RE: Supreme Court Same Sex Marriage Argumet
September 14, 2015 at 1:10 pm
(This post was last modified: September 14, 2015 at 1:33 pm by TheRocketSurgeon.
Edit Reason: Fixed some spelling errors.
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(September 14, 2015 at 11:47 am)Ace Wrote: So, even as we speak many of those “alleged social wrongs” are showing their head and stating to push for the same recognition as the gay community. What then? Will you even acknowledge it to be such or refuse to see any connection? What social wrong was caused to them by the law, which marriage will grant? Exclusion from privileges is not a social wrong; if it were it would be unethical to prohibit 12 year olds from driving or 10 year olds from drinking.
Not the same thing. Exclusion from privileges granted to others of equal standing, on the basis of an arbitrary factor (such as race, religion, gender, etc), certainly is wrong under the law. It's the entire basis of Equal Protection. Minors do not gain access to such rights because they are deemed to be unable to engage in such activities with careful consideration and legal consent, or capable of following the responsibilities that tend to accompany rights. That's what makes them minors prior to the age of majority. That's literally what those terms mean.
(September 14, 2015 at 11:47 am)Ace Wrote: Some here have said having to pretend to be straight when they were gay was a wrong they had to endure and in the same breath have no problem saying those who do not agree must pretend they agree or should be punished by the law for discrimination, hate speech, and so forth. If not being allowed to express your honest opinion and person is indeed a harm that was suffered by 10% of the population before, than forcing marriages in states where democratic definitions were put in place and condemning anyone who does not agree with those marriages or does not at minimum pretend to agree with those marriages is equally a harm impacting nearly 50% of the people in the country. Saying a person may believe what they want but may not exhibit that belief in public is no different than saying one may be as gay as they like so long as they do not appear so in public; you know…being in the closet.
I hope you do not seriously believe that these two are equivalent things. And no one, repeat NO one, is stopping the free speech of anti-gay religionists. Heck, even the Ku Klux Klan is still allowed to say racist stuff; we've just realized they're a bunch of assholes and starting calling them assholes. It's not just a random metaphor I picked, here. The KKK hates people for factors that are beyond the control of the person. Just because Christians call it "sin" doesn't make it any less a form of bigotry. You don't get to be a bigot and then whine when people get mad at you for trying to express it.
As for "forcing marriages in states", there is already a tradition of doing that, under the Equal Protection Clause. The 1967 case Loving v. Virginia determined that states could not use race as a factor by which to deny the privileges and rights of marriage to couples seeking those legal benefits/protections. All the recent SCotUS case did was apply an almost identical principle to the gender of the couples seeking to marry. States' Rights advocates whined about their power being taken away back in 1967, too, using the same set of arguments...in the same states, for the most part. I cannot see any way in which the anti-gay-marriage crowd are any different from the anti-miscegenation crowd, including the fact that the groups tended to base their opposition to that form of marriage on the Bible.
(September 14, 2015 at 11:47 am)Ace Wrote: There may be several who want to say turnabout is fair play. Let them suffer what we have suffered or that someone has to suffer since the sides hold opposing views. Now if we say let them suffer until they conform and that is right, how may we say they were wrong in doing the same thing before and we are now right for doing it to them? Were they not just trying to get conformity? If we one group or another must suffer due to an inability to reconcile the positions should we not say than let us minimize the suffering? Isn’t 10% suffering in the closet far less than 50%?
What is it with you Christians and the martyr complex? No one wants to see you suffer. They just want you to leave people the fuck alone to live their lives without having to hear what YOUR god thinks about it. Seriously, try to picture what it would be like to have to hear what Allah thinks about everything you do! If you want to not practice gay marriage, fine. Marry someone of the opposite gender, and shut the hell up about it. Same as with the Klan, again: they're free to believe they can only marry a white person, that it's immoral to marry a nonwhite person... but the moment they start to tell me that I can't go out with Zoe Saldana, we're gonna have a big, big problem!
Comparing being made to treat gay people as equals under law, with full citizen rights and protections, to being tortured the way they have been simply because you have lost your ability to tell them horrible things without repercussion (in terms of horrible things said back to you in return) is pure jackassery. Sorry, but it is.
(September 14, 2015 at 11:47 am)Ace Wrote:(September 11, 2015 at 5:00 pm)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote: to try to convince those of us who are glad that we no longer prohibit marriage's legal protections to gay couples as if they are second-class citizens.
