Posted by: Admin on Thursday, July 10, 2008 – 07:11 AM PST
By Kilian Melloy
EDGEBoston.com Contributor
Conservative Kern County in California is mulling a new ordinance to outlaw marriage equality, even as gay and lesbian families continue to celebrate their court-mandated freedom to marry.
Last month, the California Supreme Court ruled that laws barring marriage equality are unconstitutional, effectively removing barriers to gay and lesbian families asserting their right to legal family status.
But opponents of marriage equality have gotten an anti-gay-family initiative into the Nov. ballot, which, if approved by voters, will strip marriage equality away from gay and lesbian families once again and restrict marriage as a special right enjoyed exclusively by heterosexual couples.
Twenty-seven states have already amended their constitutions in this manner, writing discrimination into the very fabric of their laws. Only one state where such an initiative was proposed, Ariz., saw voters reject such a proposal, and that, pundits say, is because the law may have endangered the perks enjoyed by older couples living together and drawing both on benefits from deceased spouses as well as taking advantage of domestic partnership benefits that are accessible to unmarried straight couples as well as to gay families.
Rather than see their own benefits affects, straight voters turned the amendment away in Ariz., and a similar outcome is speculated for a proposed constitutional amendment that will go before voters in Fla.
But not everyone in Californiaâs Kern county is willing to wait and see what Nov. might bring.
As reported at anti-gay religious Web site WorldNetDaily www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=69044 Kern county is contemplating the adoption of an ordinance that will define marriage as available only to one man and one woman.
The Campaign for Children and Familiesâ Randy Thomasson drafted the county ordinance, reported WorldNetDaily, with a supportive legal argument being prepared by the united States Justice Foundationâs Gary Kreep.
The WorldNetDaily item quoted Thomasson as saying, “The thing [counties] can do is they have the ability to pass ordinances that do not violate state statutes.”
Thomasson went on, “If a county means what it says, that it believes marriage is only for a man and a woman, by passing the ordinance they will do more to pass the marriage amendment in November than anything else.”
Added Thomasson, “The county will be on record as saying marriage is only for a man and a woman and the California Supreme Court is wrong.”
Thomasson hailed the idea of such an ordinance, saying, “This will be as inspirational as the Alamo, without the guns, knives, blood or death.”
Thomasson acknowledged the likelihood of a legal challenge, saying, “Homosexual activists could take the ordinance to court, but in the meantime, the majority of people in the county will applaud loudly and say, âThis is what we wanted to see, we will follow. Let the battle begin.â”
WorldNetDaily reported that a document circulated by the Bakersfield Republican Assembly compares the California Supreme Courtâs pro-marriage ruling to a finding made by the U.S. Supreme Court that Abraham Lincoln criticized during his presidency.
Noted the document, “Lincoln refused to accept the Courtâs ruling in Dred Scott v. Sanford, (1857) as the last word on the subject.”
Added the document, “As he said in his first inaugural address (1861): â[I]f the policy of the government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.”
The document continued, “Kern County citizens who seek to defend traditional marriage, based upon âthe laws of nature and of natureâs God,â are acting in the spirit and following the good example of our nationâs sixteenth president.”
Stated the document, “They understand, as he did, that the people–not the judges–are the sovereign rulers.”
Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.
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