Thursday, August 05, 2010

And the Decision Day responses keep on rolling in

In the "yin and yang department" there's this New York Times editorial: Marriage is a constitutional right

The decision, though an instant landmark in American legal history, is more than that. It also is a stirring and eloquently reasoned denunciation of all forms of irrational discrimination ... Just as they did for racial equality in previous decades, the moment has arrived for the federal courts to bestow full equality to millions of gay men and lesbians.

And then there's this NOM (National Organization for Marriage) response:
Judge Walker’s reasoning today in overturning Prop 8 illustrates that he does not understand the essential public purpose of marriage, which is to attach mothers and fathers to their children and to one another. He replaces this public purpose with private purposes of adults’ feelings and desires.

[Which, of course, is a bad thing. As opposed to replacing constitutional guarantees of equal protection with religious based bigotry and discrmination. Whatever.]

Several Episcopal bishops issued statements, including mine:

"Justice is advancing thanks to today's ruling affirming Californians' constitutional right to marriage in faithful, same-gender relationships.
And Episcopal News Service has a nice "round up" piece on the various rallies and statements ... including the rally and prayer service I was part of last night in downtown L.A.

Meanwhile, I appreciated the quotes the San Gabriel Valley News and USA Today chose to run from the interviews I gave yesterday:
Reverend Susan Russell, a senior clergy associate at All Saints Church in Pasadena, called the ruling a victory for not only gay and lesbian people, but everyone "who cherishes our constitutional democracy."

"The bigger question at hand is, can the majority of voters take away constitutionally protected rights from a minority? If that is the case, everything we think about as constitutional protections is up for grabs But Judge Walker said, `No,"' Russell said. "Walker told California we have to recalculate - we are going in the wrong direction."
and
Progressive people of faith have biblical values, too -- and one of those values is telling the truth. And the truth is, if we're going to love our neighbors as ourselves, we need to be defending all marriages and valuing all families ...

This ruling, says Russell comes down to a judge considering the religious arguments against gay marriage then concluding,

"No one has the right to write their theology into our Constitution. (This) should be celebrated by people of all faiths, of any faith and of no faith.
That's it for now. And now I'm going to go try plowing through the whole 138 pages myself. More later, alligators!

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