Thought Theater

2008 Gay Marriage Review Approved In Mass. genre: Gaylingual & Polispeak & Uncivil Unions

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled unanimously that an initiative to ban same-sex marriage can be placed on the 2008 ballot if it is approved by the State Legislature in two upcoming sessions prior to the election date. Read the full article here.

The Supreme Judicial Court's ruling was in response to marriage equality supporters who argued that state attorney general Tom Reilly was wrong to approve a ballot measure because they said Massachusetts's constitution bars any citizen-initiated amendment that seeks to reverse a judicial ruling. In 2003 a state court ruled that barring gay couples from marrying was illegal and in May of the following year cleared the way for same-sex marriages. Over 8,000 same-sex couples have been married since.

Monday's ruling by the court declared that the proposed amendment is not a reversal of the earlier ruling that legalized same-sex marriage but a proposed change to the state constitution, which can be legally accomplished through a citizen initiative.

The state legislature must approve the court's decision in two upcoming sessions for the ballot to be put to voters. Supporters of the antigay constitutional amendment believe they have enough votes to win the first round in the legislature.

The decision follows on the recent New York and Georgia rulings, both of which appear to have been setbacks for same-sex marriage. Ruling are still pending in Washington and New Jersey. Today in California, an appeals court began hearing arguments on the legality of prohibiting same-sex marriage. The San Francisco Chronicle has the full article here.

A state appeals court opened a momentous hearing on same-sex marriage today and focused on whether centuries of tradition are a legal justification for California's definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

The hearing marks the first time that the constitutionality of the marriage law has been debated in an appeals court, which under California law has the power to set statewide legal precedents. A ruling is due by October. The case could reach the state Supreme Court next year.

The state and two conservative organizations are appealing a March 2005 ruling by Judge Richard Kramer of San Francisco Superior Court, who declared that the marriage law violated the state Constitution in two ways: It discriminated on the basis of sex, and it denied gays and lesbians the fundamental right to marry the partner of their choice. He suspended his ruling during the appeal process.

Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and a lawyer for 12 gay and lesbian couples seeking the right to marry, said their suit was based on the same principle of equality that the state's highest court recognized in the 1948 ruling on interracial marriage.

"Same-sex couples are just as able to love, to honor, to cherish and to support one another'' as opposite-sex couples, Minter said. "Their children benefit equally from the stability and status which marriage provides.''