Marriage News Watch‘s Matt Baume is back to discuss the recent Prop 8 ruling, as well as marriage equality passing in Washington State and a new bill introduced in Illinois. Plus: Progress in Maryland and New Mexico. Things are heating up in 2012!
MARRIAGE NEWS WATCH
Sam
It’s not unclear. Washington state law is extremely clear. Washington’s marriage equality law cannot go into effect, by law, until June 7. If the NOM-sters gather the signatures they need to get it on the ballot before then, the law is further prevented from taking effect until the voters of Washington get to vote on it. If they vote against it, then it never takes effect. If it never takes effect, then marriage rights were never granted to same-sex couples, and we don’t fall into the extremely narrow reasoning the Ninth laid out in Perry v. Brown.
Perry is a great, if incremental, victory. We need to know that when we win in states that they can’t come back and revoke our victories just because we lose the next election. But you have to get all the way to the win first. Since Washington – like Maine – has a “people’s veto,” that means you have to overcome that hurdle before you win.
Sam
Also, points #2 and #3 were a little weaselly. Yes, the court ruled that there was no legit basis for denying LGBT people equal protection, but it did so based on the reasoning in Romer, which was decided years ago, so nothing new there. And, yes, the decision applies to all the Ninth Circuit states… but for a situation that only exists in California. Might want to tell the whole truth…
Steve
The District Court ruling in Perry, which was affirmed by the Circuit Court, certainly provides a lot of ammunition. But, the Circuit Court made its decision on a very small point, and did not “consider” the rest of the argument. So, the whole thing would likely need to be retried in Washington. Four _more_ years of delay.
The anti-gay bigots are playing a game called “delay”. They have lost, but will keep their fund-raising going … It’s not really about marriage. It’s about money and power. So they will play that game as long as they possibly can.