Filed Under Activism, Homophobia, Politics, U.S. Studies

Those Activist Judges Are At It Again, And I’m Glad

By Kevin ⋅ 11 October, 2008 at 1:58 pm ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Lately, it seems like whenever I start my daily routine and head over to Google News to see what’s going on in the world, I am met with news that makes me want to crawl right back into bed and pretend that the day never started. Not so, today.

Gay Marriage Is Ruled Legal in Connecticut

A sharply divided Connecticut Supreme Court struck down the state’s civil union law on Friday and ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. Connecticut thus joins Massachusetts and California as the only states to have legalized gay marriages.

The ruling, which cannot be appealed and is to take effect on Oct. 28, held that a state law limiting marriage to heterosexual couples, and a civil union law intended to provide all the rights and privileges of marriage to same-sex couples, violated the constitutional guarantees of equal protection under the law.

Striking at the heart of discriminatory traditions in America, the court — in language that often rose above the legal landscape into realms of social justice for a new century — recalled that laws in the not-so-distant past barred interracial marriages, excluded women from occupations and official duties, and relegated blacks to separate but supposedly equal public facilities.

Justice Richard N. Palmer writes:

Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same-sex partner of their choice,” Justice Palmer declared. “To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others.

That’s not a difficult concept. You don’t need a law degree to understand the principle of human fairness and equality. It boggles the mind that some people can’t accept that. I guess before I get too complacent in my happiness over a Court making the right decision, I should prepare myself for the inevitable screech about “activist judges.” *Sigh*