Thursday, May 10, 2012

A belt plus suspenders for North Carolina on same sex marriage, while Obama comes out (in favor)

When is a repugnant transaction doubly repugnant? When a State that has a law against it passes a constitutional amendment against it, just to be clear.
North Carolina Voters Pass Same-Sex Marriage Ban

"As expected, North Carolinians voted in large numbers on Tuesday for an amendment that would ban same-sex marriages, partnerships and civil unions, becoming the 30th state in the country and the last in the South to include a prohibition on gay marriage in the state constitution.
...
"North Carolina, a religious but also relatively moderate state on social issues, already has a law banning same-sex marriage. But Republican lawmakers pushed an amendment out of concern that the law was in danger of being struck down by judges."
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And, as if to make it clear that same sex marriage is in transition as a repugnant transaction, the next day (i.e. yesterday): Obama Says Same-Sex Marriage Should Be Legal (while Mitt Romney reiterated his opposition).

"President Obama on Wednesday ended nearly two years of “evolving” on the issue of same-sex marriage by publicly endorsing it in a television interview, taking a definitive stand on one of the most contentious and politically charged social issues of the day.

“At a certain point, I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Mr. Obama told ABC News in an interview that came after the president faced mounting pressure to clarify his position.
...

"Hours before the president’s announcement, Mr. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, restated his opposition to same-sex marriage in an interview with KDVR-TV, a Fox News affiliate in Colorado.

“When these issues were raised in my state of Massachusetts, I indicated my view, which is I do not favor marriage between people of the same gender, and I do not favor civil unions if they are identical to marriage other than by name,” Mr. Romney said. “My view is the domestic partnership benefits, hospital visitation rights and the like are appropriate, but that the others are not.”

"Public support for same-sex marriage is growing at a pace that surprises even professional pollsters as older generations of voters who tend to be strongly opposed are supplanted by younger ones who are just as strongly in favor. Same-sex couples are featured in some of the most popular shows on television, without controversy."

1 comment:

dWj said...

To be fair, some states have had their belts abruptly fail.

In terms of how quickly we're dragging our back foot, I was somewhat pleased by Romney's statement of support for some of the rights of gay couples and his somewhat tepid language in continued opposition to marriage. I was more impressed by your Republican Senator, who made a statement that he's still anti-marriage but seems to believe that he shouldn't actually do anything that would be consistent with that statement.