Newsbites, 6/15/16

 A few more-or-less positive things I gleaned from today's news, all of which are well worth your time to watch or read.

1. Prince William appears on the cover of British gay magazine Attitude, the first member of the Royal Family ever to do so:

Following a meeting on May 12 at Kensington Palace with young LGBT people, HRH issued this statement:

No one should be bullied for their sexuality or any other reason and no one should have to put up with the kind of hate that these young people have endured in their lives. The young gay, lesbian and transgender individuals I met through Attitude are truly brave to speak out and to give hope to people who are going through terrible bullying right now. Their sense of strength and optimism should give us all encouragement to stand up to bullying wherever we see it. What I would say to any young person reading this who’s being bullied for their sexuality: don’t put up with it – speak to a trusted adult, a friend, a teacher, Childline, Diana Award or some other service and get the help you need. You should be proud of the person you are and you have nothing to be ashamed of.

2. Utah's Republican Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox speaks at vigil, apologizes for past behavior to gays, calls for change of hearts:




3. Liberal Redneck Trae Crowder breaks it down in plain English: Which fucking side are you on, bubba?

I can't embed the video, but do go watch it at the New York Daily News website.


4. In case anyone is in doubt, Stephen Colbert kindly diagrams the meaning of Trumpery:

Another Win for Marriage in Oklahoma

Freedom to Marry reports:

Today the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled in favor of same-sex couples’ freedom to marry, upholding a marriage ruling out of Oklahoma in January. It is the second ruling by a federal appellate court since last year's victory in the Supreme Court and, unless reversed, will pave the way for the freedom to marry throughout the 10th Circuit, including in Colorado, Wyoming, and Kansas. Last month, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of marriage in a Utah case, Kitchen v. Herbert.

The ruling is stayed pending further action, which could include an appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The state of Utah has already said that it will ask the United States Supreme Court to review its case, which received a ruling from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals last month.

Full text of the case, Bishop v. Smith, here.

Photos and background of the four plaintiffs here.

And a news report on plaintiffs Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin's ten-year legal case, produced at the time of the district court's ruling in their favor last January:




And in other news, marriage equality in Utah must wait a while longer, USA Today reports:

In a minor victory for opponents of same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court ruled late Friday that Utah can ignore for now the marriages of more than 1,000 couples hitched there in late December and early January.

The apparently unanimous order blocked a decision issued by a federal district judge in May that required the state to recognize those marriages, even though it was appealing its loss on the broader question of allowing gay and lesbian marriages.

The state has since lost that appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, but it will ask the Supreme Court to take the case. (Oklahoma lost a similar appeal on Friday.) In the meantime, it won the court's blessing to keep those early marriages on hold.

Marriage Victory in Colorado

Yesterday, Adams County District Judge Scott Crabtree struck down Colorado's same-sex marriage ban as a violation of constitutional guarantees of Due Process and Equal Protection, as Freedom to Marry reports:

In the ruling, Judge Crabtree explained how civil union - which Colorado has had in effect since 2013 - is a lesser, unequal form of family status that does not compare to marriage. He writes:

The fact that the State has created two classes of legally recognized relationships, marriages and civil unions, is compelling evidence they are not the same. If civil unions were truly the same as marriages, they would be called marriages and not civil unions. If they were the same, there would be no need for both of them. The fact that Colorado denies same gender couples the same right to apply for federal benefits that it grants to opposite gender couples is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.

Read the full ruling here.

Notably, Judge Crabtree was appointed by Republican Governor Bill Owens in 2001. He is the fifth Republican-appointed judge to rule in favor of the freedom to marry, following judges in New Jersey, Kentucky, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

This is the 24th consecutive ruling in favor of marriage equality since the U. S. Supreme Court's Windsor ruling last year: a complete list is here.


And in other news, the U. S. Supreme Court declined without comment to hear an appeal brought by a Pennsylvania county clerk seeking to stop same-sex marriages in that state.

Also, the Utah Attorney General announced that he will appeal last month's 10th Circuit ruling striking down Utah's marriage ban directly to the Supreme Court.

Freedom to Marry has a comprehensive nationwide database of all 75+ marriage cases now pending, resolved, or on appeal here.

Landmark Marriage Victories: Indiana, Utah

Another fabulous day for marriage equality.  First up this morning was Indiana, reports Freedom to Marry:

U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young ruled in favor of the freedom to marry, striking down Indiana's ban on marriage for same-sex couples and becoming the latest judge in an amazing year of victories for marriage in every corner of the country. The ruling is the 21st consecutive victory in state and federal court for the freedom to marry since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Windsor v. United States in June 2013. The ruling is the 17th win in federal court for marriage since June and comes just one day before the landmark first anniversary of the Windsor ruling.

