It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.
 | Unintended (?) Consequences |
Mother Davis puts Republican reassurances in her box of broken promises as she reports,
There are some awfully peculiar consequences of the recent gay marriage ban that was passed by voters in Ohio last fall - and when I say “awfully peculiar” I put emphasis on the awful.
In Ohio, a public defender has used the anti-gay constitutional amendment there to request the dismissal of domestic violence charges against unmarried defendents. You see, unmarried couples just can’t have the rights of married couples in Ohio - even if those unmarried couples are heterosexual.
In Utah, a man is using the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment passed there last year as the basis for an appeal stating that his girlfriend has no legal right to file a restraining order against him.
Will these legal challenges win in court? We’ll have to wait and see, but this much is clear: Amendments to state constitutions that ban same sex marriages also may be making unmarried Americans sitting ducks. If you live in a state with one of these new constitutional amendments, you’d better get married if you want to be safe.
So much for equal protection under the law.
Now, some might say that these problems are unintended consequences. As for myself, I think it’s stretching the definition of coincidence that many of the groups that supported the state constitutional bans on same sex marriage also opposed domestic violence laws 20 years ago.
Wondering what constitutional protections will be the next to go,
Mother Davis
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