A Thank-You to a Veteran

It seems to me that the country and the world would do well to focus, not on what divides us, but on what unites us all - as in this story, broadcast a couple of months ago on CBS Sunday Morning:

 

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Sixth Circuit Upholds Marriage Bans

Two judges of three on a panel of the Sixth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals in Cincinnati yesterday agreed to uphold marriage bans in the four states comprising their circuit: Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton wrote the opinion, which says in part:

What remains is a debate about whether to allow the democratic processes begun in the States to continue in the four States of the Sixth Circuit or to end them now by requiring all States in the Circuit to extend the definition of marriage to encompass gay couples. Process and structure matter greatly in American government. Indeed, they may be the most reliable, liberty-assuring guarantees of our system of government, requiring us to take seriously the route the United States Constitution contemplates for making such a fundamental change to such a fundamental social institution.

Of all the ways to resolve this question, one option is not available: a poll of the three judges on this panel, or for that matter all federal judges, about whether gay marriage is a good idea. Our judicial commissions did not come with such a sweeping grant of authority, one that would allow just three of us—just two of us in truth—to make such a vital policy call for the thirty-two million citizens who live within the four States of the Sixth Circuit: Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. What we have authority to decide instead is a legal question: Does the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibit a State from defining marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman?

Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey dissented strongly, saying:

These plaintiffs are not political zealots trying to push reform on their fellow citizens; they are committed same-sex couples, many of them heading up de facto families, who want to achieve equal status -- de jure status, if you will -- with their married neighbors, friends, and coworkers, to be accepted as contributing members of their social and religious communities, and to be welcomed as fully legitimate parents at their children's schools. They seek to do this by virtue of exercising a civil right that most of us take for granted - the right to marry.

For although my colleagues in the majority pay lip service to marriage as an institution conceived for the purpose of providing a stable family unit "within which children may flourish," they ignore the destabilizing effect of its absence in the homes of tens of thousands of same-sex parents throughout the four states of the Sixth Circuit.

Instead of recognizing the plaintiffs as persons, suffering actual harm as a result of being denied the right to marry where they reside or the right to have their valid marriages recognized there, my colleagues view the plaintiffs as social activists who have somehow stumbled into federal court.

Full text of the ruling and dissent here. The ACLU has already announced that they will immediately appeal to the Supreme Court, which you may recall declined to make any ruling last month because at that time all the federal appeals courts had upheld same-sex marriage as a fundamental civil right; now the Supremes will have to deal with the question directly, it seems to me.

Freedom to Marry reports:

The decision flies in the face of a nearly unanimous string of 49 rulings issued since June 2013 in favor of the freedom to marry for same-sex couples. Just three lower court rulings in the past year and a half have upheld marriage discrimination.

Click here to see pics and read the stories of several of the plaintiff couples affected by the Sixth Circuit's decision.

Wikipedia makes this observation:

Decisions issued by the Sixth Circuit were reversed by the United States Supreme Court 24 out of the 25 times they were reviewed in the five annual terms starting in October 2008 and ending in June 2013 — a higher frequency than any other federal appellate court during that time period.

Marriage News Watch, 4/14/14

Matt Baume of the American Foundation for Equal Rights reports:




Update, 8:30 p.m., from Freedom to Marry:

Today, U.S. District Court judge Timothy Black officially issued his ruling in Henry v. Himes, declaring that the state of Ohio must respect the marriages of same-sex couples legally performed in other states. He wrote, "Ohio’s marriage recognition bans are facially unconstitutional and unenforceable under any circumstances."

The ruling has been stayed - meaning it does not take effect immediately - throughout the state of Ohio. Tomorrow, the judge will revisit whether a stay is necessary for the four plaintiff couples, who he says have demonstrated clear and urgent harm: That when they give birth to their children, they must be respected as married so that both parents can appear on the birth certificates. The judge wrote, "The Court inclines toward a finding that the issuance of correct birth certificates for Plaintiffs’ children, due in June or earlier, should not be stayed."

Text of the ruling is here.