Marriage does not give rights, (“marriage rights” can and are able to be given with will in testaments, power of attorney, co-signing ownership). It gives benefits. Marriage also does not provide any security or protection at law which was not effectuated by the legal devices already mentioned.
This is a lie. This is a lie. This is a lie.
The truth is, in the words of the Supreme Court in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case, "Separate is not equal". There are soooooo many ways in which the civil partnerships you describe cannot give the protections you suggest, most importantly in areas like visitation and death-rights, in cases where the families are anti-gay, and will make a grieving partner of 30+ years unable to see their dying loved one. It happens all the time, as I know all too well from work I do with HIV/AIDS-related charities.
LYING FOR JESUS IS STILL LYING!
(September 14, 2015 at 11:47 am)Ace Wrote: Marriage, takes way second-class citizenship? So all people have to do is just get marred to be treated as a first class citizen and with full equally? People who are not married are now second class citizens? Of the numerous citizens still treated as second class in both the law and in our society. Is the solution to this marriage?
I "hid" your examples because they are irrelevant since two wrongs do not make it okay... I am against anything that treats any group as inferior, or are red herrings (single people are not "excluded" because they have access to marriage protections under law, making it a choice rather than a legal prohibition that treats them differently) and we do not have to fix them all before we can fix any of them.
I will address the one which claims that common law couples/marriages "have lost many of their couples benefits and insurances when same sex marriage became legal". (endquote) I'll put this in bold so you don't miss it: CITATION NEEDED.
(September 14, 2015 at 11:47 am)Ace Wrote:(September 11, 2015 at 5:00 pm)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote: I am also fairly well-versed in Constitutional law at the federal-versus-state level, particularly with regard to the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment,.
Hmm, in all of your studding of the law did you ever see this mythical fundamental right exist for same sex marriage or marriage in general?
What legal precedent was set leading to a fundamental right to same sex marriage?
Did the states bans satisfy rational basis scrutiny as they were required to do?
Is the ruling supported by the substantive fundamental rights test established in Washington v. Glucksberg?
Was the ruling even decided by the equal protection clause?
How knowledgeable are you on the due process clause?
Did you actually read the full ruling?
As stated by Chief Justice John Roberts at the end of his dissent:
“If you are among the many Americans--of whatever sexual orientation--who favor expanding same-sex marriage, by all means celebrate today’s decision. Celebrate the achievement of a desired goal. Celebrate the opportunity for a new expression of commitment to a partner. Celebrate the availability of new benefits. But do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it. I respectfully dissent.”
I'll try to be brief, here. One of the ironies is that all of the Dissenting Opinions in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges would have served as dissenting opinions in Loving, if you but changed a couple of relevant words. But I'll just answer line-by-line in order:
The question is not of a fundamental right to same-sex marriage, but whether states could exclude people from the rights they set up under marriage on the basis of gender, without violating the 14th's Equal Protection Clause (EPC).
The middle questions are all basically the same thing, so I'll sum up, actually. It's really very simple. There is no rational basis, as the court found, by which states could exclude this group from rights already enjoyed by others. That's the reason I compare it to the Loving case. Roberts' asinine objection basically excludes everything the Court has done since the passage of the 14th amendment, when they began to "referee" federal civil rights protections for all Americans against states whose majorities would use state law to give rights to one group but not to another. No law is decided on the basis of the question "Do I have a right to this thing", as you are implying (with exception of things specified originally in the Bill of Rights), but are decided on the basis of, "If we grant ____ to these people, can we rationally exclude this other group from it?" Anyone who asks a question that does not indicate knowledge of this basic principle of Constitutional law tells me that they do not fully grasp how things work.
But yes, there is precedent for the finding in Obergefell, in the case of Lawrence v. Texas, where the Court found that there was not a "deeply-rooted tradition" in American history (the fundamental question under the Washington case you cited) in prohibiting homosexuals from engaging in consensual sodomy in private. This idea was expanded upon in Obergefell, as I'm sure you noticed when you read the case. You did read the case, right?
Considering I'm currently arguing a case of substantive Due Process rights violations (under state statute-granted Liberty Interest rights and independently under the EPC) before the US Supreme Court, yes, I'm pretty knowledgeable.
So, yes. Of course I read Obergefell.
A Christian told me: if you were saved you cant lose your salvation. you're sealed with the Holy Ghost
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.