I believe if two people want to commit to each other, God bless 'em
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Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Dear Abby?
American Icon "Dear Abby" has come out in support of gay marriage.
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3 comments:
Ahh the slipery slope...
Lesbian Couple Seeks R.I. Divorce
By ERIC TUCKER – 17 hours ago
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A lesbian couple married in Massachusetts should have the same right as heterosexual couples to divorce in their home state of Rhode Island, lawyers for the women told the state's highest court Tuesday.
Cassandra Ormiston and Margaret Chambers were married in 2004 after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts. Last year, the couple filed for divorce in Rhode Island.
Rhode Island law is silent on the legality of same-sex marriages.
If the women can't divorce in Rhode Island, their lawyers said the only legal avenue available to them would be for at least one to move to Massachusetts and live there long enough to obtain a divorce.
"It is an absolutely unfair burden," Ormiston said outside Rhode Island's Supreme Court. "It is a burden no one else is asked to bear, and it is something I will not do."
Lawyers for the women told the Supreme Court the only question to consider was whether Rhode Island could recognize a valid same-sex marriage from another state for the sole purpose of granting a divorce petition.
They stressed the case has no bearing on whether gay couples could get married in Rhode Island.
"You have a valid marriage in the state of Massachusetts," Louis Pulner, an attorney for Chambers, told the justices. "No one is asking the court to address the question of whether such marriages would be valid in Rhode Island."
Pulner told the court that Rhode Island lawmakers have not passed laws that either expressly permit or prohibit same-sex marriage.
"We're not the Legislature," Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams said.
In September 2006, a Massachusetts judge decided same-sex couples from Rhode Island could marry in Massachusetts because nothing in Rhode Island law specifically banned gay marriage. The courts and the Legislature in Rhode Island also have not taken any action to recognize same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts.
Attorney General Patrick Lynch earlier this year issued a nonbinding advisory opinion saying the state would recognize same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts.
Jenn Steinfeld, director of Marriage Equality Rhode Island, said Rhode Island has a long history of recognizing marriages from other states, and she does not expect that same-sex unions will be any different.
But the questions raised by the divorce case are so narrow that Steinfeld said it's hard to know whether the outcome will have much effect on the broader gay marriage debate here.
Same-sex marriage opponents fear the court would be creating a slippery slope toward allowing gay couples to wed if it permits Chambers and Ormiston to get divorced.
"If they recognize it even for the limited purpose of divorce, what would be the basis for not recognizing it for other limited purposes in the future?" said Austin Nimocks, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, a group opposed to gay marriage.
The justices did not indicate when they would rule.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hu_RVio1rMtFSA7PaHVUjvzqcnawD8S612900
30 or 40 years ago, the "majority of the people" overwhelmingly were opposed to interracial marriage. Its the same deal now, only its a mob mentality against gay men and women. The US has only become a better country by looking forward without fear, thats the only way we are going to go forward now.
As for the "slippery slope," thats one divorce plucked out of a paper somewhere in the Northeast. Is it fair to pull out one divorce and build a straw man???
If the cultural changes of a people make the old laws outdated than so be it. Even marriage itself has changed dramatically in the last 30 years in the US.
Is it 2009 yet?
ADF has a vendetta against gay marriage; even traditional marriage should not get in its way.
That Austin Nimocks, Glen Lavy and their ADF buddies are representing a "former" lesbian wanting out of an 11 year relationship (with 2 kids). The ex partner wants to maintain a relationship with the kids, but ADF doesn't want that to happen.
Guess what? The new live in boyfriend is a married man: He left his wife of over 30 years. Some family values.
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