The decision was issued in Baskin v. Bogan, a federal marriage case brought by Lambda Legal. Previously, Judge Young granted emergency relief for one same-sex couple by respecting their marriage.

Judge Young wrote in the ruling:

The court has never witnessed a phenomenon throughout the federal court system as is presented with this issue. In less than a year, every federal district court to consider the issue has reached the same conclusion in thoughtful and thorough opinions – laws prohibiting the celebration and recognition of same-sex marriages are unconstitutional. It is clear that the fundamental right to marry shall not be deprived to some individuals based solely on the person they choose to love. In time, Americans will look at the marriage of couples such as Plaintiffs, and refer to it simply as a marriage – not a same-sex marriage. These couples, when gender and sexual orientation are taken away, are in all respects like the family down the street. The Constitution demands that we treat them as such.

Full text of the ruling here.

FTM also says, "Judges have struck down marriage bans now in 9 states in the past few months: Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Idaho, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and now Indiana. More limited decisions in favor of the freedom to marry have been handed down in Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and Ohio. More than 70 cases are currently pending in state and federal court in every single state across the country."

The court did not stay its ruling, and marriages have started in Indiana.

And then a few minutes later, came this big news:

Today the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled in favor of same-sex couples’ freedom to marry, upholding a marriage ruling out of Utah in December. It is the first ruling by a federal appellate court since last year's victory in the Supreme Court and, unless reversed, will pave the way for the freedom to marry throughout the 10th Circuit, including in Colorado, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Kansas.

The ruling is stayed pending further action, which could include an appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The ruling, written by Judge Lucero, reads:

Our Circuit has not previously considered the validity of same-sex marriage bans. When the seed of that question was initially presented to the United States Supreme Court in 1972, the Court did not consider the matter of such substantial moment as to present a justiciable federal question. Since that date, the seed has grown, however. Last year the Court entertained the federal aspect of the issue in striking down § 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”), yet left open the question presented to us now in full bloom: May a State of the Union constitutionally deny a citizen the benefit or protection of the laws of the State based solely upon the sex of the person that citizen chooses to marry?

Having heard and carefully considered the argument of the litigants, we conclude that, consistent with the United States Constitution, the State of Utah may not do so. We hold that the Fourteenth Amendment protects the fundamental right to marry, establish a family, raise children, and enjoy the full protection of a state’s marital laws. A state may not deny the issuance of a marriage license to two persons, or refuse to recognize their marriage, based solely upon the sex of the persons in the marriage union. For the reasons stated in this opinion, we affirm.

Full text of the Kitchen v. Herbert ruling here.


Update, 9:45 p.m.:  ¡Caramba! The Mexican Supreme Court today struck down a ban on same-sex marriage in the state of Baja California.  Break out the Dos Equis!


Update, 6/27, 8:40 p.m.: The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals late this afternoon issued a stay of the Indiana ruling pending appeal.  So no more weddings in the Hoosier State for now.

Marriage News Watch, 5/12/14

Matt Baume of the American Foundation for Equal Rights reports:




Here's the Utah ad for same-sex marriage from Freedom to Marry, featuring Drs. Wendy Matis and Dale Smith and their children:




And in Arkansas, the state attorney general has asked the Arkansas Supreme Court to issue a stay on gay marriages; it's not known how soon the court will respond.  By noon today, more than 100 gay couples had obtained marriage licenses in Little Rock and Fayetteville, and some were married at the courthouses, but the clerk in Eureka Springs has apparently has stopped issuing marriage licenses for some unknown reason.

Fired for Being Gay

One day closeted gay Utahn Justin Utley got word at work that his partner had died. The next day, his boss, who had been monitoring his emails, fired him for being gay - which is perfectly legal in that state.

Last month, Justin and other LGBT Utahns got to share their stories with state legislators in an historic committee meeting at the state capitol. Here's Justin pleading for equal rights for gay and transgender people in the Beehive State:

From California with Love

1.  Same-sex Couples Shatter Marriage Records in Utah


2. 

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.

Married in Salt Lake City

Newlyweds:  Michael Ferguson and Seth Anderson tweeted out this photo with the caption, "Me and my new husband!  My polygamous Mormon great-grandparents would be so proud!"

My stars, yesterday New Mexico, today Utah - when it rains, it pours.  The Salt Lake Tribune reports on today's breathtaking development in the Beehive State, the heart of Mormonism:

A federal judge in Utah Friday struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, saying the law violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of equal protection and due process.

