Prop. 8 Ruled Unconstitutional in California

A federal judge has struck down Prop. 8, a California ban on same-sex marriages, ruling it unconstitutional.

This is a key victory to gay rights advocates but it should be assumed that this fight will most likely reach the U.S. Supreme Court, eventually.

Thoughts on the ruling?

From CNN:

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker found in his ruling that the ban violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause under the 14th Amendment.

The closely watched case came some two years after Californians voted to pass Proposition 8, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Neither opponents nor supporters of same-sex marriage said before the ruling that it would likely be the last.

Family Ties Star Comes Out

Meredith Baxter, who played Elyse Keaton on the popular television series Family Ties, told Matt Lauer on TODAY this morning that she is a lesbian.

From MSNBC:

“I am a lesbian and it was a later-in-life recognition,” she told Matt Lauer on TODAY. “Some people would say, well, you’re living a lie and, you know, the truth is — not at all. This has only been for the past seven years.”

Baxter, 62, though anxious, decided to come out on national television after her sexuality became tabloid fodder.

“I’ve always lived a very private life,” said the actress, who’s never even had a publicist. “To come out and disclose stuff is very antithetical to who I am.”

Baxter has been with her current girlfriend, Nancy Locke, a contractor she met through mutual friends, for the past four years. Because Locke is openly lesbian, their relationship has not been kept a closely guarded secret.

“I had to reach a level of comfort because it wasn’t fair to push her back into secrecy,” she said. “We live very out lives in Los Angeles.”

But, until now, that level of comfort only extended so far. Last year, Baxter and her former “Family Ties” cast mates reunited on TODAY. Locke stayed back at the hotel, still a part of Baxter’s life that she wasn’t yet ready to reveal to the world.

Gay Marriage Law Repealed in Maine

Maine became the 31st state to block same-sex marriage.  According to the latest numbers, the repeal proposal had approximately 53 percent of the vote, even though polls are indicating the race is a dead heat.

From ABC News:

Voters rejected a state law Tuesday that would have allowed same-sex couples to wed. The repeal comes just six months after the measure was passed by the Maine legislature and signed by the Democratic Gov. John Baldacci.

Maine would have been the sixth state in the country to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry, but instead becomes the 31st state to oppose the unions in a popular vote.

With 87 percent of precincts reporting as of 2 a.m. today, gay marriage opponents claimed 53 percent of the vote to supporters’ 47 percent.

Interracial Couple Denied Marriage License

Civil rights advocates in eastern Louisiana are calling for a justice of the peace of Tangipahoa Parish to resign after he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple.

From BET:

A Louisiana justice of the peace has ignited a firestorm after refusing to grant a marriage license to an interracial couple.

And, as if he forgot the background of the America’s most high-profile success story – President Obama – Keith Bardwell pointed to his concerns over the future of children who might come from the union of White and Black parents. Obama is the son of a White woman from Kansas and a Black Kenyan father.

“I’m not a racist,” Bardwell, justice of the peace of Tangipahoa Parish, told The Hammond (La.) Daily Star. “I do ceremonies for Black couples right here in my house. My main concern is for the children.” He also said that most interracial marriages don’t last.

But the NAACP and other civil-rights advocates in the state aren’t so sure that racism wasn’t behind his decision. “He’s an elected public official and one of his duties is to marry people. He doesn’t have the right to say he doesn’t believe in it,” Patricia Morris, president of the NAACP branch of Tangipahoa Parish, said Thursday. “If he doesn’t do what his position calls for him to do, he should resign from that position.”

From CNN:

“He’s an elected public official and one of his duties is to marry people. He doesn’t have the right to say he doesn’t believe in it,” Patricia Morris, president of the NAACP branch of Tangipahoa Parish, located near the Mississippi line, said Thursday.

“If he doesn’t do what his position calls for him to do, he should resign from that position.”

The demands for Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace for Tangipahoa Parish’s 8th Ward, to step down came after he wouldn’t issue a marriage license to Beth Humphrey, 30, and her boyfriend, Terence McKay, 32, both of Hammond.

“I was just really shocked, because he’s an elected official,” Humphrey said.

Carrie Prejean Loses Miss California Crown

According to officials with the pageant, Carrie Prejean, who took a stand against gay marriage at the Miss USA pageant, has been fired as Miss California for violating her contract.

Whether you support or are against gay marriage, I still believe that this is the wrong decision by Donald Trump.

From CBS News:

Carrie Prejean, the reigning Miss California was let go, according to Trump, because she “failed to honor her commitments” to the organization.

Prejean, known for her controversial comments on same-sex marriage during the 2009 Miss USA competition, has appeared in headlines time and again, from her partially pageant-paid breast implants to semi-nude photos that surfaced.

Trump, in a press conference in May, publicly stood behind Prejean and kept her on as Miss California. But now, he’s changed his mind.

From the United Press International:

Pageant chief Keith Lewis denied Prejean’s claims that the firing was related to the proposed Playboy and “Celebrity” gigs, telling TMZ

he was only passing the offers on to Prejean, not trying to persuade her to take them.

“What’s behind this I think is a political debate. They don’t agree with the stance that I took (on the legalization of same-sex marriage.) Shanna (Moakler) is trying to bash me. They don’t like me. From day one they wanted me out and they got what they wanted,” Prejean told TMZ. “I’ve shown respect for every party involved, even when they haven’t shown it back. … I was very respectful of people even when they slandered me and humiliated me. I have not once stooped down to their level.”

California State Supreme Court Upholds Proposition 8

The California State Supreme Court has ruled that Proposition 8, defining marriage as between and man and a woman, is valid. The court also left intact the 18,000 same-sex marriages that occurred at times when same sex unions were legal.

From the San Francisco Examiner:

The California Supreme Court upheld a constitutional amendment today banning same-sex marriage despite claims from gay marriage advocates that taking away such a fundamental right requires more than a simple majority at the ballot box.

The court ruled 6-1 to uphold the ban, with Justice Carlos Moreno as the only dissenting vote.

The court also unanimously agreed that the thousands of marriages performed while same-sex marriage was legal in California are valid.

On Feb. 12, 2004, Mayor Gavin Newsom defied the law and authorized the County Clerk to begin issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. The decision was validated in May, 2008, when the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples had a constitutional right to get married.

The landmark decision became a model across the nation where same-sex marriage issues have been decided through the courts. The California Supreme Court, for instance, was the first to consider sexual orientation as a protected class.

But the November passage of Proposition 8 by 52 percent of California voters overturned that decision. The state constitution now defines marriage as between a man and a woman.