Marriage Wins in Arkansas and Mississippi

Marriage equality came a giant step closer to reality yesterday in two Deep South states, as Freedom to Marry reported overnight. Just amazing to this native Southerner.

1. Arkansas:

Today, November 25, U.S. District Court Judge Karen Baker ruled in favor of the freedom to marry in Arkansas, declaring the state's Amendment 83, which limits the freedom to marry to different-sex couples, is unconstitutional. The ruling is staying pending a presumptive appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.

The ruling is the second landmark decision in favor of marriage in Arkansas in less than 6 months, following a May 2014 ruling in state court, which is now currently being considered by the Arkansas Supreme Court. In May, following the state ruling, more than 500 same-sex couples from across the state received marriage licenses over the course of the week before the ruling was put on hold pending the appeal to the AR Supreme Court.

The case today was in Jernigan v. Crane, filed in July 2013 by Little Rock-based attorney Jack Wagoner of Wagoner Law Firm. The case before the Arkansas Supreme Court is Wright v. Smith.

Text of the ruling here.

2.  Mississippi:

The latest in a landmark string of court victories for the freedom to marry came today, November 25, from Mississippi, where a federal judge has ruled the state's constitutional amendment denying the freedom to marry to same-sex couples unconstitutional. The ruling is stayed for 14 days pending appeal.

U.S. District Court Judge Carlton W. Reeves ruled today in Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant, a federal legal case challenging Missisippi's anti-marriage amendment. The judge struck down the marriage ban, the 56th court ruling since June 2013 in favor of the freedom to marry. Just four courts - most notably, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit - upheld marriage discrimination. Plaintiffs from the 6th Circuit cases, out of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, are now seeking review from that out-of-step ruling from the United States Supreme Court. The plaintiffs in a case out of Louisiana, where a federal judge upheld marriage discirmination in September, are also seeking Supreme Court review.

The case in Mississippi was brought on behalf of two same-sex couples and the Campaign for Southern Equality by private counsel, including Roberta Kaplan of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Mississippi attorney Robert McDuff of McDuff & Byrd, based in Jackson. In 2013, Kaplan led Windsor v. United States, the case that brought down the core of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act at the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2013.

Text of the ruling here.

Federal Court OK's Marriage in Florida

The ruling is stayed, pending appeal.  Freedom to Marry reports:

Today, August 21, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle ruled in favor of the freedom to marry in Florida, the first federal judge to strike down Florida's ban on marriage for same-sex couples. His ruling follows four previous state court rulings in favor of marriage for same-sex couples in Florida earlier this summer. . . .

Some excerpts from the ruling:

•The founders of this nation said in the preamble to the United States Constitution that a goal was to secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity. Liberty has come more slowly for some than for others. It was 1967, nearly two centuries after the Constitution was adopted, before the Supreme Court struck down state laws prohibiting interracial marriage, thus protecting the liberty of individuals whose chosen life partner was of a different race. Now, nearly 50 years later, the arguments supporting the ban on interracial marriage seem an obvious pretext for racism; it must be hard for those who were not then of age to understand just how sincerely those views were held. When observers look back 50 years from now, the arguments supporting Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage, though just as sincerely held, will again seem an obvious pretext for discrimination. Observers who are not now of age will wonder just how those views could have been held.

•Just one proffered justification for banning same-sex marriage warrants a further note. The defendants say the critical feature of marriage is the capacity to procreate. Same-sex couples, like opposite-sex couples and single individuals, can adopt, but same-sex couples cannot procreate. Neither can many opposite-sex couples. And many opposite-sex couples do not wish to procreate. Florida has never conditioned marriage on the desire or capacity to procreate.

•The Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized the fundamental right to marry. The Court applied the right to interracial marriage in 1967 despite state laws that were widespread and of long standing. Just last year the Court struck down a federal statute that prohibited federal recognition of same-sex marriages lawfully entered in other jurisdictions. The Florida provisions that prohibit the recognition of same-sex marriages lawfully entered elsewhere, like the federal provision, are unconstitutional. So is the Florida ban on entering same-sex marriages.

The ruling is in Brenner v. Scott; full text here.  Or see Freedom to Marry's website for an updated (though hideously ugly) map of where marriage laws and rulings now stand.

Here's a great video of two of the plaintiffs in the case, Steve Schlairet and Ozzie Russ, who live in Chipley, a small town way to hell out in the backwoods middle of the Florida Panhandle:




In other news:
After a 10-hour public hearing that lasted into the wee hours, the Fayetteville, Arkansas, city council yesterday passed an LGBT rights ordinance 6-2. Joe.My.God. has a great clip of Mayor Lioneld Jordan's passionate defense of equality, inclusion, and diversity here: it's worth your time to hear a straight white Southern man speaking up for the gays.

And next door in Tennessee, Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville has also come out for marriage equality.

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.

Super Saturday

The kiss seen round the world.

