In an item to file under ‘About Bloody Time’, same-sex marriage is now legal across the United States of America, thanks to a decision by the nation’s Supreme Court.
Overnight, in a landmark decision for civil rights, the court ruled, five votes to four, that it is unconstitutional for states to ban same-sex marriage.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, as part of the ruling:
“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than they once were. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”
A crowd outside the court cheered and wept as the decision was handed down, while the Gay Men’s Chorus Of Washington DC broke into a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.
The ruling means that married same-sex couples will now be entitled to the same legal rights as all other married couples across the country, and will be recognised on official documents.
President Barack Obama praised the ruling from the White House, saying:
“Our nation was founded on a bedrock principal that we are all created equal. The project of each generation is to bridge the meaning of those founding words with the realities of changing times. Progress on that journey often comes in small increments … And then sometimes there are days like this, when that slow steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt.”
In an attempt to explain that civil rights are actually, like, a bad thing and not for everybody, Republican presidential hopeful and dissenting voice Mike Huckabee told media:
“I will not acquiesce to an imperial court any more than our Founders acquiesced to an imperial British monarch. We must resist and reject judicial tyranny, not retreat.”
The fight for marriage equality here in Australia continues.
Two weeks ago, the country’s biggest businesses, including Telstra, iiNet, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, NAB, McDonalds and a number of others, added their names to an advertisement urging the government to take action.
via CNN
