Topics created by leatherbear

hahaha that was very revealing for a youtube clip :cheesy2:

I wish Barney Frank would return to politics. Never understood why Deval Patrick didn't give him the appointment. Miss him already.

AOL / Huffpost Report

Supreme Court Rules On Prop 8

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Wednesday left for dead California's same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8, but the question of gay and lesbian couples' constitutional right to marry remains very much alive.

By a 5-4 vote, the justices held in Hollingsworth v. Perry that the traditional marriage activists who put Proposition 8 on California ballots in 2008 did not have the constitutional authority, or standing, to defend the law in federal courts after the state refused to appeal its loss at trial.

“We have never before upheld the standing of a private party to defend the constitutionality of a state statute when state officials have chosen not to,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “We decline to do so for the first time here.”

Roberts was joined in his majority opinion by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. Justice Anthony Kennedy filed a dissenting opinion, joined by Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor.

The judgement of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit was vacated and the case remanded with instructions to dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. While California will likely begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the decision will not have an impact beyond the state's borders, and other same-sex marriage bans across the country will be left intact.

California voters added the ban to the state's constitution in 2008 through a ballot initiative that reversed the state Supreme Court's recognition of same-sex marriage earlier that year. Two same-sex couples challenged Proposition 8 in federal court, and by the time their suit reached the justices, two lower courts had declared the ban unconstitutional.

Because standing is a threshold question in any federal case, the justices did not reach the plaintiffs' main argument that Proposition 8 violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection and deprives same-sex couples of the right to marry.

"_t is not enough that the party invoking the power of the court have a keen interest in the issue," the majority wrote. Because the Court did not find that the Proposition 8 proponents had "concrete and particularized injury," the justices concluded that they "have no authority to decide this case on the merits, and neither did the Ninth Circuit."

Now that the justices have reversed the appeals court's finding and vacated its decision to strike down the ban on constitutional grounds, Judge Vaughn Walker's wide-ranging 2010 judgment against the California government remains the only decision to which both plaintiffs and defendants were properly before a federal court.

In that ruling, Walker wrote, "Plaintiffs do not seek recognition of a new right. To characterize plaintiffs' objective as 'the right to same-sex marriage' would suggest that plaintiffs seek something different from what opposite-sex couples across the state enjoy – namely, marriage. Rather, plaintiffs ask California to recognize their relationships for what they are: marriages."

Video @  hXXp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/26/supreme-court-prop-8_n_3434854.html?1372257363_

Nice to see artwork featuring a thick, masculine bush rather than joining the debased trend of the naked, pre-pubescent crotch look that belies the fully mature development of the rest of the body in a fully functional adult male.

I never get tired of these 🙂

:spank2:  It turns out that quite a few of the animated gifs were too large to upload 😞

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this is ridiculously hot!!!! would love more of this!!

DoMA Section 3 (the part that pertains to the federal government) was struck down as unconstitutional.    The federal government must treat all legal marriages the same.

Prop 8 was refused due to "standing" as the only the state of California has the right to defend it's laws, not a group of people that support that particular law.  The Supreme Court sent it back to the last court to hear the case where standing wasn't an issue.  The entire case is n't thrown out, just the appeal.  Here's good news buried in there though.

From SCOTUSBlog.com;

Kevin Russell: There will be much further discussion and analysis about how the decision in Perry affects other couples in California. For the time being, we will say this: the Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal challenging a final order from the trial court. It would appear, then, that the order will go into effect. And it appears that this final order purports to prohibit the Attorney General and the Governor from enforcing Prop. 8.

There could well be new challenges to the scope of that order. But for the time being, the order appears to be in effect and to prevent enforcement of Proposition 8 statewide.

@tony666:

Hmmm

I must say I see much more of this from Republicans in the future and the cartoon is dead accurate. They can not survive with out supporting Gay Rights and time will prove this to be the truth.

This is in the US and highly dependent on the state

Same to me….very odd story

Most Americans believe marriage equality is inevitable, poll finds

USA Today ~ Cathy Payne

About 72% of Americans say legal recognition of same-sex marriage is "inevitable," according to a survey released today.

Of those who support same-sex marriage, about 85% say it is inevitable, says the Pew Research Center's survey. About 59% of opponents also say it is inevitable.

"As more states legalize gay marriage or give equal status, the question in our minds was how the public sees the trajectory on this issue," says Michael Dimock, the report's lead author and director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. "Do they see a future in which gay marriage is going to be the rule, not the exception, in American society?"

For the first time in Pew polling, just over half (51%) of Americans favor allowing same-sex couples to marry legally, the report says. The telephone survey was conducted May 1-5 among 1,504 U.S. adults. The margin of error was +/-2.9 percentage points.

The survey found a strong link between personal experiences and attitudes about homosexuality. About 87% of Americans know someone who is gay or lesbian, compared with 61% in 1993. About 68% of those who know a lot of gays or lesbians favor same-sex marriage, compared with 32% of those who don't know anyone.

"As for the gay marriage issue, it's not about whether we will have families. We already do. It's about whether we will enjoy the same protection as our siblings, neighbors and co-workers," says Rick Rosendall, president of the not-for-profit Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C. "The more people recognize that their siblings, neighbors and co-workers include gay men and lesbians, the clearer it is that those family members, neighbors and co-workers should be treated the same as they are."

Same-sex marriage is or will be legal in 12 states and the District of Columbia. Several states also have domestic-partnership provisions for same-sex couples.

"This poll should caution us to redouble our efforts in explaining to Americans what marriage is, why marriage matters, and what the consequences of redefining marriage are," says Ryan Anderson, a scholar at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Anderson, who promotes marriage between a man and woman, says it's not quite clear what Pew's poll question means, since same-sex marriage is legally recognized in 12 states. "The more important question is not what will happen – but what we should do."

Thomas Peters, communications director of the not-for-profit National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage, says Pew's poll numbers are no surprise. "Gay marriage activists have spent a huge amount of money and cultural influence trying to convince Americans of the lie that redefining marriage is inevitable," he says in an e-mail.

This survey is part of Pew's "LGBT in Changing Times" series, which is focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage this month.

Yesss they do.  My step kids are on honor roll.  All grab straight As!!!!!

Regardless of that, it still only shows the magnitude of God's benevolence and not his accpetance of condonation of their behavior.  God also stepped to prevent the stoning of a prostitute, which is also not a condoned behavior.  Again this just shows God's mercy not acceptance.  Love the person and not the sin. :love: