WATCH: Obama Hopes Supreme Court Makes 'Right Decision' on Marriage Equality
In a series of interviews with popular YouTube stars, the president expressed cautious optimism about the future of marriage equality nationwide.
Sunnivie Brydum
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The Supreme Court and the Power of Windsor
The Supreme Court and the Power of Windsor
With the Supreme Court’s announcing it will review marriage discrimination laws in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, we look to the Court to apply United States v. Windsor, its powerful 2013 decision striking down Section 3 of DOMA, to establish marriage equality nationwide.
Windsor articulates incisively how DOMA’s denying federal rights and recognition to married same-sex couples was an affront to the dignity of same-sex couples and their families. The Court recognized that the decision of the state of New York (Edie Windsor’s home state) to legalize marriage for same-sex couples enabled LGBT couples to “live with pride in themselves and their union and in a status of equality with all other married persons.” The Court explained that “[t]he avowed purpose and practical effect of” DOMA was “to impose a disadvantage, a separate status, and so a stigma upon all who enter into same-sex marriages ….” It stated that DOMA treated marriages of same-sex couples as “second-class marriages” that are “less respected” than everyone else’s marriages. DOMA’s purpose was to “injure” and “disparage” married same-sex couples and to make them “unequal” to everyone else.
The Court set forth extensively the harm this second-class status caused same-sex couples and their families. The Court explained how DOMA put same-sex couples in an “unstable position” in society by telling the “couples, and all the world, that their otherwise valid marriages [were] unworthy of federal recognition.” Further, “DOMA instruct[ed] all federal officials, and indeed all persons with whom same-sex couples interact, including their own children, that their marriage [was] less worthy than the marriages of others.” “Under DOMA, same-sex married couples [had] their lives burdened, by reason of government decree, in visible and public ways. By its great reach, DOMA [touched] many aspects of married and family life, from the mundane to the profound.”
In particular, the Court noted how section 3 of DOMA hurt same-sex couples’ children: DOMA “humiliates tens of thousands of children now being raised by same-sex couples. [DOMA] … makes it even more difficult for the children to understand the integrity and closeness of their own family and its concord with other families in their community and in their daily lives.”
Justice Scalia Windsor dissent decries the Court’s decision but in the process states that the opinion’s language makes the Court’s striking down state bans on marriage for same-sex couples “inevitable.” He even demonstrates how “easy” the process would be by using track changes to show how the Court can adapt Windsor‘s language to rule in favor of marriage equality nationwide.
We couldn’t agree more that Windsor‘s language should compel the Court to strike down all remaining state marriage bans. We hope the result is indeed “inevitable” this Supreme Court term. Same-sex couples in states without marriage equality still suffer overt discrimination. All LGBT couples live with uncertainty and vulnerability when they travel to states without equality. We look to the Court to recognize that we are not just Californians, Minnesotans, Texans, New Yorkers or residents of any of our home states. We are Americans, and we deserve full equality wherever we live or travel in our home country.
John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney, together for nearly three decades, were plaintiffs in the California case for equal marriage rights decided by the California Supreme Court in 2008. They are leaders in the nationwide grassroots organization Marriage Equality USA.
Pair set up on epic blind date: Teaming up to try and win $1 million on The Amazing Race
Pair set up on epic blind date: Teaming up to try and win $1 million on The Amazing Race
Kurt Belcher and Bergen Olsen one of five teams on CBS reality competition who have just met
gregh
President Obama Agrees: Love Can’t Wait
President Obama Agrees: Love Can’t Wait
www.hrc.org/blog/entry/president-obama-agrees-love-cant-wait?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed
Watch Obama Say Exactly What The Supreme Court Needs To Do About Marriage
Watch Obama Say Exactly What The Supreme Court Needs To Do About Marriage
Just in case you weren’t paying attention, President Obama is now super-on-board with marriage equality. He endorsed it in 2011 before the last election, he had the Justice Department submit an anti-DOMA amicus brief in 2013, and he even said that married gay couples are “America at its best” during his State of the Union.
And now he’s gone even further, by explaining his position to a YouTube personality, which is pretty much the most official proclamation a sitting president can make.
In a conversation with GloZell Green, a YouTube celebrity who is, like all YouTube celebrities, inexplicably popular, Obama made his position clear. “I’m hopeful the Supreme Court will come to the right decision,” he said. “My hope is they go ahead and recognize what a majority of people in America now recognize. Two people who love each other and treat each other with respect, and aren’t bothering anybody, why would the law treat them any differently?”