Three great news stories yesterday: first, Austrian drag performer Conchita Wurst won the Eurovision song contest with her rendition of "Rise like a Phoenix." Now the bearded-lady look doesn't do much for your Head Trucker; frankly, I think it's silly, show-offish, and extremely unattractive - but Putin and his evil homo-bashing thugs in Nowheresville are all pissed off by this, so fuck him - up with Conchita!




Second, Arkansas became the first Southern state where same-sex marriages were performed, following state circuit judge Chris Piazza' ruling late Friday that the state's marriage ban is unconstitutional.  In a very learned ruling that cited other recent rulings in Virginia, Utah, and Okalahoma, as well as the Windsor and Loving rulings, and even the Dred Scott Decision, Judge Piazza wrote:

Regardless of the level of review required, Arkansas’s marriage laws discriminate against same-sex couples in violation of the Equal Protection Clause because they do not advance any conceivable legitimate state interest necessary to support even a rational basis review. . . .

Furthermore, the fact that Amendment 83 was popular with voters does not protect it from constitutional scrutiny as to federal rights. The very purpose of a bill of rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. W.Ya. State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette,319 U.S. 624,638 (1943). The Constitution guarantees that all citizens have certain fundamental rights. These rights vest in every person over whom the Constitution has authority and, because they are so important, an individual’s fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections. Id. at 638. . . .

It has been over 40 years since Mildred Loving was given the right to marry the person of her choice. The hatred and fears have long since vanished and she and her husband lived full lives together; so it will be for the same-sex couples. It is time to let that beacon of freedom shine brighter on all our brothers and sisters. We will be stronger for it.

The county clerk in Eureka Springs, a gay-friendly resort town up in the Ozarks, issued 15 marriage licenses yesterday.  The state attorney general plans to appeal the ruling, so it's not yet known when or whether other Arkansas counties will follow suit on Monday.  KARK in Little Rock reports:




And in neighboring Missouri, my fellow Texan Michael Sam made some fabulous history by becoming the first openly gay player in the NFL when was drafted by the Saint Louis Rams yesterday - and kissed his boyfriend, Mizzou swimmer Vito Cammisano, live on ESPN, which broadcast a number of instant-replays of the smooch.  It's quite a moving moment, if you haven't seen it yet:



Afterwards, Sam received congratulations from, among others, President Obama.  BTW, his story is even more moving when you consider that Sam is the first of his troubled family to attend college; read about his very difficult upbringing near Galveston in this NYT report.

McCance Resigns, Arkansas Apologizes

Clint McCance, vice-president of the Midland School Board in Independence County, Arkansas, whose horrific anti-gay death rant last week provoked outrage around the world, submitted his resignation this morning, which was duly approved by the school board in a formal vote.

In yesterday's Little Rock Arkansas News, columnist John Brummett wrote:

Today’s column begins with a memorandum I presume to send to the world in behalf of Arkansas.

Dear World:

You need to understand that we in Arkansas remain mostly a sparsely populated rural culture. While there are lifestyle advantages to that, we also confront certain stagnant pressures that are matters of politics and heritage. One result is that we maintain too many school districts of small size.

This situation dissipates our already limited talent pool of people to run for and get elected to all these little local school boards.

But be assured that we have a court ruling that says the education of our children is ultimately the state government’s responsibility.

So, speaking as the state, we are sorry about those ghastly and evil ravings of that person who tragically sat on the board of one of our small rural districts. But please understand three things:

(1) He got duly elected by the local patrons, which means the rest of us in the state had nothing to do with that.

(2) He did not actually run anything and was but one vote on that little local board.

(3) But if you get right down to it, he was, and is, the entire state’s responsibility and problem, and we want you to know that, as a state, we do not hate homosexual children, nor do we want homosexual children dead, and we will do what it takes to make sure that these unspeakably ignorant and hate-filled pronouncements are forever condemned, isolated and discredited.

Sincerely in our regret,

Arkansas

Update:  Honk to Joe.My.God. for posting a link to McCance's resignation letter (pdf).

Clint McCance Apologizes, Admits Ignorance, Plans Resignation

A great big bouquet of props to Anderson Cooper who last night not only held McCance's feet to the fire, but roasted him up one side and down the other, not letting him off lightly.  GOOD WORK, I say; a mindless, arrogant bully like McCance ought to be made to feel, at least once in his life, what it is like to be publicly humiliated and beaten up - metaphorically, if no other way. 

Like the old joke about the farmer who hit his stubborn mule over the head with a two by four, it takes a really big knock to get the attention of someone like this, and McCance has gotten it right in the face:



Part II includes a moving interview with David and Amy Truong, the parents of Asher Brown:



Max Brantley of the Arkansas Times has a further report on the story here, including this statement from HRC president Joe Solmonese:

Clint McCance's decision to resign from the school board is a step forward for the community he represents. We are hopeful the wounds that were inflicted will soon be healed.  What remains troubling is that Mr. McCance focused his regret on particular word choices not the animus behind those words. We hope he will take this time to reflect not only on the language he used but on what he can do to make the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people better.

What I Say:  We should not expect anyone to be completely healed and changed overnight; you know from your own experience, guys, that big lessons take time to sink in.

