Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United States

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Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United States

Post by Sable »

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/us/su ... riage.html
WASHINGTON — In a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Constitution guarantees a nationwide right to same-sex marriage.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in the 5 to 4 decision. He was joined by the court’s four more liberal justices.

The decision, the culmination of decades of litigation and activism, came against the backdrop of fast-moving changes in public opinion, with polls indicating that most Americans now approve of same-sex marriage.

As in earlier civil rights cases, the Supreme Court had moved cautiously and methodically, laying careful judicial groundwork for a transformative decision.

As late as October, the justices ducked the issue, refusing to hear appeals from rulings allowing same-sex marriage in five states. That decision delivered a tacit victory for gay rights, immediately expanding the number of states with same-sex marriage to 24, along with the District of Columbia, up from 19.

Largely as a consequence of the Supreme Court’s decision not to act, the number of states allowing same-sex marriage has since grown to 36, and more than 70 percent of Americans live in places where gay couples can marry.

The court did not agree to resolve the issue for the rest of the nation until January, in cases filed by gay and lesbian couples in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. The court heard extended arguments in April, and the justices seemed sharply divided over what the Constitution has to say about same-sex marriage.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said their clients had a fundamental right to marry and to equal protection, adding that the bans they challenged demeaned their dignity, imposed countless practical difficulties and inflicted particular harm on their children.

The Obama administration, which had gradually come to embrace the cause of same-sex marriage, was unequivocal in urging the justices to rule for the plaintiffs.

“Gay and lesbian people are equal,” Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. said. “They deserve equal protection of the laws, and they deserve it now.”

The Supreme Court had once before agreed to hear a case arising from a constitutional challenge to a same-sex marriage ban, California’s Proposition 8, in 2012 in Hollingsworth v. Perry. At the time, nine states and the District of Columbia allowed same-sex couples to marry.

But when the court’s ruling arrived in June 2013, the justices ducked, with a majority saying the case was not properly before them, and none of them expressing a view on the ultimate question of whether the Constitution requires states to allow same-sex marriage.

A second decision the same day, in United States v. Windsor, provided the movement for same-sex marriage with what turned out to be a powerful tailwind. The decision struck down the part of the Defense of Marriage Act that barred federal benefits for same-sex couples married in states that allowed such unions.

The Windsor decision was based partly on federalism grounds, with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s majority opinion stressing that state decisions on how to treat marriages deserved respect. But lower courts focused on other parts of his opinion, ones that emphasized the dignity of gay relationships and the harm that families of gay couples suffered from bans on same-sex marriage.

In a remarkable and largely unbroken line of more than 40 decisions, state and federal courts relied on the Windsor decision to rule in favor of same-sex marriage.
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by NachoThePikachu »

If I'm not a "conservative" does that mean I shouldn't post here
Eh too late I'm going for it

I'm personally happy to know that gay marriage is now legalized. I'm still pretty young and don't exactly have solid views on everything, but I feel that anyone can love whoever they want to and be able to marry them if they want to, too.
So yay. This is nice to hear. :3

This being said, I respect everyone's views and opinions here and just felt like sharing mine. I can already tell that we have differing opinions but that's okay. I respect your views so I ask that you please respect mine. ^u^
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by KeatonLabs »

^

Im ok with this, its about time. It's weird though because i'd forgotten this was going on
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by mintdrop »

this is really great news for lgbt+ people in the U.S.! unfortunately lgbt+ discrimination is still a thing but one step at a time, right? ^^
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by MeganAKTyler »

Honestly this is pretty awesome. I thought it would take longer for all 50 states to legalize same-sex marriage, so this is a nice surprise!
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by Midnite »

Why this hasn't happened earlier, I don't know. But I'm happy that it finally did happen. Now discrimination against homosexuals needs to eventually be squashed (as well as things like ace and bi awareness, but one step at a time, I suppose).
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by FedoraBrella Chao »

YES! I've wanted this to happen for years!!!
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by BlackLuigi7 »

To be honest, I didn't know it was still in the supreme court.

I thought it had passed/failed last year. No one really made a fuss about it, so I didn't know until like 3 hours ago when I saw it on Yahoo's front page. XD
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by Snowy »

About fricking time.
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by Jeffery Mewtamer »

Never thought I'd live to hear about the US Federal Government recognizing same-sex marriages nationwide. Hell, I feel like I've stepped into the twilight zone to learn that the US Federal Government has done something I can be proud about.

Still have a ways to go towards Universal Recognition of all Marriages and putting an end to discrimination based on sexual preferences, but this is an important step in the right direction.

I do feel a bit queasy over the fact that this barely passed instead of being unanimous, but it's not like the supreme court has that great a track record when it comes to striking down discrimination against those who don't behave the way moral conservatives think people should behave.
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by Drouge »

The good news is that the only way to repeal it is to go back through SCOTUS, so our rights are real damn secure.
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by Maple »

Just a reminder, please be respectful of others opinions even if you disagree with them.

But this is great!! It's been legal in my state for a while, but I'm super happy that it's legal every where now :) It's still probably going to be a while before the people in the states are respectful and accepting of it though.
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by Tsui »

I think this is a big step forward for now.
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by Jeffery Mewtamer »

Drouge wrote:The good news is that the only way to repeal it is to go back through SCOTUS, so our rights are real damn secure.
An Amendment to the US Constitution could also overturn this decision, but the anti-gay movement would have an even harder time pushing through such an Amendment.

Well, at this point, I could see Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage achieving universality in the western developed world in my life-time, but I'm not going to hold my breath for the developing and undeveloped world(though in all fairness, they've got far more pressing problems to deal with). I suspect the next major step forward on this road would be the EU ruling in favor of recognizing same-sex marriages, assuming they have that kind of authority over member states.
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by ChaoBreeder2440 »

I wasn't too concerned myself, but just because it didn't concern me, but I'm happy for anyone who this affects positively, which I'm sure is a LOT of people. Good on them.
Maple wrote:It's still probably going to be a while before the people in the states are respectful and accepting of it though.
I can agree with this. It may be legalized in all states now, but that doesn't mean everyone is going to be accepting of it. I'm sure there's still bound to be plenty of problems, but this is a step in the right direction.
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by Flame »

Nice. I think it's pretty good news.

Legislation is the first step forward to changing mindsets, so I imagine things'll look up more as time goes on.
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by BlackLuigi7 »

Jeffery Mewtamer wrote:Well, at this point, I could see Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage achieving universality in the western developed world in my life-time, but I'm not going to hold my breath for the developing and undeveloped world(though in all fairness, they've got far more pressing problems to deal with). I suspect the next major step forward on this road would be the EU ruling in favor of recognizing same-sex marriages, assuming they have that kind of authority over member states.
I honestly don't think it was any surprise that we'd probably see that kind of recognition developing at least somewhat, especially in the United States. To say you'd be surprised that this would happen here at some point would be like saying you failed history class.

The EU would most likely never rule on something like this, unless there was some *major* political issue surrounding it. As far as I remember, and can tell, the EU deals more with things like slavery, senseless violence (on a major scale), political and economical aggression, war, and the like. Maybe at some point, if something massive like a mass killing of gay/bi people happens, they would step in, but we shouldn't hope for that to happen.
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by Nano »

A good step in the right direction. Now, if only they could have a law that protects them in the housing and job market like the Civil Rights Act.

Though, I wouldn't at all be surprised if that came within a year or two. It's becoming clearer and clearer that the US is changing its views and that the old blood and misguided new generation will def become an even smaller minority in no time.
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by chaobreedersmh »

It's hella rad. B)
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by Kausa »

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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by Dr. Roivas »

Honestly I knew it was gonna happen, but I kinda thought it was gonna be a slow burn from state to state, like a sort of gay domino effect if you will.