He also pointed out that his administration has done a lot to create a climate in which marriage equality is possible. “We’ve done a lot to push it along,” he said. “We argued against the Defense of Marriage Act,” which is no small thing. And although he didn’t mention it, they’ve also reformed immigration policy so that married non-resident spouses can stay in this country.
Considering that the last guy in the White House wanted to put a marriage ban in the U.S. Constitution, it’s pretty nice to hear the president talk this way. Now, hopefully the next guy (or gal) to get the job will be just as good.
Here’s the video:
matt baume
Towleroad Guide to the Tube #1687
Towleroad Guide to the Tube #1687
EMMA WATSON: Gives another great speech on gender inequality.
EDDIE IZZARD: The comedian talks coming out as a transvesite 30 years ago.
NEVER HAVE I EVER: Ellen, Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Paul Bettany.
JURASSIC PARK TRILOGY: The TL;DW summary.
For more recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.
Kyler Geoffroy
www.towleroad.com/2015/01/towleroad-guide-to-the-tube-1.html
S-WET Celebrating LGBT History month February 2015 Spa party Event
S-WET Celebrating LGBT History month February 2015 Spa party Event
Celebrating LGBT History Month Spa party launch event February 2015.
Nashville Christian School Rejects Two-Dad Family
Nashville Christian School Rejects Two-Dad Family
The school quoted policy saying homosexuality is an example of ‘lifestyle conduct’ it does not accept.
Stevie St. John
www.advocate.com/politics/religion/2015/01/23/nashville-christian-school-rejects-two-dad-family
Emma Watson Says Women's Potential Is 'Astonishingly Untapped' In HeForShe Davos Speech
Emma Watson Says Women's Potential Is 'Astonishingly Untapped' In HeForShe Davos Speech
Emma Watson followed up her September 2013 HeForShe address with another equally impassioned speech — this time at the World Economic Forum.
On Jan. 23, the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador took the stage in Davos, Switzerland to speak about the HeForShe campaign, the influence it has had on her own life and the new initiative Impact 10x10x10. “Women share this planet 50/50 and they are underrepresented — their potential astonishingly untapped,” she told the crowd.
The HeForShe campaign encourages men to join the movement towards achieving gender equality. As the campaign’s website reads, it “brings together one half of humanity in support of the other half of humanity, for the benefit of all.”
In her speech, Watson describes the far-reaching impact the launch of the HeForSpeech campaign had. Her remarks from the September conference were watched over 11 million times, created 1.2 billion social media conversations and encouraged men from almost every country in the world to sign the HeForShe commitment.
Watch Watson’s full speech at Davos here (story continues below video):
The campaign has inspired many celebrities including Desmond Tutu, Hillary Clinton, Prince Harry and many more.
“It is my belief that there is a greater understanding than ever that women need to be equal participants in our homes, in our societies, in our governments and in our workplaces,” she said. “And they know that the world is being held back in every way because they are not.”
Instead of engaging people on an individual level, like HeForShe’s original campaign, Impact10x10x10 is taking on bigger groups. The initiative is a one-year project that will engage businesses, universities and governments, and encourage them to make real commitments in order to achieve gender equality.
.@EmWatson launched #HeforShe IMPACT 10x10x10 initiative! More+her full speech+images: t.co/zbFjELTZHU #wef15 pic.twitter.com/GzCmnp7rr8
— UN Women (@UN_Women) January 23, 2015
Watson addressed different groups of people throughout her speech, including CEOs of big businesses: “CEOs: Have you implemented the women’s empowerment principles in your own company? What change have you seen? Are you someone persuading men to become HeForShes and collecting their signatures for our website? How many have you got?” she asked. “We want to know. We want to hear from you.”
“I’ve been stunned by the amount of men in my life that have contacted me since my speech to tell me to keep going,” she said. “And that they want to make sure their daughters will still be alive to see a world where women have parody, economically and politically.”
For Patrick Stewart, standing up for gay rights was a natural
For Patrick Stewart, standing up for gay rights was a natural
‘There was never a moment where I made an intellectual choice that I would be a supporter of gay civil rights’
gregh
www.gaystarnews.com/article/patrick-stewart-standing-gay-rights-was-natural230115
