gay news!

Proposition 8, the voter-approved law banning same-sex marriage in California, has been declared unconstitutional by a federal appeals court. Three judges in San Francisco today ruled 2-1 that a 2010 lower court ruling should stand because Prop 8 violates the civil rights of gays and lesbians. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean everyone can just go out and get married now: Supporters of Prop 8 plan to appeal to a larger panel of Ninth Circuit judges and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary. (via)

Why hasn't Thomas Wilhelm covered this?

BOSTON — A federal judge in Massachusetts found Thursday that a law barring the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, ruling that gay and lesbian couples deserve the same federal benefits as heterosexual couples. (via)

I like this ruling because the judged used the Constitution appropriately (and correctly) in determining his decision. He ruled that the federal government cannot compel Mass. to discriminate against its own citizens in order to receive federal funding. He also ruled in a separate case that "the federal law violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution by denying benefits to one class of married couples — gay men and lesbians — but not others." Basically he affirmed the states' authority to grant rights to owns citizens without fear of punishment by the federal government. The same logic should be used in a variety of other cases, for instance, allowing states to set their own drinking ages without losing highway funding.

I also like that coupled with the gun law ruling from a couple weeks back, the courts have stated that the federal government cannot take away rights that an individual state has granted, and likewise, a state or city cannot take away rights the federal government has granted. It's been a good couple of weeks for Libertarianism.