Super excited that it was legalized federally tho. Thought it was gonna be years and years before it was legal nationally.
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by rascal401 »

As a pansexual myself, I think it's important that several other sexualities are not exempt from the celebrations. S'called LGBTA+ for a reason.

Still, I'm hella psyched that this got passed. It's what the new generation needs, and praise be for it getting through.

now if we can get Bernie Sanders for president that would be bloody rad
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by Jeffery Mewtamer »

^Who's Bernie Sanders?

@Black Luigi: Honestly, I never expected any part of the Federal Government to make such a bold pro-gay move in my lifetime, and even with this ruling, I'm sure many Bible Belt states are going to abuse every loop hole they can find to keep same-sex couples in an inferior legal position to their het brethren. Also, I don't know much about how the EU operates, though I know they have a court system at least somewhat analogous to the Federal courts here in the States. I mention the EU mainly because, with many, if not most, of the Nations that already have national recognition of same-sex marriages being part of the EU, and how small the average European country is, a decision coming down from the EU would have a much strongerimpact than the remaining EU member states joining one-by-one.

To help put things in perspective, with the United States now recognizing Gay Marriage nation wide, the following parts of the world stage have such recognition:
1. All of Anglo-America(US + Canada)
2. The Anglosphere excluding Australia(Anglo-America, UK, New Zealand, South Africa)
3. The Capitalist/First World/Western half of the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council(US, UK, France).
4. The bulk, if not the entirety) of Portuguese-speaking Latin America(Brazil)
5. Several regions of Europe including: Scandinavia(Norway and Sweden) the Nordic Countries minus Finland(Scandinavia, Denmark, and Iceland with Finland to join by 2017), Benelux(Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg), Iberian Peninsula(Portugal and Spain), and we can add the British Isles to the list once Ireland joins later this year.

Parts of the world stage not included:
1. The Bulk of Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe, which overlaps with most EU member states not included. Probably features the largest number of nations likely to join in the foreseeable future.
2. Russia and other former Soviet socialist republics. Most are dealing with more basic civil right issues if not political and economic turmoil leftover from the collapse of the soviet union.
3. China, more basic human rights issues to deal with.
4. India more fundamental rights issues to deal with.
5. Japan. Despite their reputation for Rule 34, they are actually a very conservative people when it comes to the subject of sexuality. They get my vote for most likely to be last First World Nation to join.
6. Africa outside of South Africa. Widespread poverty, many regions where death by curable infection is still common, Most of them are more concerned with mere survival than even basic human rights issues.
7. Southwest Asia aka Islam's homeland. Not only do they have more fundamental human rights issues to deal with, I hear some countries in this region still have the death penalty for homosexual acts.
8. The bulk of Spanish-speaking Latin America. Central America is small, as is the spanish-speaking parts of South America that haven't joined, and I'd say Mexico is too Catholic for Gay rights to gather traction.
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by MetroidOtherkin »

I'm NOT gay, but I'm very HAPPY for all my GAY FRIENDS who can now marry! :herosway:
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Re: Gay marriage now completely legalized in the United Stat

Post by BlackLuigi7 »

Jeffery Mewtamer wrote:@Black Luigi: Honestly, I never expected any part of the Federal Government to make such a bold pro-gay move in my lifetime, and even with this ruling, I'm sure many Bible Belt states are going to abuse every loop hole they can find to keep same-sex couples in an inferior legal position to their het brethren.
I hate to make this simile, but it is fairly related.
This is the same thing many people have stated about general suffrage rights throughout our history. As it turns out, when Blacks were given the right to vote, when Women were given the right to vote, and when even young teenagers were given the right to vote, there were many, many more opposers and nay-sayers actively trying to campaign against those ideals than there is now with gay marriage. It is literally no shock that the government would take up this stance, when you consider everything else they've ruled on in the past. Also, it isn't about making a "bold, pro-gay move". Everyone on the Supreme Court is supposed to generally be completely neutral in every way towards issues like this, and they make rulings based upon the wording in the constitution, changing times, and what is insinuated by government actions. And in the end, there were really feasibly just two outcomes. Either a "bold, pro-gay move". Or a "bold, anti-gay move".
And considering the opposition against gay marriage wasn't exactly amazingly huge (just vocal), and the biggest argument against it was one of moral decision, there was really no reason to rule against gay marriage. Political affiliation, your own feelings, etc. don't matter when you're making a decision as a member of the Supreme Court.

