SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN DOMA, PROP 8; GAY MARRIAGE LEGAL IN CALIFORNIA
That’s the ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, and this blogger had to turn to Twitter to get the news because the CNN feed read this way:
Supreme Court has issued a key ruling regarding a California ban on same-sex marriage. Details soon
I thought, “Oh, come on!, Man.”
The bottom line is the long wait for the ability of people to just be themselves is over. This is a day where everyone, straight or gay, should celebrate freedom. Unbelievable.
On Tuesday, with the Voting Rights Act Decision, the Supreme Court sucked. But today, it looks good again, with the VRA matter being a huge qualifier.
The Supreme Court Strikes Down DOMA
CNN’s Jeffrey Tobin explained it all very well:
The Defense Of Marriage Act denied Federal benefits to legally married gay couples. Now, that’s changed. In the 14 stages where gay marriage is legal, couples are eligible for Federal benefits – California is one of those states.
For the record, the case is United States v. Windsor, where Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer, were legally married in Ontario, but then were New York residents. When Thea died in 2009, Ms. Windsor could not gain the same federal estate tax exemption granted other couples just because of DOMA. As of today, that problem has been eliminated.
The Supreme Court Strikes Down Proposition 8
The second historic decision officially ends a long, long battle to make gay marriage legal in California, the very state where one would think such would not be an issue. This blogger has videos going back to 2008 on this issue, and in a new post, we’ll look at every one of them.
Stay tuned.