Kentucky gay marriage

“Sometimes, by upholding equal rights for a few, courts necessarily must require others to forebear some prior conduct or restrain some personal instinct,” Heyburn wrote. “Here, that would not seem to be the case. Assuring equal protection for same-sex couples does not diminish the freedom of others to any degree.”

Federal Judge Heyburn hit the nail on the head with his decision striking down Kentucky’s anti-marriage law.

Judge Heyburn (approximation)

“Even assuming the state has a legitimate interest in promoting procreation, the Court fails to see, and Defendant never explains, how the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage has any effect whatsoever on procreation among heterosexual spouses. Excluding same-sex couples from marriage does not change the number of heterosexual couples who choose to get married, the number who choose to have children, or the number of children they have … The Court finds no rational relation between the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage and the Commonwealth’s asserted interest in promoting naturally procreative marriages.”

Sadly, the Governor of Kentucky has vowed to appeal the decision. It’s sad because he’s a Democrat. Kentucky’s Democratic Attorney General refused to defend the law in court (because, as any lawyer who understands the law will tell you, it is legally indefensible), like our own AG here in Pennsylvania.

However, given that the anti-marriage folks have won exactly zero appeals makes me pretty optimistic that this appeal will also be a failure.

And the dominoes keep falling.

Virginia is the latest state where a Federal Court has ruled that prohibitions against gays and lesbians getting married violates the Constitution. Yes, once more, we radical liberals are forcing our views down the throats of unsuspecting bigots through the terrible practice of “using the exact words of the Constitution.” (Hey, you ever notice that these homophobes always say we’re “shoving it down their throats”? Is that subconscious wish fulfillment or what?)

The decision is stayed pending an appeal. This means that either the Supreme Court will take all of these and make one final decision that will be applied to the entire country, or they will deny the appeals, thus confirming the lower court’s decision, permitting marriages in those states only.

A Federal Court yesterday also ruled that Kentucky could not refuse to accept marriages that occurred in states where the marriage would be legal. The issue as to Kentucky’s anti-gay marriage law was not before the court, so that may still be coming in another case.

There are still plenty of other cases in the pipeline (including here in Pennsylvania, where our Attorney General has refused to support our states’ anti-marriage law). So this trip is far from over.