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TOP6NEWS - September 17, 2004 1-NEWS: MA out-of-state m law decision to be appealed 2-NEWS: NY justice didn't invalidate performed ssms 3-NEWS: OH group wants to invalidate more m signatures 4-NEWS: CA court rejects reverse discrimination argument against dp law 5-NEWS: Gay rights advocates using courts like civil rights advocates 6-OP-ED: J. Rock: Christians turned Cherokee against homosexuals ________________________________________________________ 1-NEWS: MA out-of-state m law decision to be appealed Gay marriage backers to seek SJC action Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the organization that filed the lawsuit resulting in the SJC's historic ruling last year legalizing gay marriage, said the state's highest court must end what it describes as discrimination against same-sex couples. ''This is the unfinished business of Goodrich," said Michele Granda, a GLAD staff attorney, referring to the title of the landmark ruling. ''There is no reason the attorney general has to enforce a law that is discriminatory." ... ________________________________________________________ 2-NEWS: NY justice didn't invalidate performed ssms NY Judge Refuses To Void Gay Marriages State Supreme Court Justice Michael Kavanagh ruled the couples would have to be named parties to the case with the right to be heard in court, and the lawsuit has failed to do that. Matthew Staver, head of the conservative legal group Liberty Counsel, said they plan to name the couples and try to have the marriages invalidated. "We will proceed to do that," he said. More than 200 same-sex marriages have been performed in the Hudson Valley village this year, with clergy presiding now at about a dozen every other week, said E. Joshua Rosenkranz, attorney for Mayor Jason West. ... ________________________________________________________ 3-NEWS: OH group files suit to invalidate more m signatures Group disputes petition validity The Cincinnati-based Campaign to Protect Marriage must collect 323,000 valid signatures to put the issue before voters in November. But a coalition of gay rights advocates could block the effort by tying it up in court or getting enough signatures tossed out. A lawsuit filed this week in the state 10th District Court of Appeals argues that all petitions collected in the Cincinnati and Cleveland areas should be tossed out for a variety of reasons, including the fact that they do not contain a required summary of the amendment. The amendment effort is already expected to come up at least 17,000 signatures short of the state requirement - a figure supporters think they can overcome by submitting more than 100,000 additional signatures. But if the lawsuit is successful, it could eliminate more than 50,000 valid signatures from Hamilton and Cuyahoga counties, significantly increasing the signature deficit. Donald McTigue, an election law attorney hired by opponents, said the lawsuit also names the secretary of state's office as a defendant in hopes that a ruling in his favor could invalidate signatures in all counties. ... ________________________________________________________ 4-NEWS: CA court rejects reverse discrimination argument against dp law The Recorder Los Angeles' 2nd District Court of Appeal on Wednesday threw out a suit by a man claiming that unmarried couples of the opposite sex should have the same right as same-sex couples to file wrongful-death suits. Jack Holguin said the law's exclusion of unmarried heterosexual couples violates his equal protection rights. Holguin's girlfriend, Tamara Booth, was killed in a car accident. They had lived together for three years, but never married. The Los Angeles County trial judge dismissed the complaint, and the 1st District affirmed, holding that the state Legislature had "rational bases" for not extending partnership benefits to "cohabiting unmarried couples in general." "The fact domestic partners are legally or practically prevented from marrying, while cohabiting couples of the opposite sex are not," Justice Earl Johnson Jr. wrote, "provides a rational basis for extending the right to sue for wrongful death to the former but not the latter. "In addition," he said, "married couples and domestic partners have publicly registered their legal relationship while cohabiting couples of the opposite sex have not, thereby providing an additional basis for recognizing the economic loss to the survivors of the former but not the latter." Justices Dennis Perluss and Fred Woods concurred. ... ________________________________________________________ 5-NEWS: Gay rights advocates using courts like civil rights advocates Courts key to gay, black civil rights advances But while the black civil rights movement and the gay civil rights struggle may evoke different media images, there is one place where the two meet on the same battleground: in the courtroom. