I performed a poly wedding for friends of mine. That was interesting (and I say this as someone who lived poly for a number of years).
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Or punch it four times, in this case. Man, the excepts of the dissents Iâve read are crazy-pants. I kept thinking, 'These people are judges? In the supreme court?" Use extra towels.
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Yeah, itâll go two ways: the more entrenched extremists, and dog-whistles for a larger group. For a larger group, the GOP will service their increasingly unacceptable homophobia more covertly for quite a while to come, the same way theyâve been servicing racists for decades. Given that we only just are getting the Confederate battle flag taken down from government buildings when they were put there specifically as protests against federal involvement in civil rights issues in the '60s, weâre going to have some stealth-holdovers quietly being homophobic while insisting they totally are not fifty years from now.
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Ok, thatâs funny. I didnât mean to sound like a prick. Itâs just that a two friends of mine both had to spend a lot of time and money just to be able to move to America to live with their American spouses. Itâs pretty ridiculous.
Hello from Austria, one of those developed Western democracies. I just heard the whooshing sound that America made as it overtook us at breathtaking speed in this particular civil rights question.
Congratulations, America.
Weâve had nationally recognized civil unions for a while now (2010), and I have to say they are different in consequence, even though thatâs mostly on a symbolic level.
Civil unions in Austria are only open to same-sex couples, and they enjoy almost entirely the same rights (e.g., taxation, adoption of their partnerâs biological children).
But there are a few details:
- no adoption (because, think of the CHILDREN!).
- the couple gets to use a common last name, but the law makes a point of not calling a âfamily nameâ, as is done for heterosexual married couples
- they donât have the right to use the special nicely-decorated marriage rooms in city halls (individual towns can grant that right, though).
Definitely better than nothing. But not there yet.
For the future, I hope Austria follows the Irish example. Polls already show a majority in favour, but the conservative half of our coalition government still wonât have it (their voters are only about 40% in favour, IIRC).
So while I apploud the SCOTUSâs decision, I think a positive referendum result would do much more to reinforce acceptance. (A majority voting on the rights of the minority is only a problem when they say âNOâ. Itâs a good thing when they say âYESâ).
I hope that by the time that Austria gets around to allowing real gay marriage (either by vote of parliament or by a referendum), there will be an overwhelming majority and it will basically be a âduhâ decision.
Fun fact: the first politician to enter a civil union when that was introduced was a provincial leader of a splinter group (BZĂ) of our far-right party. He even got to keep his job, but the party was headed for insignificance, anyway. Somehow, I canât imagine that happening in the Tea PartyâŚ
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Weâre just not going to do that here. We donât really do the national referendum thing well or easily. Weâre too republican (referring to our system, not the Republican Party.)
Right. On the other hand, youâre way better at the local referendum thing.
I was really only referring to what route I prefer my own country to take.
As for Congress just passing a law, youâre probably still to Republican (referring to the party). Iâm not complaining, weâve got an analogous problem here. But itâs only a matter of time until the more moderate of our two conservative parties caves in (they might go the referendum route and stay âneutralâ about it to save face, though).
Are there any Republican politicians who are in favor of gay marriage yet?
Another fun fact: There is this one politician in our conservative government party, Andrä Rupprechter. He caused quite a scandal when he was sworn into office by using a religious oath. Thatâs just not done in secular Austria, everyone was all âoh my god heâs an extremistâ and âthe Catholiban are coming!â. Seventy percent of Austrians are Catholic on paper, but I guess less then five percent are that Catholic. Heâs a conservative family man, married, four kids. Heâs also currently the only politician of his party openly advocating marriage equality and full adoption rights. So much for stereotypes.
Even though this sounds completely plausible for Scalia, I was still hoping it was at least a partial exaggeration. But, having skimmed his dissent, I guess not.
From what I gather of his argument (reading around the snide remarks), he thinks if something doesnât fall under life, liberty (specifically, physical liberty⌠nothing else counts) or property then it canât be covered by the 14th amendment. Since âgay marriageâ isnât listed there, nope. If he touched at all on the equal protection side of the argument, I must have missed it.
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Scalia, Roberts, Alito and Thomas all essentially argued that laws prohibiting interracial marriage are totally Constitutional.
Loving v. Virginia was argued exactly the same way as this was and found unconstitutional under the exact same provisions of the Constitution: the Equal Protection Clause and Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment. That case was a unanimous decision. How far weâve fallen.
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To be honest, Iâd feel a lot better if the judge who rubber-stamped it was. Theyâre supposed to be actually considering whatâs being put in front of them.
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I prefer to share some of your scotchâŚas long as itâs really, really old.
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12 year, common laphroaig is my favorite (see my handle), but 40 year bunnahabain aged in Sherry casks was outstanding.
Itâs like Boing BoingâŚthe secret ingredient is the people.
My fear is not that the far right will resort to violence. My fear is that this issue will mobilize the ignorant red base to turn out in droves in 2016 and install a president who will stack the court with right wing zealots. Presidents have term limits but SC justices linger for decades. This is one of the reasons I often vote Dem even when I canât stand the Dem candidate.
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Well, itâs about time! Thats all I cans ay. I live in Orange County, California; in the belly of the ugly beast called Ultra-conservatism, and the only response I heard nearly in chorus was from the divorcees who are now just thrilled to death that this landmark decision implies they can marry their service dogs!
As Claire Bow once remarked, âThe more I know men, the more I love my dogs!â
Yes, it is worth noting the difference between the âno because it doesnât say we canâ and âyes because it doesnât say we canâtâ camps. There is at least some sort of consistent internal logic.
Except Scalia. That guyâs just being a dick.
And he is Sooo smart⌠Which leaves me baffled!!
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Itâs not telling in the least that much of the dissent argument is âbut States Rights!ââŚ
âŚbecause no one ever thought of that beforeâŚ
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Chaotic good and chaotic neutral were always impossible to role play with anyone other than yourself.
Neutral evil is by far the most sinister.
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