Massachusetts to hold same-sex weddings
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| Sun, 05-16-2004 - 12:31pm |
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Gay%20Marriage%20New%20Era
Sunday, May 16, 2004 · Last updated 6:34 a.m. PT
Massachusetts to hold same-sex weddings
By DAVID CRARY
AP NATIONAL WRITER
For better or for worse, depending on which side of the ideological aisle one chooses, a divided America crosses a historic threshold Monday as state-approved marriages of same-sex couples take place for the first time.
Promised a waiver of the normal three-day waiting period, the seven gay and lesbian couples who successfully sued for marriage rights in Massachusetts will wed before relatives, friends and supporters in Boston and three other towns. The United States will become just the fourth country in the world where same-sex couples can tie the knot.
The couples' jubilation will be shared by gay-rights advocates across the country, including many in states such as New York, California, Washington and New Jersey where comparable lawsuits are moving forward.
"This isn't just one historic moment in Massachusetts," said Kevin Cathcart, executive director of the gay-rights group Lambda Legal. "It's the start of what will be a long period of progress and breakthroughs, with gay couples in other states also winning the right to marry."
For foes of gay marriage, Monday's weddings represent a stinging defeat - but one they hope will be reversed by a backlash among politicians and voters nationwide.
"What I'm starting to see is people who are apolitical, who never got involved before, saying, 'This is too much - we don't want same-sex marriage foisted on us,'" said Mathew Staver, president of a Florida-based legal group, Liberty Counsel, that is opposing gay marriage in numerous court cases.
Both sides in the debate expect the issue to figure prominently in the November election, with Massachusetts serving as a rallying cry and alarm bell.
Candidates for Congress will face pressure to explain their position on a proposed federal constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage. Voters in Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Missouri and Utah - and probably several other states - will consider similar amendments to their state constitutions.
"It will be a national referendum about gays and gay marriage," said Rod McKenzie of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "We're the underdog when it comes to all these ballot measures - the scale is bigger than we've ever had to deal with."
In states with the ballot measures, divisive campaigns already are underway.
An Oklahoma gay-rights group, for example, took out newspaper ads last week showing an outline of the state with "Closed" stamped over it. The ad contended that businesses would leave - or stay away - if voters approved the constitutional ban on gay marriage.
State Sen. James Williamson, a Republican from Tulsa, called the ad outrageous and predicted that a ban would attract new businesses.
"There is a real hunger for a return to traditional values and for leaders who will draw a line in the sand to help stop the moral decay of this country," he said.
Nationwide, both sides are planning marches and rallies over the coming week - among them, pro-gay marriage events in Iowa City, Iowa, and Las Cruces, N.M., and a "Not on My Watch" rally in Arlington, Texas, for pastors opposed to gay marriage.
Also following the Massachusetts events with interest will be the thousands of gay couples who married in recent months with the encouragement of local officials in San Francisco, Portland, Ore., and a handful of other municipalities.
Those marriages are clouded by varying degrees of legal uncertainty, and even in Massachusetts there is a possibility that voters in 2006 could jeopardize the impending marriages by approving a constitutional ban.
Katie Potter, a Portland policewoman who married partner Pam Moen in March, said she was delighted by the Massachusetts developments yet worried that it could take years for marriage rights to extend nationally.
"It's important for my two children to be able to say, 'My parents are married,'" Potter said.
Anti-gay marriage activists have no sympathy for such arguments.
"If we move down the road to legalizing marriage for unnatural homosexual couples, it will lead to an explosion of intentionally motherless or fatherless households," said Dave Smith of the Indiana Family Institute. "That is a radical social experiment that will place children in harm's way."
Though opinion polls show that most Americans oppose gay marriage, the rate of acceptance is much higher among people under 30 - for the younger generation, polls show a roughly even split on the issue.
"There's an absolute inevitability there," said Lambda Legal's Cathcart. "There's no reason to think the next generation of young people will go backward."
Mathew Staver, referring to the same demographic trends, said the next 18 months would be critical for gay-marriage foes.
"The window is now to pursue a federal marriage amendment that would put a halt to this nonsensical patchwork of litigation," said the Liberty Counsel attorney.
Even if many Americans wish otherwise, Massachusetts, as of Monday, will join the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada's three most populous provinces as the only places worldwide where gays can marry, though the rest of Canada expected to follow soon.
In the Netherlands, which pioneered gay marriage three years ago, the practice now stirs little controversy. Cheryl Jacques, a former Massachusetts legislator who now heads the Human Rights Campaign, a major gay-rights group, hopes her compatriots eventually emulate the Dutch.
