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!!!”

Who died and left you speaking for God?

CAST OF CHARACTERS

John Swallow.  An ultra-right wing Tea Partier that just got elected Attorney General for the State of Utah.  In his week in office he has already started fundraising for the next election and is embroiled in a bribery scandal that is currently under investigation.

Gayle Ruzicka.  Phone-tree Queen of the Eagle Forum of Utah, she was instrumental in creating a controversy over a local High School production of “Dead Man Walking”, where the patron comments to the Jordan School District were 699 in favor (give or take a few) to 1 opposed (exactly 1, no more, no less according to the district spokesperson herself).  This also lead to the recent cancellation, (after 3 month of student practices, set building and choreography), of another High School’s production of “All Shook Up”.  (Again, 1 patron caused the cancellation, which was only reversed after the copyright holder agreed to the required concessions.)

THE STAGE:

The conference room at the downtown Salt Lake Radisson Hotel.

ACT ONE:

The conference room is filled with people attending the opening day speeches for the Annual Eagle Forum of Utah pre-Legislative Session Conference. Gayle is on stage at the VIP table.  Enter Jon Swallow, stage left…

John : “Welcome, blah, blah, blah.”

Audience applause.

John: “Blah, blah, blah and some yadda, yadda, yadda".”

More audience applause.

John: “Gayle Ruzicka blah, blah, blah, when she passes, she’ll be going straight to the Celestial Kingdom, yak, yak, yak, blah, blah, yadda, yadda.”

Much applause.  Curtain closes, applause fades.

END of Act One

---

Ok, I wasn’t actually there, so I used a little poetic license in the setting and dialog.

But our Attorney General did actually* claim that this hate-filled woman that feels the need to force her special definition of a “proper lifestyle” on every citizen of the State of Utah**  would be headed directly to the highest level of Heaven.

*according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
**and beyond.

Or, in the words of a friend of mine who’s LDS; “No she’s not.  Unless I’ve grossly misunderstood my lessons all these years.”

Thank you Gov. Herbert.

It’s “Happy Dance” time.

Today, the citizens of Utah proved me wrong.  Their voice can be louder in the state capitol than that of Gayle The Fail and the Wrinkles Forum.

Governor Herbert proved me wrong.  I honestly didn’t think he would defy the Teabagger Party folks and do what the majority of parents in Utah wanted him to do.

But we are louder and he did listen.  Top of page 1 of the Salt Lake Tribune this morning:

HB363 is dead.  For now at least, but the article did say that it passed with less than the two-thirds majority it would need to override the Gov’s veto, and even some of it’s supporters have backed off since the controversy.  Possible, but not likely.

“Sad day for the children of Utah” my ass, Ms. Ruzicka.  It’s a happy day for all the children whose parents care enough to get proper education on sexuality for them.  Especially for the parents that know they are either not up to date enough to supply it, or they are not the ones their children would feel comfortable asking the hard questions.

Thanks to all the people that called and/or emailed the Governor, good job!  We’ve shown that logical citizens can trump the dreaded Telephone Tree ‘O Terror.

Blockin’ up the scenery, breakin’ my mind…

I learned a few things at the rally today.  First was that not all Republicans voted for the idiocy that is HB363.  Second, according to a B.Y.U. survey, 58% of Utahns are either for or strongly for the veto of HB363.  Third, and most important to the discussion, is that only 3% of public school students do not get their permission slips signed and end up missing the Sex-Ed part of their health class.  That means 97% make the conscious choice to have their children educated on the subject of human sexuality.  Consider the part of that 3% of parents and students that never got around to it, lost it or simply forgot to get it signed, and you have a very, very, very small minority that agree with Gayle Ruzicka and her band of merry ostriches.

This is the guy that started the online petition that Governor Herbert calls bogus. (Click any picture to see larger version)

He is also the person that organized this not-so-bogus rally with several hundred real, live people there.

And here are a slew of the signs that I saw there.

And finally, I didn’t see this sign, but I like the box the cardboard came from.

The 10% solution.

Current Utah state law requires parents to sign permission for their kids to be in sex education and currently 90% of parents chose to have their kids take these classes. HB363 would allow school districts to deny parents this option and would make any discussion of birth control (even when the student initiates the discussion) illegal for the districts that continue to offer sex education. Nobody elected Gayle Ruzicka and her Tea Bagger Eagle Forum to our legislature and they should not be allowed to undermine the wishes of 90% of the parents of this state.

---

Subject: Gov. Herbert Veto HB363 (sex education)

Hi,

This bill would let schools skip teaching sex education and prohibit instruction in the use of contraception. It's critical that sex education is taught in the schools, as not every child has the opportunity to learn about these topics at home. This bill is nothing more than a attempt to dictate morality.

That's why I signed a petition to Governor Gary Herbert, which says:

"Governor Herbert, please veto HB363. Our children need to be given enough information about sex and contraception that they are able to make good decisions concerning sex."

Will you sign this petition? Click here:

http://signon.org/sign/gov-herbert-veto-hb363?source=s.em.cp&r_by=3143745

Thanks!

---

Sign of the Apocalypse?

… Front page of the UTAH section of the Salt Lake Tribune today: “Buttars an ally for gays?”

… The first thing I did was get on my knees and start out with “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…”

… Then I read the article and thought “Hmm, Buttars is a lot smarter than I thought he was.” He says that he will probably help sponsor a bill that will allow other cities to pass ordinances protecting rights regarding housing and employment, but will, as the article said “forbid them from going any further on gay rights.” 

… As hard as it is to admit, Chris Buttars actually is smart enough to see the writing on the wall, and especially after the LDS Church came out in support of the SLC ordinance, realized the firestorm that trying to overturn the city ordinance would cause.  (The Utah State Legislature had threatened to pass state law to invalidate the city ordinance.)  Personally, I don’t think he had any change of heart from when he said gay activism is “probably the greatest threat to America”, he just realized a no-win situation.

… So what does that say about the brain power of Gayle Ruzicka, who said she couldn’t believe that “her long time ally would run a bill authorizing other cities to pass ordinances that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”  Not a whole lot.  Even a mosquito knows it’s time to leave when the body is dead.