Washington is this close to passing same-sex marriage bill
By James Brady RyanFebruary 2nd, 2012, 10:00 amComments (8)
Washington State might become the seventh to legalize same-sex marriage now that its state senate passed a marriage equality bill 28-21 late last night. The packed room burst into applause at the announcement. Now that the bill cleared the Senate, which was considered its biggest hurdle, it's expected to do the same in the House, and Governor Chris Gregoire has said she will sign it into law. Yay Washington, go you! Not that the move doesn't have its detractors; some people still feel like businesses should get to discriminate against gay clients:
Nearly a dozen amendments were introduced, including several that passed that strengthen legal protections for religious groups and organizations. A handful were rejected, including one that would exempt photographers, cake decorators and other business owners who object to gay marriage from the law, and another that called for a referendum clause to be added to the bill.
Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, argued that the proposed law alters the definition of marriage and "will lead to the silencing of those who believe in traditional marriage."
"It's ironic how a bill which purports to be about ending discrimination leaves the door open so far for discrimination going in the other direction," he said. "I'm extremely concerned that without additional protections, this legislation will create a hostile environment for those of us who believe in traditional marriage."
Ohmigosh: no one wants to get married in your tacky-ass church with your tacky-ass cake and your tacky-ass photographer, whose work is probably a mainstay on AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com. Calm. Down. (And, please correct me if I'm wrong here, but you don't have the right to discriminate against a protected class as a business, correct? Profrobert, I'm looking at you.) Representatives who voted against the bill also promised to file a challenge to it, because even when it's not the work of "activist judges," conservatives still can't stand extending equal rights to LGBT people. The idiots sad people straight up, probably idiots opponents need to turn in 120,577 signatures by June 6 in order to get a referendum on the bill once it's signed into law, which seems like a tall order.
Commentarium (8 Comments)
@JBR: Private discrimination is in a different category than government discrimination. The latter is addressed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which make discriminatory legislation subject to the "strict scrutiny" test if a protected class is targeted. (I wrote a tl;dr-ish bit about that for the Cynthia Nixon piece just before it got pushed to page two, so I don't know if you saw it. That's the Fourteenth Amendment analysis in a nutshell.) Private discrimination can only be addressed by affirmative legislation either in a state civil rights law or federally pursuant to the Commerce Clause. All of those federal employment and accommodation laws are predicated on the idea that discrimination against the groups named in the legislation impinges on interstate commerce. I don't know what Washington State's human rights laws actually say. It could list orientation as something that businesses cannot discriminate on the basis of, along with things like race, religion, national origin, etc. Or not. If not, then all this stuff about anti-gay bakers is window-dressing because even without that explicit provision, they could refuse to make same-sex wedding cakes. Private discrimination on any basis is legal unless there is a statute declaring otherwise, and whether or not the target is in a protected class is not relevant to the analysis; that issue only comes into play when you're talking about government-mandated discrimination.
"Governor Chris Gregoire has said he will sign it into law"
Actually, Chris Gregoire is female.
i thought we were post-gender
Female is sex not gender.
How about now? Is she still female?
It looks like all the glitter-bombing by the butt-fuckers has finally paid off! Phase two will be to sneak Whoopi cushions onto people's chairs at formal dinners. Then the butt-fuckers can dance around and fart with their armpits while somebody looks up and reads "dirty" words from the dictionary. That's progress! So is Cynthia Nixon going to get the same treatment for being so ignorant, bigoted and hateful about her homosexuality? Oh wait, she already caved to pressure rather than stick to the truth about what she really believes. Another victory.
0/10
+1, Hooray.
Now you say something