What The Recent Supreme Court Decisions Mean For Me?

In case you were hiding under a rock in Siberia, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on two cases regarding same-gender marriage today.

The highest Court in the nation declared:

• Article III of the Defense of Marriage Act—a statute passed by Congress in 1996 that, specifically for federal benefit purposes, defined marriage as between one man and one woman—is unconstitutional.

• The private sponsors defending California’s Proposition 8—a 2008 ballot initiative that banned the state from issuing marriage licenses to same-gender couples—did not have legal grounds to represent the state as private parties appealing the state’s position; thereby returning the case to its Ninth District Court of Appeal’s decision as Proposition 8 being unconstitutional.

So what does all of this mean for me? Strictly speaking, I am currently neither in a same-gender marriage nor am I a legal resident of the state of California. So how exactly do I have any stake in either of these rulings?

Thoughts On The "Red Facebook Explosion"

An interesting phenomenon happened on Facebook recently that thoroughly caught my attention. Anyone who logged on to the social networking outlook on Tuesday, March 26th and Wednesday, March 27th would have seen it. Thousands of profile pictures changed to this red and pink equals sign, painting everyone’s Newsfeeds in a sea of red.

The image being used was a modification of the logo for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC is an advocacy group for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender individuals), typically a yellow equals sign with a navy background. This trend was inspired because on March 26th and 27th the U.S. Supreme Court heard cases regarding the constitutionality of Proposition 8—the California ban on same-gender marriage—and DOMA—officially “Defense of Marriage Act,” which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-gender marriages as marriage, thereby prohibiting the federal government from granting them the 1,100 or so federal benefits for married couples regardless of which state they live in.

Now, I am well privy to the type of groundswell movements that often take place on social networks. Granted, most of the time it goes something like this: my Facebook Newsfeed is suddenly swarmed with “GO BIG RED!!” statuses, and I instantly know the Nebraska Cornhuskers are playing. But this was much bigger than that, because EVERYONE—coast to coast—would have seen it.

Critique: "Embrace Gay Marriage NOT Gay Culture"

In my last student newspaper article at my university, right before I graduated, I wrote an article that generally made the point that affirming gay marriage does not automatically also affirm gay culture. Now since then, I have realized the error of my ways in writing that article—which is why I am posting an altered version of that article in my blog.

To be honest, I would prefer for you just to read this one and forget about the other one. But for those of you who did read my initial article, it may be good to realize that you will recognize many portions of this post. Do not be alarmed. (I am pretty sure this does not count as plagiarism…I think….)

Civil Unions vs. Gay Marriage

Many people in the United States of America think that by offering civil unions or domestic partnerships, they are doing LGBT individuals a favor. A large portion of this comes from the belief that marriage is a religious ceremony, and homosexuality is a big taboo for a lot of religious people.

But this actually ignores one very important thing: marriage is not just religious, it is also civil. Now for years this has been wrapped up into one thing, but ever since the separation of church and state they have become two different animals. Basically you can be married without a religious ceremony, and you can be married without recognition by the government (the situation currently tied to cases of polygamy).