WV Legislators Take Another Stab at Banning Gay Marriage

Next week, legislators in this state begin hearings into whether or not they should open up the issue of gay marriage for a state wide vote in order to change the state constitution. Republicans tried to ram this through in March, and some Democrats bravely (given the social conditions in this state) told them to shove off.

This seems to be a matter of making a statement more than anything else. Other states (Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, etc.) have already voted to recognize gay marriage, and this seems to be about standing up and making a Fundamentalist Christian Stand. Which pisses me right the hell off. If fundamentalists feel that legislation is somehow persecuting them, we'd hear it screamed about to the high non-existant heavens. But when they want to persecute someone else, well, then it's a tool they demand the right to use. Separation. Of. Church. And. State. From the article:

Family Policy Council of West Virginia President Jeremiah Dys and a representative of the Alliance Defense Fund -- a conservative organization that says it seeks to "aggressively defend religious liberty" -- will speak in favor of the amendment, Dys said.

"We're thankful that the Legislature is setting aside time to carefully study this issue," he said. "To my knowledge, this is the first time the West Virginia Legislature has ever officially discussed the Marriage Protection Amendment."

The whole point of separation between church and state is that you get religious liberty. It doesn't mean you're "at liberty" to go around forcing your version of your beliefs on everyone else! Your relgious rights are NOT being trampled on, because it doesn't mean you are going to be forced to be gay or to get "gay married". You can keep right on hating gay people, whether they get married or not. So your right to be stupid is not interefered with in any way. But if we are defending "religious liberty", shouldn't we also be defending those faiths who do NOT consider homosexuality a sin and gay marriage to be an equal right? What about their religious liberty? Doesn't it need defending too?

What also cracks me up is the name of the thing: the Marriage Protection Amendment. LOL. I have been married for four years, and gays getting married has done nothing to undermine my own marriage. The link between gay marriage being allowed and hetero marriage being somehow destroyed has never been explained to anyone. Heteros don't need marriage protection from gays who want to get married. They need marriage protection from stupid heteros who get married too soon or for the wrong reasons. Now that would truly be a service to hetero marriage. Everybody could use couples counseling and financial counseling before they get married. That's what causes marriages to break up: money and miscommunication. Please to be pouring all your wasted dollars into those efforts, thank you.

It may not matter in the end anyway. Massachusetts has sued the federal government over the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), saying it violates the Constitutional "full faith and credit" clause ...

Full faith and credit ought to be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings, of every other state; and the legislature shall, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings, shall be proved, and the effect which judgments, obtained in one state, shall have in another.

... and therefore forces Mass. to have to break it's own laws to discriminate against people it otherwise wouldn't. Or something like that. WV might vote and pass the issue only to find themselves smacked down by the Supreme Court as being in violation of the Constitution. If it happens, let us hope they fall square on their asses.

-- DV