Also, you're completely right about the bible belt. But that's hardly a surprise either, considering our history.
Jeffory wrote: Also, I don't know much about how the EU operates, though I know they have a court system at least somewhat analogous to the Federal courts here in the States. I mention the EU mainly because, with many, if not most, of the Nations that already have national recognition of same-sex marriages being part of the EU, and how small the average European country is, a decision coming down from the EU would have a much strongerimpact than the remaining EU member states joining one-by-one.

To help put things in perspective, with the United States now recognizing Gay Marriage nation wide, the following parts of the world stage have such recognition:
1. All of Anglo-America(US + Canada)
2. The Anglosphere excluding Australia(Anglo-America, UK, New Zealand, South Africa)
3. The Capitalist/First World/Western half of the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council(US, UK, France).
4. The bulk, if not the entirety) of Portuguese-speaking Latin America(Brazil)
5. Several regions of Europe including: Scandinavia(Norway and Sweden) the Nordic Countries minus Finland(Scandinavia, Denmark, and Iceland with Finland to join by 2017), Benelux(Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg), Iberian Peninsula(Portugal and Spain), and we can add the British Isles to the list once Ireland joins later this year.

Parts of the world stage not included:
1. The Bulk of Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe, which overlaps with most EU member states not included. Probably features the largest number of nations likely to join in the foreseeable future.
2. Russia and other former Soviet socialist republics. Most are dealing with more basic civil right issues if not political and economic turmoil leftover from the collapse of the soviet union.
3. China, more basic human rights issues to deal with.
4. India more fundamental rights issues to deal with.
5. Japan. Despite their reputation for Rule 34, they are actually a very conservative people when it comes to the subject of sexuality. They get my vote for most likely to be last First World Nation to join.
6. Africa outside of South Africa. Widespread poverty, many regions where death by curable infection is still common, Most of them are more concerned with mere survival than even basic human rights issues.
7. Southwest Asia aka Islam's homeland. Not only do they have more fundamental human rights issues to deal with, I hear some countries in this region still have the death penalty for homosexual acts.
8. The bulk of Spanish-speaking Latin America. Central America is small, as is the spanish-speaking parts of South America that haven't joined, and I'd say Mexico is too Catholic for Gay rights to gather traction.
Sorry, I misunderstood what you were saying before. All gay relationships in the EU are legal. Discrimination in the EU is illegal in every country that joined. Most also recognize them as being a "couple". When it comes to marriage, however, that's another issue. A little more than half of the EU doesn't have any sort of laws allowing same-sex marriage currently in place, and around 20%+ have laws outright banning it. These include Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Croatia. Same-sex marriage seems to be a very heated topic, as far as I can read, in these countries, and most member countries won't risk negotiations for current issues and such over it, but possibly in the future they'll bring up talks.
However, they all already have some form of protection and recognition of same-sex relations.

An EU ruling would do literally nothing on a world stage, for the reason I stated before. The way the EU affects non-member nations are through political means. Wars, embargoes, trade agreements, negotiations, etc. They never, ever really do anything relating to morals unless, as I said, human lives are in danger on a large scale, which makes that moral issue political. The EU isn't for imposing ideals and thoughts onto other countries. The EU was created to try and maintain peace and cut down on death and war through the actions of member nations, after they make 100% sure they aren't at each other's throats.
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