now. Arizona’s beautiful, despite being run by idiots.
ZaneStuart
““We fail to see how depriving committed same-gender couples, who want to marry and raise families, of federal and state marital benefits and protections will result in responsible child-rearing by heterosexual married couples,” the justices wrote.”
That’s not pithy. That’s a well deserved take-down of the idiots still beating the homophobic agenda drum.
indiancowboy
Congratulations to New Mexico from Norway! I have even been visiting the state for some days a long time ago, so the congratulations are heartfelt. I was out of money when I was there, so a security guy and his wife took me into their home on a barren, windswept semi-desert during Thanksgiving. ( I thought he was a policeman and asked if he could put me up in jail, because I had lost my money and had no cards back then:-)
ariniah724
my step-mom just bought a stunning blue Chevrolet Equinox SUV only from working parttime off a home computer… over here……… http://tiny.cc/u1zc8w
Dakotahgeo
NEW MEXICO… #17… JUST GOTTA LOVE IT!!! who’s next? Let’s make it ten by February 14th!!!
Dakotahgeo
NEW MEXICO… #17… JUST GOTTA LOVE IT!!! who’s next? Let’s make it 20 by February 14th!!!
Volvoguy
Thanks NM, that great, hopefully VA is not to far
behind to finally va is for all lovers.
Sweet Boy
Congrats, NM !!
Spike
This is what the catholics and mormons were terrified of. No way to turn this around and it is only going to continue in one direction, marriage equality. And having dumbshits like that Duck Dynasty guy making such to make such comments about gays, only confirms that we as a country are headed in the right direction on this.
Kangol
YAAAAAAAYYYYYYY! Go New Mexico!!!!!
Kangol
@Spike:
So true, Spike, but I would say that most “Catholics,” that is the regular faithful practicing Catholics, are less worried about same-sex marriage than the right-wing, closeted hierarchy. The bishops have a serious problem with happy, loving gay couples and families. The last pope was the perfect embodiment of this. The new pope appears to be a lot better on the issue.
Many of the states with large percentages of Roman Catholics now all have same-sex marriage: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, California, Maryland, Maine, Illinois, Iowa, etc., and New Mexico joins them.
A few with a sizable percentage of Catholics, like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and North Dakota, though, are still a few years away from doing so.
It’s the evangelical-leaning Bible Belt and the Mormon-dominated states that’ll be the last holdouts.
Spike
@Kangol: Agreed, and when I refer to the catholics and mormons, I am referring to the church leadership. Those who encouraged their sheep followers to donate millions of dollars to support Prop H8.
All one as to do is look at the state’s that had anti-miscegenation statutes prior to the Loving vrs. VA SCOTUS decision and that will surely the be the holdouts on marriage equality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_miscegenation.svg