2013: A Historic Year for Marriage Equality

The American Foundation for Equal Rights reviews the highlights of this landmark year for the right to marry:




And this afternoon, word comes from Utah that District Judge Robert Shelby has denied the state's request for a stay of his ruling legalizing marriage equality; the state is appealing to the Tenth Circuit. So marriages continue in the Beehive State - as Joe Jervis puts it, "Meanwhile, hell has frozen over and pigs are FLYING in Utah."

Oh, the irony - after the Mormon Church worked so hard and spent so many millions to whip California voters into a frenzy over Prop 8 in 2008 - and today, they have hundreds of gay couples jamming the courthouse in Salt Lake City and other counties to get hitched. I wonder if the so-called Apostles of the Church will announce a sudden email from God about this change of plans, the way they did over black people?

Reporter Jim Dalrymple of the Salt Lake Tribune is posting live tweets and pics of the scene as couples marry in Salt Lake City, where the line wraps around two floors of the courthouse atrium.  The county clerk has announced that 225 couples have been spliced already today.

The Boy Scouts - get this - brought pizza to feed the county clerks, who were apparently too overwhelmed with marriage applications to take a lunch break.  The Apocalypse has arrived!


And in North Carolina, Fort Bragg hosted its first same-sex union on Saturday, with Army Major Daniel Toven and Jonathan Taylor being united in an Episcopal rite of blessing, witnessed by about 100 friends and family. Afterwards, the couple walked through the traditional gantlet of crossed sabers:




And finally, federal court rulings in Ohio and Virginia open the way to eventually overturning those states' bans on same-sex marriage. Ya know, guys, it's all over but the shouting - we just might see marriage equality nationwide by the end of this decade, I'm thinking now. Even in Texas.

Top Cop Busted in Park

From Cleveland, Ohio, this unfortunate story of a career now perhaps ruined - by the closet:

Olmsted Township Police Chief Charles McNeeley was arrested Tuesday and charged with indecent exposure after he was found with another man in the Memphis area of the Cleveland Metroparks. McNeeley and his companion, Daniel Crown, were both arrested around 8:30am after Metroparks ranger Lisette Gonzalez found them masturbating. . . .

According to a police report, McNeeley and Crown were together in Crown's car when they were approached by the ranger and told to stop what they were doing. . . . McNeeley blamed the incident on the stress of his wife being diagnosed with cancer . . . .

Well, it was a dumb thing to be doing; but I can sympathize with Chief McNeeley, who will no doubt lose his job over something that really ought not to be taken any more seriously than a traffic citation. (Couldn't the ranger have just said, Okay, break it up guys, move along - ?) But of course, that's not how the citizenry will see it, I'm afraid.

So sad, what the closet does to people; that's where the ultimate blame for this lies, in my view.

Interestingly, a Google search turned up this review of a book titled Urban Policing in the 21st Century: A Supervisory Manual by none other than - Chief McNeeley:

Charles McNeeley, always known as a "cop's cop," has spent more than thirty years as an Ohio police officer, first in Cleveland and currently in Olmsted Township. He headed all game day and event security for the Cleveland Browns organization from 1999 to 2002. Throughout his career, he has emphasized both tactical and strategic saftey in law enforcement. As a "hands-on" executive, he carefully blends the intellectual and practical sides of police management and administration with the day-to-day world of policing. He is president of McNeeley and Son Inc., a security-consulting firm.

McNeeley, who graduated with honors from the Police Executive Leadership College, is considered one of the nation's foremost authorities on urban policing. For the past two decades, he has been a student of the assessment center process as it relates to law enforcement and has served as an assessor of police supervisors, including chiefs of police, in more than forty jurisdictions throughout the country. A veteran of the United States army, he holds current membership with American MENSA and the Cleveland Police Historical Society.

He's also the author of Community Policing: Building Inclusive Communities.

Well, after a fine career and excellent service, I hope Chief McNeeley will not be penalized too severely for this lapse in judgment; but I can just imagine what the Righteous Right in Ohio will have to say about it.