"For the vast majority of Americans, Monday will be a completely ordinary day - nothing's going to change," she said. "But for some Americans in Massachusetts - gay and lesbian families - it will be a truly historic day, when their families will be made stronger and their children will become safer."
"I'm very proud of my state," Jacques added. "Massachusetts is going to teach the rest of the country a lesson - equality doesn't hurt anyone."
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Lambda Legal: http://www.lambdalegal.org/
Liberty Counsel: http://www.lc.org/
cl-nwtreehugger
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"Militant" web sites.
How about some government funded or government sponsored ones?
Can't find 'em?
Hmmm...that's curious.
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"If you don't stand up for something, you'll lie down for anything." -- Bob Day, Marriage Equality Rally, Rochester NY
Help in the fight against a constitutional amendment!
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"If you don't stand up for something, you'll lie down for anything." -- B
>"It wasnt long ago that churches were burned, and let's remember the columbine shooting!"<
Weren't those churches burnt by the KKK?
What does the tragedy at Columbine have to do with Christianity?
What does either have to do with gay marriage?
Because I can't/don't want any more children does that invalidate by marriage?
<<<I am happy for people who finally find their true love. Regardless of the sex. My moto has always been "whatever floats your boat", however I do want to say something to all those wonderful happy couples...Don't have kids!! I teach school and as a society (ouch) we are producing some screwed up kids with all of this Free Choice stuff. I am all for you to be happy and loving to each other, but don't dump your beliefs on an innocent kid. I don't know how well adjusted you think they are, but they are NOT ready for dealing with same-sex marriages. I still have kids who cry because they look different from another kid. Imagine how they will feel having a different family unit when the big sleepover takes place? Home-schooling is not the answer either, simply because someday they will have to deal with what is going on. Please think about it!!>>>
Yeah, and 40 years ago people said "I don't care if a black person marries a white person, as long as they don't have kids.
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"If you don't stand up for something, you'll lie down for anything." -- B
60% is impressive....but "birds of a feather".
Until it is proven unconstitutional it is. I don't like Roe vs Wade but for now its constitutional. You can't have it both ways this is ok but this one isn't.
My "Don't quote Jesus" came off wrong. I of course wasn't trying to set rules for a board where I am a guest. The comment was meant to say that you are speaking from a position of ignorance (lack of knowledge). Your statement regarding the contradictions in the Bible show your ignorance. However, we could easily turn this into a debate on the Bible which I would love to do but it leaves the topic.
I'm not arrogant just confident. I have an unshakeable belief in God. I don't preach myself up above others or shove phamplets in your face. I won't knock on your door or call you a bad person. If my beliefs are questioned I will profess them proudly and stand by them.
Oh and you can't call me sinful. That a reference to a book that is just a crock remember.
Jim
Once again, gandalf, and excellent post.
I'll only add that, anytime I see the "don't have kids" and the "can't have children naturally" argument, it always SCREAMS out the person's REAL view:
*ICK*
And certainly, we need laws to cover the *ickI factor, right?
________________________________________________
"If you don't stand up for something, you'll lie down for anything." -- Bob Day, Marriage Equality Rally, Rochester NY
Help in the fight against a constitutional amendment!
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
________________________________________________
"If you don't stand up for something, you'll lie down for anything." -- B
When was the last time you heard of christians being discriminated against?
My response, the churches being burned, the columbine shooting, the statement "one nation under God," the removal of prayer in schools, the removal of the 10 commandment, need i go on!
<<<It wasnt long ago that churches were burned, and let's remember the columbine shooting!>>>
Burned churches were a regular thing FORTY YEARS AGO - an isolated incident in the past couple of years doesn't make it a continuing trend, no matter how many colors you have on your painting palette.
And what the hell does Columbine have to do with your assertion that there are few Christians left who will stand up for themselves without fear of reprisal?
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"If you don't stand up for something, you'll lie down for anything." -- B
This is the only one that is from an official document and it DOES NOT mention YOUR God specificly....
The Declaration of Independence
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
The others appear to be personal feelings/observations of some founding Fathers, not Government documentation.
I parrot nothing. The "right-wing" doesn't own the word. Militant is simply a description of the homosexuals movements tactics. I split from the Neo-Cons and Republicans on a great many things. I am a conservative not a right-wing anything.
My thoughts while certainly not original, I mean heck good ole George Washington and his lot beat me to them, are my own.
Ahhh...the womens rights movement and racial equality. You can't serisouly compare your "plight" to those movements can you? Well I guess you can but your sufferage certainly doesn't equal theirs.
Jim
The "what a crock" stage?
What many people fail to acknowledge on the decline in population is the growing number of people who CHOOSE to be CHILD FREE for whatever personal reasons they have.
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"If you don't stand up for something, you'll lie down for anything." -- B
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