"The state’s current laws deny its gay and lesbian citizens their fundamental right to marry and, in so doing, demean the dignity of these same-sex couples for no rational reason," wrote U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Shelby. "Accordingly, the court finds that these laws are unconstitutional."

Ryan Bruckman, spokesman for the Utah Attorney General’s Office, said its attorneys plan to appeal the decision and were currently drafting a motion to seek a stay of the ruling "as quickly as we can get it taken care of."

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert issued this statement late Friday afternoon: "I am very disappointed an activist federal judge is attempting to override the will of the people of Utah. I am working with my legal counsel and the acting Attorney General to determine the best course to defend traditional marriage within the borders of Utah."

Several hundred people descended on the Salt Lake County Clerk’s Office Friday afternoon to get licenses.

The decision in full:

Utah Marriage Decision by joenyc

However, on the other side of the world, the Parliament of Uganda today passed a bill imposing life in prison for "aggravated homosexuality"; citizens who fail to snitch on their gay relatives or neighbors can be imprisoned as well.


Update, 7:55 a.m., 12/21: Utah has filed an emergency request for a stay of the District Court's ruling with the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Will You Marry Me - at Home Depot?

From the video description:

Dustin arrived at the Home Depot in Salt Lake City thinking he was there to help his roommate pick out some lighting for a party. When he was taken to the lumber aisle, what he found waiting for him was a mob of friends and family as his marriage proposal unfolded to the song, "Somebody Loves You" by Betty Who.

So this is the 21st century, oh my. Many things I could say about this, but I'm just going keep quiet and reach for a Kleenex.


Update, 9/13: Joe Jervis says the source of the video is the singer's publicist, which makes me wonder if this was a real proposal or merely staged for the cameras. I did wonder where all the other customers and employees were, didn't you?

Today's Quote: Not in My Throat

Sullivan and others have posted this around the blogosphere already, but it's worth reposting here:

"I meet with the gays here and there. They were in my house two weeks ago. I don’t mind gays. But I don’t want ‘em stuffing it down my throat all the time," - Utah Senator Chris Buttars, explaining his opposition to allowing same-sex couples to adopt children.

Have you noticed how very often this "stuff-down-my-throat" metaphor is used by straight guys when they are ranting against the gays?

Are they all really so clueless not see what this metaphor reveals about their deepest fears - or fantasies?  Hello?

Hilarious, if you ask me.

BTW, the patronizing remark about "they were in my house" reminds me very strongly of the Louisiana judge a few weeks ago who refused to marry an interracial couple - "but I have nothing against black people, I let them use my toilet."

That plantation mentality is like, so last century, ya know?  Whether about the blacks or about the gays.

Mormon Turnaround on Gay Rights?

It's a very stressful time in my life right now; one of those bottleneck moments when everything seems to be piling on top of you, and more every day.  And then Murphy's Law kicks in, and all your efforts to dig your way out of the pile seem futile.  So you whittle away at what little you can accomplish and wait for things to ease up, as they always do.  Eventually.

So I haven't been paying as much attention to the news lately as I usually do, but last week's groundbreaking decision by the LDS church - which led the fight for Prop 8 last year in California - to support a gay-rights ordinance in Salt Lake City is worthy of mention.  The New York Times:

The Mormon Church has been a target of vituperation by some gay rights groups because of its active opposition to same-sex marriage. But on Wednesday, the church was being praised by gay rights activists in Salt Lake City, citadel of the Mormon world, for its open support of a local ordinance banning discrimination against gay men and lesbians in housing and employment. . . .

The ordinance, which passed unanimously Tuesday night, made Salt Lake the first city in Utah to offer such protections. While the measure probably had majority backing on the seven-member City Council anyway, the church’s support was seen by gay activists as a thunderclap that would resonate across the state and in the overwhelmingly Mormon legislature, where even subtle shifts in church positions on social issues can swing votes and sentiments.

“It’s the most progressive and inclusive statement that the church has made on these issues,” said Will Carlson, the manager of public policy at Equality Utah, the state’s largest gay rights group. “What they’ve said here is huge, in protecting residents in other municipalities, and statewide.”

Andrew Sullivan:

It is possible to be cynical or begrudging in reacting to the LDS Church's unprecedented public decision to support civic protections against discrimination in employment and housing with respect to homosexuals in Salt Lake City. I think that is a temptation to be resisted. . . .

What the LDS church has done in Utah is an immensely important and positive step and places the Mormon church in a far more positive and pro-gay position than any other religious group broadly allied with the Christianist right. They have made a distinction - and it is an admirable, intellectually honest distinction - between respecting the equal rights of other citizens in core civil respects, while insisting - with total justification - on the integrity of one's own religious doctrines, and on a religious institution's right to discriminate in any way with respect to its own rites and traditions. . . . 

