They're here, they're queer, they wanna get married, so get used to it! Yep, the country has taken another step towards making it easier for gay couples to get married. Today, a federal appeals court in Boston ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. It's the first slapdown of anti-gay marriage laws at the federal level. So what does this mean?
The DOMA law has been under attack since it was passed in 1996. What it basically said was that even if a same-sex couple got married in a state where it was legal, another state, where it was not legal, wouldn't have to recognize it. The case decided today doesn't deal with that part (unfortunately). But what this case does say is that federal benefits, such as social security payments, or the right to jointly file a federal tax return, cannot be denied to a legally wed same-sex married couple.
Yeah, it's still a small-ish step. It doesn't make same-sex marriage legal in all states or anything. In fact, it is still banned in most states. However, for those couples who are now married in a state where it is legal, they won't have the federal government stepping in to stop them from getting certain rights and benefits that an opposite sex married couple would get.
It's one small step for gay marriage, one giant step for making a statement about gay marriage. And that statement is that it's going to be legal everywhere. Eventually. Remember when interracial marriage was illegal? The Supreme Court ruled that unconstitutional in 1967. That's not that long ago, but those laws seem incredibly misguided today.
The wheels of justice move slowly, but they do move. More and more Americans believe in gay marriage, and it will happen everywhere. Gua-ran-darn-tee it.
Do you think gay marriage will eventually be legal in the entire country?
Image via torbakhopper/ Flickr
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Comments 9
Not only do I think that it will eventually be legal, but I also believe that there will eventually come a time when it is no longer considered abnormal. I don't know that full acceptance will come about during my lifetime, but I hope that my grandchildren's world will be a much more accepting place.
Yes I do. Equality for all means exactly that.
I do believe that it will be legal in all states eventually, but I believe that will be because eventually it will be federally mandated, and then we will all look back, and be embarrassed that it wasn't, and we will be embarrassed that this typed of prejudice and bigotry was EVER legal in the first place, the same way that now a days we feel embarrassed that interracial marriages were ever illegal. Yes, as stated the wheels of justice do turn slowly, but they do indeed turn...
"The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice" Dr. MLK
I sure hope so!
Over the weekend I got into an arguement with a "man" (if he can be called that) who told me that gay marriage is wrong and he has children by SIX women.
Really, I fail to see how any marriage entered into with love can possibly endanger my marriage
haha, I wish we could "like" or upvote comments here in the stir like the rest of CM - I agree with much of what was already said, especially the comments made by Taisie and Todd.