Musings on the Supreme Court Case and the Issue of Sexual Orientation

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Thursday April 30, 2015 · 5:00 AM PDT

2015/04/30 · 05:00

During yesterday’s Supreme Court session, Chief Justice Roberts questioned whether sexual orientation even needed to be addressed in evaluating the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans and briefly argued that the case could be evaluated from the perspective of gender discrimination, which is a federally protected class unlike sexual orientation: “I mean, if Sue loves Joe and Tom loves Joe, Sue can marry him and Tom can’t. And the difference is based upon their different sex. Why isn’t that a straightforward question of sexual discrimination?”

For quite some time one of the primary arguments against the prohibition of same-sex marriages is that it discriminates based on sexual orientation, and violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, even though sexual orientation currently falls under the lowest level of judicial scrutiny. Examining this case from the perspective of discrimination based on gender rather than sexual orientation not only provides a novel perspective, one I had never considered before, but also mandates the court apply a more rigorous level of scrutiny.

Upon further self-reflection, I’ve concluded that using sexual orientation discrimination as a basis of disputing same-sex marriage bans to be a poor argument in the pursuit of marriage equality.

leesuh

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Sunday January 19, 2014 · 2:10 PM PST

2014/01/19 · 14:10

With student loan debt toppling one-trillion dollars and competitive college admissions turning into a rat race, many students and their parents are overwhelmed with the prospect of making college education dreams a reality. Although studies indicate that the lifetime earnings for a college graduate is approximately 1 million dollars more than the lifetime earnings of a high school graduate, with an incredibly tight job market, bachelor’s degrees are becoming necessary for many careers that were once accessible for adults with just a high school diploma. This degree inflation has further created demand on our nation’s higher education institutes, and many students are finding themselves out-competed and out-priced of many of the nation’s once accessible and affordable colleges.

Often overlooked by many students and their parents are the thousands of local community colleges, which are one of the country’s best values in higher education. I know as a high school student I would have never even considered community college. I attended a four-year university directly out of high school, but if I were to do things again, I would have gone to community college first before transferring. Now that I’ve gone back to school for a career change, I’ve found that the education I’ve received from my local college to be top notch and invaluable in helping me pursue my educational goals.

It’s time that community colleges lose their stigma of being “second-rate” schools. Follow me below the orange squiggle to learn about the many advantages a community college education can provide.

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Musings on the Supreme Court Case and the Issue of Sexual Orientation

Community College: The Best Bargain in Higher Education