Same-sex marriage shouldn't irk Utah, nation
Christa Roberts
Issue date: 4/29/09 Section: Opinion
Vermont and Iowa recently passed same-sex marriage laws, and the District of Columbia now recognizes same-sex marriages performed in other states.
This means same-sex couples can now legally marry in four states. Vermont and Iowa joined Connecticut and Massachusetts in their decision to end the centuries-long ban on same-sex marriages.
These decisions are the latest additions to the history of the fight for equal rights in the last 10 years.
Probably the most publicly fought battle of the entire gay rights movement happened last year when the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples could legally marry in California. You don't have to be a resident of California to marry there, so gay men and lesbians from all 50 states and Puerto Rico flocked to the Golden State to marry their partners.
However, anti-gay marriage laws passed early in the millennium are written in California's Constitution, and the ruling, under the law, required a majority vote from the California voters. On the ballot it was called Proposition 8. At poll time voters voted to pass Proposition 8 and struck down the Supreme Court's order to amend California's Constitution. It was a 52-48 margin.
A few years earlier and again in California, a pre-operative transsexual teenager named Gwen Amber Rose Araujo, 17, was brutally murdered. According to an article written right after her 2002 murder titled "In Memory of Gwen Araujo" by Jordan Balagot, found at http://www.transyouth.net/stories/gwen_araujo.html, Jaron Nabors, Michael Magidson, Jose Merel and Jason Cazares allegedly beat and strangled her for hours and then drove her body into the Sierra Nevadas about 100 miles away and, Nabors later testified, buried her there.
According to www.transgenderlawcenter.com/gwen, two of them, Nabors and Cazares, took plea agreements and were sentenced to 11 years and six years in prison, respectively. Nabors took his plea immediately following the crime in 2002 after he led police to Araujo's body while Cazares pled "no contest" after two mistrials. Magidson and Merel were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, according to the same article. None of them was ever charged with a hate crime.
This means same-sex couples can now legally marry in four states. Vermont and Iowa joined Connecticut and Massachusetts in their decision to end the centuries-long ban on same-sex marriages.
These decisions are the latest additions to the history of the fight for equal rights in the last 10 years.
Probably the most publicly fought battle of the entire gay rights movement happened last year when the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples could legally marry in California. You don't have to be a resident of California to marry there, so gay men and lesbians from all 50 states and Puerto Rico flocked to the Golden State to marry their partners.
However, anti-gay marriage laws passed early in the millennium are written in California's Constitution, and the ruling, under the law, required a majority vote from the California voters. On the ballot it was called Proposition 8. At poll time voters voted to pass Proposition 8 and struck down the Supreme Court's order to amend California's Constitution. It was a 52-48 margin.
A few years earlier and again in California, a pre-operative transsexual teenager named Gwen Amber Rose Araujo, 17, was brutally murdered. According to an article written right after her 2002 murder titled "In Memory of Gwen Araujo" by Jordan Balagot, found at http://www.transyouth.net/stories/gwen_araujo.html, Jaron Nabors, Michael Magidson, Jose Merel and Jason Cazares allegedly beat and strangled her for hours and then drove her body into the Sierra Nevadas about 100 miles away and, Nabors later testified, buried her there.
According to www.transgenderlawcenter.com/gwen, two of them, Nabors and Cazares, took plea agreements and were sentenced to 11 years and six years in prison, respectively. Nabors took his plea immediately following the crime in 2002 after he led police to Araujo's body while Cazares pled "no contest" after two mistrials. Magidson and Merel were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, according to the same article. None of them was ever charged with a hate crime.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Boo
posted 8/21/09 @ 12:40 AM MST
What difference does it make? Black, White, Gay, Lesbian, we're all human beings. Aren't all men supposedly created equal? If that's so is our government implying that homosexuals are not equal to straight people? That they don't deserve the same rights as the rest of us? It's sad, and someday, hopefully soon, our government will stop being so closed minded, and be accepting of everyone. (Continued…)
Flounder
posted 8/27/09 @ 8:41 PM MST
Gay People are Like Zombies if they bite you , you will turn into one...
But Seriously Gays can have a domestic partnership, Marriage is between man and women. (Continued…)
Lizzie
posted 9/16/09 @ 11:05 AM MST
I really don't understand why gay people aren't allowed to get married.
how exactly does it demean traditional marriage? I'm married, and how does Ellen Degeneres being married make my marriage any less meaningful?
if you are morally against homosexuality, that's your right, but that's it, you don't have the right to force those beliefs on other people. (Continued…)
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