Friday, December 20, 2013

Gay Marriage Legal in Utah?

[ Did you hear the sonic boom from Highland, Utah?  That was Gayle Ruzicka imploding when Mayor Ralph Becker legally married two men in Salt Lake City. ]

KSL.com reports that a Federal Judge decided that Utah’s Amendment 3, defining a marriage as between 1 man and 1 woman, is unconstitutional.

[ Do you hear the big sucking sound from Utah County?  That’s the imploded-Gayle-Ruzicka black hole sucking all of Alpine, Lehi, and American Fork into oblivion. ]

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said that until he receives some legal injunction, the County Clerk’s office will be issuing marriage licenses to any couple that applies.

Utah Governor Gary Herbert is “…very disappointed…” and will “…determine the best course to defend traditional marriage within the borders of Utah,”

Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker has already performed the marriage of Utah Democratic Party Chairman Jim Dabakis and his partner. (That’s not them down below).

There’s no doubt in my mind that the Great State of Utah will waste a ton of money fighting this.  I’ll also bet that, in light of the DOMA and Prop 8 rulings, this ruling will be upheld.

And for those of you screaming “state rights” and “will of the majority”; I can’t put it any better than utzfan did in the KSL.com comments: “the majority of the southern states still wanted slavery, luckily our federal rights prevailed!!!

3 comments:

Lisa Shafer said...

I was so surprised. Really.
Like you, I expected that --eventually -- Utah would be forced to cave on this and be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21 century. But I didn't expect it to happen for another 10 or 20 years.
Wow.
Gayle's already been ranting, based on what I'm seeing on twitter. No surprises there.

I think that pic of the two guys who were the first couple is really cute. :)
I wish Debbie's son Jay could've seen this. Wouldn't he have been surprised? :)

As for Amendment 3, well, in 2004 only 66% of those who voted were against gay marriage. I bet it'd be about 66% FOR gay marriage if that vote were done again now. Things have changed.
I remember when my dance buddies Bart and Thom adopted a baby back in 1995. I was so surprised. I'd never heard of a gay couple adopting before. (They adopted in a different state, obviously.) I had a lot of questions, and I wasn't sure how I felt about it.
Time went by, and I realized they were great parents. Later, I wondered why on earth I'd ever questioned their ability to parent. All this took 3 or 4 years. (I was fine with their being a couple, by the way.)
Anyway, my point here is that I made a lot of emotional growth at the time. I don't doubt that lots of others have made some growth in these past few years in Utah and are now ready to accept gay marriage -- if not with open arms, then at least with a shrug. :)

But I'm still die-hard against polygamy -- at least the kind we deal with in Utah. I'm not sure I'll ever change my mind about that.

Lisa Shafer said...

Have you seen this poll?

https://www.wedgies.com/question/52b4f123b980ce020000054b?source=facebook

Max Sartin said...

Hadn't seen it before, just went and put my 2 cents in.