Not long at all after Washington legalized same-sex marriage, the state House of Representatives in Maryland has passed legislation to grant marriage equality as well. The Maryland Senate expected to follow suit before long, and the Governor of Maryland has expressed willingness to sign the bill into law.
Just to the north, both houses of the New Jersey legislature passed a similar law. New Jersey was about to move forward into the proud club of states that support equality under the law regardless of sexual orientation. Governor Chris Christie wouldn’t have it, though. He vetoed the legislation, saying that the state legislature shouldn’t act to protect the constitutional rights of the people of New Jersey.
In a perfect world, state legislatures shouldn’t have to pass laws recognizing that citizens have the right to equal protection under the law. Ideally, the matter should be decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. However, the Supreme Court has been cowardly on the matter, too afraid to confront the clear trend that, although right wing Republicans want to keep American couples unequal, most Americans recognize that it doesn’t do them any harm to allow other people to get married.
So, good for Washington! Good for Maryland! Shame on Chris Christie. Gays and lesbians don’t have to get married if they don’t want to, and regressive grumps don’t have to like it if they don’t want to, but the choice to get married ought to be up to the people who are getting married. One person’s bigotry is not a valid reason to interfere with another person’s wedded bliss.
Civil unions for all! Marriage is a religious rite, like baptism; the state has no call to regulate or interfere in it, or say in who can or cannot marry whom. Let the state regulate the legal relationship of ‘union’, and stay the heck out of ‘marriage’. And, of course, with ‘moral’ proscriptions thus removed from the equation, any two consenting adults intent on forming a (hopefully) permanent union should be empowered to do so.
Currently married folks should be grandfathered in by receiving from the state automatic ‘civil union’ status. Anyone who wants to marry should be allowed to find a religious institution which will sanction it. Conservative denominations will, of course, decline to marry gays (as should indeed be their right). But other churches, such as my own, will be more than happy to.
Makes sense to me….
I’d go further and say complete separation of marriage and state. The government shouldn’t keep track of relationship status. The state should ignore relationship status and completely privatize marriage!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_privatization
http://www.garyjohnson2012.com/
A Gary Johnson administration would stand for marriage equality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_supporters_of_same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States
It includes an exhaustive list of who supports marriage equality.
It is worth noting that the two major parties and two third parties have gay rights caucuses in them. It breaks down following:
Libertarian Party: Outright, LNC, and all state affiliates
http://www.lp.org/news/press-releases/libertarians-applaud-steps-toward-marriage-equality
Green Party: Lavender, GNC, and all state affiliates
http://www.gp.org/issue/marriageequality.pdf
Democrat Party: National Stonewall, California, Connecticut, DC, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Progressive (Bull Moose) Party: Oregon, Vermont
http://www.progparty.org/node/15
http://www.progressiveparty.org/civil-rights-platform
Working Families Party: New York
http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/issues/equal-rights/
Republican Party: Log Cabin, No State Affiliates
Former Governors
Gary Johnson
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2011/12/01/380335/longshot-gop-presidential-candidate-gary-johnson-comes-out-for-marriage-equality/
Jesse Ventura
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dZsUJW3EVE
Senators
Bernie Sanders (in the AE top 6)
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/25/sen_sanders_blocking_vote_to_confirm
Mayors
Michael Bloomberg (not running but an AE top 6)
http://www.freedomtomarry.org/pages/mayors-for-the-freedom-to-marry
Former Mayors
Rocky Anderson
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SLTB&p_theme=sltb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=100CE2AEDBFC3939&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM
Maryland State Afflliates and Marriage Equality:
Communist Party: N./A
Democrat Party: N
Green Party: Y
Libertarian Party: Y
Progressive Party: N/A
Socialist Party: N/A
Working Families Party: N/A
I was curious so I examined each state’s political parties searching for ones that favored marriage equality and compiled a spreadsheet database on this.
National headquaters:
Communist Party: Y
Democrat Party: N
Green Party: Y
Libertarian Party: Y
Progressive Party: N/A
Socialist Party: Y
Working Families Party: N