So let's start in the year 2012. At that time, marriage equality was the law of the land in six states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, and Iowa) and the District of Columbia. This was the total number of localities in the U. S. that had legalized same-sex marriage since 2004, when Massachusetts had taken the plunge. In process elsewhere, there were four marriage-equality-related ballot initiatives coming up in four states: those in Maine, Maryland and Washington, which, assuming a majority of voters voted the right way, would make marriage equality the law in those states; and one in Minnesota, which would either approve or disapprove an amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage. At Netroots Nation 2012, there was much concern and pledges of activism about these four ballot initiatives, since, every time in the past that marriage equality had been put before the voters, they had voted in a way damaging to LGBT couples. Activists at Freedom to Marry and other organizations had worked very hard to hone messages for these campaigns that could induce empathy for LGBT couples while countering the pernicious myths proffered by the other side.
And all that work panned out! The good guys won all four of those ballot initiatives, immediately increasing the number of states where same-sex couples could marry from six to nine (plus the District of Columbia). Minnesota was not far behind in passing marriage equality, as well as Delaware and Rhode Island in early 2013, bringing the total 12 states (and DC). This set the stage for Netroots Nation 2013.
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Netroots Nation 2013 occurred in late June, before the Supreme Court had released all of its decisions from the previous year's docket. At NN13, there was a lot of well-deserved back-patting and congratulations over the marriage equality victories of the previous year. The question then became what states would be next to obtain marriage equality, either by legislation or by court action? The general consensus was that the legislatures of Hawaii and Illinois would be the next ones to approve marriage equality. Further, there were 11 active court challenges to state laws banning same-sex marriages, though it was not at all clear how these cases would pan out. I knew that one of these challenges had been mounted in my current home state of Pennsylvania, but Pennsylvania is such a backward state (relative to the other states of the northeast) that I did not hold out much hope. Activists present were hopeful about Colorado, Oregon, New Mexico, and New Jersey. They guessed that it would take Nevada until perhaps 2017. Meanwhile, Indiana was trying to pass an anti-same-sex-marriage amendment to its state constitution, and it was necessary to work to block it.
So, based on the judgement of the activists who ought to know best, perhaps has many as 6 more states would enact or otherwise obtain marriage equality in the near future. I specifically asked Michael Crawford of Freedom to Marry about chances in Pennsylvania. He was not hopeful. He knew of no legislative activity in the state toward that goal, and did not know any details regarding the court challenge to Pennsylvania's same-sex marriage ban. I went away a bit discouraged, thinking that progress on marriage equality in Pennsylvania was still years away.
However, there was some hope with respect to the anticipated Supreme Court decision regarding Windsor v. United States, which challenged the part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that forbade the federal government from applying its enacted laws regarding marriage equally to same-sex married couples. (There was also the Prop. 8 case, which challenged the same-sex marriage ban enacted by ballot measure in 2008, and which, if the reasoning of the plaintiff's attorneys was accepted by SCOTUS, could make marriage equality the law of the land across the U. S. However, nobody present thought this was likely, as it would be a much too sudden change to the status quo in too many conservative states.) If SCOTUS ruled favorably on Windsor, legally married same-sex couples living anywhere in the U. S. could at least claim federal benefits, even if their states of residence still didn't recognize their marriages.
And, just days after NN13 ended, The SCOTUS' decision on Windsor was announced, and this was, in fact, the outcome. (It was at that point I realized that there was no longer a compelling reason for my partner and I not to get married, and we started thinking about how we ought to do it.)
So, after NN13, 12 states + DC had marriage equality, and SCOTUS had struck down the worst part of DOMA. in the following year, many of the predictions of the marriage equality activists bore out: Hawaii and Illinois did, in fact, pass laws enacting marriage equality, and court challenges in New Jersey and New Mexico were successful, leading to marriage equality in those states as well. Now we're up to 16 states + DC.
Then in December of 2013 came the first of the shocking court decisions: A federal judge struck down the same-sex marriage ban in Utah! More than 7 months later, I'm still stunned by this. Further, the reasoning of the judge was based in part on the Windsor decision. This was followed by stike-downs of similar laws in a series of other (mostly) red states: Oklahoma, Kentucky, Virginia, Texas, Michigan, Arkansas, Idaho, Wisconsin and Indiana. In all of these states, the judge put stays on their decisions, as the states appealed the rulings in the hopes of preserving their "traditional" same-sex marriage bans. However, two of these judicial strike-downs were not stayed, either because the government wanted to repeal the law anyway (Oregon), or a state government opposed to marriage equality lacked the energy to challenge the decision (Pennsylvania!). That, to us, was the shocker. A year before, there was little to no hope that we would enjoy marriage equality in our home state--but it happened anyway! And much of that was due to SCOTUS' Windsor decision. When I received a memo from our benefits coordinator announcing that same-sex spouses of faculty were eligible for all the benefits owed to opposite sex spouses, I knew that in Pennsylvania, at least, the battle for marriage equality was over.
Since then, marriage equality has come to Colorado and Virginia as well, bringing the state count up to 20 + DC. Then there are all those appeals in the red states, some of which are going to fall our way.
What a difference a year made!
On to the comments!
TOP COMMENTS
August 1, 2014
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From Mopshell:
Both of these comments beginning with jaguarpete and then Sandino who had me with my hand over my mouth trying to muffle the laughter so I didn't wake up the whole household! From ClimateDenierRoundup's post Blaze and Surge confuse Sharknado 2 for non-fiction.
From bastrop:
SkepticalRaptor's reality-based diary about homeopathy and ebola drew an early (and predictable) accusation of shilling for BigPharma. Charlatan's response offered a clear antidote.
From Railfan:
TDDVandy wins the Internets' history channels with this outstanding reference in Hunter's post about Rep. Steve King's declaration that U.S. borders were established by God.
From remembrance:
renzo capetti, in compassionate verse, reminds us we are but one human family and wonders aloud why it must hurt itself. From remembrance's recommended post Kitchen Table Kibitzing 7/31/14: A Spiritual Conflict, Part 2.
From your humble diarist:
erm... I got nuthin'.
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TOP PHOTOS
August 1, 2014
Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
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