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown vs. Board of Education ordered desegregation of public schools, sparking many of the battles that defined the black civil rights movement of the late 1950s and early1960s. In turn, the gay rights movement heralds the Supreme Court’s historic Lawrence vs. Texas decision in 2003 that struck down the nation’s remaining sodomy laws as one of its major victories. “Certainly court decisions, from a public policy standpoint, have been the major movers and shakers [in the gay rights movement],” said Greg Nevins, a senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund. ... But Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, said gay men and lesbians are being unfairly blamed for their proper use of America’s political system, and judges are being maligned for doing their job. “Courts have a central, legitimate and vital role to play in ensuring Americans’ freedom, including during civil rights chapters in American history,” Wolfson said. ‘Judicial activism’ “Because of their own agenda and political purposes, the right wing has been attacking the courts and the attack today about gay people is part of that,” he said. But Staver said that unlike gays prior to Lawrence, blacks had already achieved major victories through the legislative process before the Brown ruling came down. Staver specifically cited passage of the 15th Amendment, which extended to blacks the right to vote, as evidence that public opinion toward blacks was more tolerant than current public opinion toward gays. ... Court of public opinion Public opinion was significantly opposed to criminalizing private sexual acts between consenting adults at the time Lawrence was decided, whereas Southern whites were deeply committed to maintaining separation of the races in education in 1954. In theory, public opinion should not influence judicial deliberations, but “in the long-term, the majority opinion determines what rights the minority has,” Klarman said. In the Brown and Lawrence cases, justices could not reach the decisions they did by solely relying on the conventional sources of constitutional interpretation such as the law, original understanding of the law, precedent and custom, Klarman said. “Until public opinion had become accepting of school desegregation, the justices would not have been tempted to strike it down,” Klarman said. Similarly, the majority in Lawrence — particularly Justices Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O’Connor — recognized that in the time since the Bowers ruling, public opinion about gays and lesbians, and their right to equality, had drastically changed, Klarman said. That came, in part, through a change in public opinion since the high court’s decision in Bowers vs. Hardwick, the 1986 case that upheld Georgia’s sodomy law. Battling backlash Whenever a court rules in opposition to the will of the overwhelming majority, public backlash follows, Klarman said. It wasn’t until images of blacks being brutalized by southern whites — particularly in Birmingham in 1963 — became a common scene on television that the American public became outraged at white supremacists, and more supportive of the civil rights movement, Klarman said. “The big difference today is that the Massachusetts same-sex marriage cases are producing a backlash, but not the same sort of violence because it’s a different issue and we’re a different country,” Klarman said. “The backlash the gay rights movement is facing is political.” Gay rights cases may not have sparked a violent backlash, but if gay families can demonstrate how they are negatively affected by gay marriage bans, they may be able to inspire public outrage at acts of discrimination, according to Freedom to Marry’s Wolfson. Mandy Carter, a black lesbian and board member of the National Black Justice Coalition, said white conservatives are using the debate about whether the two movements can be compared as a political weapon, designed to divide and conquer progressives. “The opposition brings [it] up to divide us. The radical white put this wedge here,” said Carter, who is also executive director of Southerners on New Ground in Durham, N.C. “We [as African Americans] have got to come out and be visible and viable.” ...
________________________________________________________ 6-OP-ED: J. Rock: Christians turned Cherokee against homosexuals Baptists taught Cherokee bigotry Last May, a lesbian couple used these definitions in applying for and receiving a marriage license from the Cherokee Nation. After their marriage ceremony, the couple asked the Cherokee Nation to file their certificate of marriage with the state. The Cherokee Nation court refused to accept the marriage certificate, claiming tribal authorities did not know when they granted the license that it was for a same-sex couple. In the midst of a court battle over the issue, the Cherokee Tribal Council passed a new law defining a marriage as “between a man and a women,” but the laws cannot be made retroactive. As a result, there is one single same-sex marriage certificate waiting to be filed. This is where the traditional Cherokee worship, and I wanted to know what the elders and leaders there said about someone being gay. What I learned was that these wise elders said nothing. Homosexuality was not important to the definition of an individual, they said. Certainly opposite-gender sexual relationships were the most common form, but same-sex couples were not unknown. These gay couples existed, were recognized, and were an accepted part of society. WHY HAS THIS changed? In a word: acculturation. ... CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES PLAYED the most influential role in changing Cherokee family life, as they strove to save the souls of “the poor heathen people.” The majority of these missionaries were of the Baptist faith and preached a fire and brimstone type of religion. Children were removed from their families and put in boarding schools, where they could not speak their native languages or practice their cultural religions. Today’s Cherokee Nation is much different from that encountered by Europeans years ago. While there are still traditionalists who practice the religions of their ancestors, they are in the minority. Most political Cherokees today identify as Christian and the faith that has had the most influence on the tribe is Southern Baptist. |
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