But it's a wonderful thing that McCance has been befriended by the father of a child lost to suicide. This is a learning moment for McCance, steeped so deeply in the dark, unreasoning, unreflecting prejudices of his culture. We should all pray, or at least earnestly wish, that he will by steps and degrees continue the journey he has now begun, unwillingly, towards light and knowledge and repentance, and thereby convert many like him.

That, on our part is the truly civilized, humane response; it is also the truly Christian and Jewish one:

As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live. -- Ezekiel 33:11.

Believer or atheist, repentance and forgiveness are what it's all about, fellas. Otherwise, human society is no more than a collection of wild beasts endlessly tearing at and devouring one another.

Think about it.

Joel Burns, Anderson Cooper slam Arkansas Bully Clint McCance

Clint McCance and his buttboy friend

Last night, Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns responded to Clint McCance's abominable "I-wish-all-the-fags-would-die" rant:

Hate and violence born of ignorance must not be allowed to harm the youth of Midland, Arkansas or anywhere in America. Two weeks ago I shared at our Fort Worth City Council meeting that the words and attitudes expressed by those like Midland School Trustee Clint McCance result in misery and even death for America’s youth. At that council meeting and in the days since, I have asked people in communities across the nation to take responsibility and stand up to these hateful bullies. I encourage adults to tell our children they are whole, perfect, and complete. And I try to remind those bullied youth that things will get better and that they will make a lifetime of happy memories. I can assure you that changing the course of just one potentially lost life is worth our standing up to the bullies like Clint McCance. Trustee McCance is a failure as a responsible adult, an embarrassment to the good citizens of Midland, and he has betrayed his community’s trust.

Also last night, Anderson Cooper aired a sharply critical report about McCance, including an interview with Anthony Turner, the local resident who first brought McCance's remarks to the notice of the media:



In other developments, the Arkansas Times reports that the Midland School Board - most of whose members are avoiding the press - has disassociated itself from McCance's remarks; and the head of the Arkansas Department of Education has strongly condemned the statements, suggesting that McCance resign from the school board.

Also, a gay and lesbian group in Little Rock plans to protest at the Midland School District this morning.

Twisting the Knife: School Board Member Gloats over "Fag" Suicides

This big-mouthed motherfucker - the one on the left, I mean - is Clint McCance, a sitting member of the Midland School Board in Pleasant Plains, Arkansas (about 80 miles northeast of Little Rock).

He left these evil comments on his Facebook page last week:

Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers killed themselves. The only way im wearin it for them is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed thereselves because of their sin. REALLY PEOPLE.

No because being a fag doesn’t give you the right to ruin the rest of our lives. It you get easily offended by being caleld a fag then don’t tell anyone you are a fag. Keep that shit to yourself. I don’t care how people decide to live their lives. They don’t bother me if they keep it thereselves. It pisses me off though that we make special purple fag day for them. I like that fags can’t procreate. I also enjoy the fact that they often give each other AIDS and die. If you aren’t against it, you might as well be for it.

I would disown my kids if they were gay. They will not be welcome at my home or in my vicinity. I will absolutely run them off. Of course my kids will know better. My kids will have solid christian beliefs. See it infect everyone.

Human Rights Campaign has posted a PDF of the Facebook page here.   HRC's Joe Solmonese says:

Clint McCance has put a face on the hate that devastates our young people. McCance and his hate shouldn’t be allowed near children, let alone managing their education. We call for his immediate resignation from the school board.

A Facebook page called "Fire Clint McCance" has been set up here.

Queerty has published the name of the bigot's business and says:

Without question, this man must lose his board seat. It is not a matter of his First Amendment rights. Let this guy spew all the bile he wants on his own free time (and Facebook page). It is the matter of what's in the best interest of children — and it is certainly not a man who thinks gay youth should kill themselves. This man just wrote himself into history as a human stain.

The Advocate reports:

It's not clear if McCance has taken down the thread, since his Facebook page is private — the messages were made available to The Advocate via a forwarded screen capture. The superintendent of the Midland school district was unavailable and a phone call to the principal of the Midland High School was not returned. There was no response to e-mails to the superintendent and to the secretary of the Midland school board.

Joe Jervis says:

It looks like the Midland School District has wiped the names of its board members from its website, but Midland Superintendent Dean Stanley can be reached at dstanley@midlandschools.org. Be polite, yet forceful.

What I Say:  Oh no.  We are not going to take this lying down.  It's 2010 and it's a new day, boys - we are not going to let an elected official get away with this filthy talk and still keep his job.  In backwoods Arkansas or anywhere else.  Oh no.

Oh hell no.


Update:  Wayne Besen over at Truth Wins Out has dug up this very revealing photo of Clint - apparently posted by Clint himself at this site - presented as a public service by your Head Trucker:

Clint is the one with his, um, finger poking through his pants.

Discuss.

Update 2:  Max Brantley, editor of the Arkansas Times, is interviewed by openly gay newsman Thomas Roberts of MSNBC:



Read Brantley's report of his conversation with McCance here.