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Federal Judge Strikes Down Alaska Gay Marriage Ban

Federal Judge Strikes Down Alaska Gay Marriage Ban
A federal judge struck down Alaska’s ban on same-sex marriage Sunday evening.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska ruled that the state’s ban was unconstitutional under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess wrote that any relationship between the ban and government interests was “either nonexistent or purely speculative.”

“Alaska’s same-sex marriage laws are a prime example of how ‘the varying treatment of different groups or persons is so unrelated to the achievement of any combination of legitimate purposes that we can only conclude that the legislature’s actions were irrational,’” Burgess wrote, citing an earlier court ruling.

“Refusing the rights and responsibilities afforded by legal marriage sends the public a government-sponsored message that same-sex couples and their familial relationships do not warrant the status, benefits, and dignity given to couples of the opposite sex,” the Alaskan court decision continued.

Defendants in the case, who include Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell (R) and state Attorney General Michael Geraghty (R), will have the option of appealing to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, though that court has already struck down similar bans in Idaho and Nevada.

When Alaska voters passed the amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman in 1998, it was the first of its kind.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/12/gay-marriage-alaska_n_5974232.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

Federal Judge Strikes Down Alaska's Ban on Gay Marriage

Federal Judge Strikes Down Alaska's Ban on Gay Marriage

Alaska

A federal judge has ruled that Alaska’s same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional, Alaska Dispatch News reports:

Judge Timothy Burgess wrote in a summary judgment that Alaska’s “refusal to recognize same-sex marriages lawfully entered in other states is unconstitutional as a deprivation of basic due process and equal protection principles under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”

The lawsuit was filed in Anchorage in May.

The ruling takes effect immediately.

Read the full ruling BELOW:

Ruling

#38 on Scribd”>3:14-cv-00089 #38 by Equality Case Files


Andy Towle

www.towleroad.com/2014/10/federal-judge-strikes-down-alaskas-ban-on-gay-marriage.html

Mike Huckabee Is 'Utterly Disgusted' With Republicans, Calls on GOP to 'Grow a Spine' And Oppose Gay Marriage: VIDEO

Mike Huckabee Is 'Utterly Disgusted' With Republicans, Calls on GOP to 'Grow a Spine' And Oppose Gay Marriage: VIDEO

Huckabee4

He’s not letting the GOP’s tepid response to the SCOTUS gay marriage decision go just yet.

Said Huckabee on his Fox News program Saturday:

“I’m utterly disgusted with fellow Republicans who want to walk away from the issue of judicial supremacy just because it’s politically volatile. Here’s my advice – grow a spine! Show a modicum of knowledge about the way we govern ourselves. And lead, follow, or get the heck out of the way.”

The cry of “judicial supremacy,” coming from the same guy who said it was a “good day for freedom” when the Supreme Court gave corporations more religious freedom than taxpayers. 

Watch Huckabee’s rant, AFTER THE JUMP…

[via Media Matters for America]


Kyler Geoffroy

www.towleroad.com/2014/10/mike-huckabee-is-utterly-disgusted-with-republicans-calls-on-gop-to-grow-a-spine-and-oppose-gay-marr.html

Newly Released Documents Reveal Bill Clinton and Colin Powell's 1993 Talk on Gays in the Military

Newly Released Documents Reveal Bill Clinton and Colin Powell's 1993 Talk on Gays in the Military

Clinton_powell

A series of previously-secret files detailing the inner workings of the Clinton Administration were released Friday – including an account of a pivotal January 1993 meeting between Al Gore, Bill Clinton, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell and others about the role of gays in the military. 

Clinton, who had ed on a pledge to end the ban on military service by gays and lesbians, faced stiff opposition by numerous military leaders at the meeting, Politico reports:

Powell said he was making “no moral judgment” on gays but believed “they can best serve in other areas.”

Clinton told the chiefs: “The whole thing on both sides cause[s] me great discom[fort]. Men and women who [are] patriotic [and] served w/ dist[inction are] otherwise highly conformist pers[onally] in [the] best sense…[I] believe some are born gay and others not. [The] job of soc[iety] is not to disc[riminate] on [the] basis of moral judgement. [It’s my] belief gay friends should be able to serve.”

MundyClinton heard strong disagreement from Powell and the other chiefs. Marine Commandant Gen. Carl Mundy [right] may have been the most strident opponent of allowing gays to serve openly. Quoting someone involved in a Queer Nation parade, Mundy said people associated with “gay pride” are licentious and unconstrained by law or morality. Mundy, who died earlier this year, also suggested that announcing “I’m gay” was the “same as I’m KKK, Nazi, rapist,” the notes show.

The notes also describe a separate meeting in which top officials discussed Mundy’s malicious comments.

“When I heard [the] Marine Gen[eral] I just said—I have to give my own view,” Clinton said. “Al really helped.”

Gore added that he thought Mundy was “borderline in his presentation,” especially when he compared gays to Nazis.

Clinton did not agree with Gore that Mundy’s remarks were out of line, the notes say, adding that he thought the Marine commandant “meant it well.”

When asked about Mundy’s now public comments, Powell told Politico, “Carl Mundy who died recently was the most outspoken, but I don’t think that he crossed a line, nor has that ever been mentioned to me.”

Head over to Politico HERE for a more thorough breakdown of the behind-the-scenes lead-up to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. 


Kyler Geoffroy

www.towleroad.com/2014/10/newly-released-documents-reveal-bill-clinton-colin-powell-and-al-gores-1993-talk-on-gays-in-the-mili.html

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