The Same-Sex Marriage Fight is Over; Sanity Wins
Simple Justice: With mind-numbing speed, and against the predictions of critics, the confluence of two events will change the landscape for gays and Lesbians forever and end the legal fight over the right to same-sex marriage.
First, the decision by the California Supreme Court that denial of marriage to same-sex couples was unconstitutional has resulted in California announcing that marriage licenses will be issued as of June 17th.
New York will now close the loop, with Gov. David Paterson directing state agencies to revise their regulations to acknowledge same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, as posted by Gideon from this New York Times article.
That’s the end of the game. Now that the bookends will either perform the marriage or recognize it as such, resistance in the middle is meaningless. It’s untenable to have a country where marriage is available and recognized by some states and not others. With resistance futile, it no longer matters what legislators in hick states think. It’s a done deal. The only thing left to be proven is which states are so ridiculously out of touch that they will continue to fight the tide and reduce themselves to America’s latest joke.
Now that this chapter in history has come to an end, let’s realize its significance. First, gay and Lesbian couples will no longer be able to hide behind discrimination to absolve themselves of responsibility for their actions and inactions. Either get married or not, but if you do not chose to marry, then don’t expect a separate set of rights from everyone else to compensate. If you marry, it will encompass the full panoply of rights and responsibilities. If you don’t, then don’t expect special treatment.
This point was made by a post by Eugene Volokh challenging his readers to consider the conflict between two conservative positions. On the…