For this degree of respect - even if it is not fully what I want or what gays truly deserve - we should reciprocate with respect as well. This is a moment of genuine dialogue and civil compromise. And it was accomplished in Salt Lake City among gay and straight Mormons and gay and straight non-Mormons in a way that other Christians in other places have been unable to replicate.

Leadership comes in the unlikeliest places. And when it does, we should thank God and be glad.

Is the beginning of a thaw in the anti-gay attitudes of the religious right, or just a CYA after all the heavy flak the Mormons caught for their Prop 8 support - what do you say?

In Today's News

* The United Kingdom has banned fag-hating Fred Phelps and his daughter from entering that country to protest a college production of The Laramie Project, a play about Matthew Shepherd.

* Indiana legislators have effectively 86'd an anti-gay-marriage amendment in that state. A tiny bit of good news.

* But in Utah, where the Mormon Church said it's not against gay people, just the misuse of the word marriage, legislators have axed every single one of the Common Ground bills, even including the simple right to visit your partner in the hospital.

* A straight married woman is appalled that the state of Florida makes her and her husband check off their sexual orientation status on an adoption application form.

* While a Georgia man is fighting a custody order than forbids him to expose his children to any of his gay partners or friends.

* And finally, Sally Kern's soul sistah in the Georgia legislature wants to fire all faculty and staff at Georgia universities who teach queer studies or the like, which is such a waste of taxpayers' money in these troubled economic times, you know. Here's Rep. Charlice Byrd's priceless video on the subject:

Utah Foaming, Luv

This just in, from the Salt Lake Tribune:

On Sunday, a group called America Forever ran full-page ads in The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News calling on Utahns to "stop the homosexual movement." The ad also condemns Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. for endorsing the Common Ground Initiative, a legislative push that would offer inheritance and medical-decision-making rights to same-sex couples and make it illegal to fire or evict someone for being gay or transgender. . . .

America Forever, which solicits donations in its print ad, does not have a current Utah business license as a nonprofit nor is it registered as a political-issues or political-action committee, according to state Web sites.

The ad compares being gay to being "druggies and hookers," labels homosexuality as "anti-species behavior" and concludes that "gays should be forced not to display" their sexual orientation.

Gay-rights opponent Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, agrees with America Forever's stance on upholding "traditional marriage" but condemns the group's tactics and rhetoric, including the ad. "Everything they're doing crosses the line," Wimmer said Monday, noting he helped to eject members of America Forever from an Equality Utah news conference last week after they became confrontational.

"There's no need to have hateful discourse," Wimmer said. "Quite frankly, they make those of us who are on the side of traditional marriage --they make a lot of us --look bad."

Mike Thompson, executive director of Equality Utah -- the advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Utahns that is pushing the Common Ground Initiative -- called the ad "inflammatory" and "divisive."

"It demonstrates what we are up against in having a rational debate," Thompson said. "There's no reason to respond directly to the content of the ad because it's just ridiculous. The conversation should be focused on the Common Ground Initiative and the bills that are part of that." . . .

Agreeing to run an ad does not mean a newspaper endorses it, said Tribune Editor Nancy Conway.

"We didn't see [America Forever's ad] until we saw it in the paper," she said. "Advertising and news are entirely separate."

Conway said she personally didn't like the ad. But "we have generally a philosophy about ads that freedom to express oneself and First Amendment rights are covered in advertising. … We would be hypocrites, really, if we didn't allow expression."

And Pink News reports:

Nearly 60% of Utah residents are members of the Church of Jesus and the Latter Day Saints, known as Mormons, and the Church has a strong influence on the state's culture and attitudes. The [Common Ground] Initiative was designed as a response to statements by leaders of the Mormon Church that it does not oppose civil unions or other measures aimed at moving LGBT people toward equality under the law.

It includes measures designed to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment and housing, provide benefits for State of Utah employees and their adult designees, provide inheritance rights and other protections to adults who enter into a declaration of joint support, and repeal part of an amendment to the state constitution that prohibits civil unions.

America Forever's website states:

"Exposing children to this environment of homosexual unions would deprive them of their necessary defences and contribute to the spread of the homosexual propaganda.

"It is imperative to recognise that the approval or legalisation of the homosexual act is something far different from the toleration of it.

"They are already allowed to acquire sexual pleasure with whomever they wish, therefore they are already tolerated. The children however need to be protected as they have been in the past.

"They must be protected until they are 18, from the act of masturbation and therefore cannot be allowed to be exposed to homosexual unions."

No jacking off till you're 18? OMG, is that why I'm gay?!? If only I had known!

Click here to see the full-page ad from these creeps.