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Showing posts with the label California Proposition 8 (2008)

Prop. 8 supporters have right to defend amendment in court: California Supreme Court

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Image via Wikipedia SACRAMENTO, November 17, 2011 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) - The California Supreme Court ruled today that the longtime legal defenders of the state’s constitutional amendment defining marriage between a man and a woman have standing to continue doing so. The role of supporters of Proposition 8 in defending the amendment is critical, since the state’s governor and attorney general have refused to do so. The Supreme Court issued the non-binding ruling at the request of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals , which is considering Prop. 8 after District Court Judge Vaughn Walker struck it down last year. The lawsuit against Prop. 8 was launched shortly after California voters approved the marriage definition in 2008. The amendment effort was a response to the imposition of gay “marriage” on the state by a state Supreme Court ruling earlier that year. The latest suit has alleged that defining marriage as between a man and a woman violates citizens’ right to equal protection. T...

Businesses contracting with California must provide same-sex partner benefits: new law

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Image via Wikipedia Democratic California Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed a bill that will require all businesses that have contracts in excess of $100,000 with the state to provide benefits to the same-sex partners of homosexual employees. The new law comes at the same time as pro-family activists are defending Proposition 8 , the state’s voter-approved ballot measure defining marriage as a man and a woman, in court. “Claiming to be anti-discriminatory , this new law discriminates against all employers who limit their benefits to married couples , according to the State’s own definition of marriage as only between a man and a woman,” Ron Prentice, the Executive Director of  ProtectMarriage.com , the organization behind Proposition 8, told LifeSiteNews. The Equal Benefits law was authored by Democratic Senator Christine Kehoe , a lesbian, and received the enthusiastic support of the homosexual lobby. “The state’s tax dollars earned by hardworking Californians should no I...

Gay marriage plays to the gullible Gen Y

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Image via Wikipedia On a weekend when  Bridesmaids  and  The Hangover Part II  continued as two of the biggest-grossing movies of the year, legislators in New York fabricated same-sex “marriage.”  Taken together with the same-sex celebrations in the streets of New York that followed the passage of that legislation, the thoughtless attitudes towards sex – and the opposite sex – in these blockbusters appear to reveal something about young voters' attitudes towards marriage. Moreover, they are two of many indicators that demonstrate a gap between the values of Gen Y and those who went before them. For example, all too many in Gen Y are no longer simply walking to the beat of their own drum (which is a youthful norm), but have actually become disengaged from society altogether.  Somewhere among the myriad new technological distractions unveiled each day, the mind-numbing medical antidotes available for quelling anxious moments, and the breakdown i...

Unmarried Brad Pitt says gay marriage is a right

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Image via Wikipedia Once again, another moral-less Superstar actor Brad Pitt has voiced his approval for New York ’s legalization of same-sex “marriage,” calling for states across the U.S. to adopt similar laws. “It is encouraging that New York has joined the movement to grant equal marriage rights to its citizens,” said Pitt after the New York Senate   passed  the bill on June 24. The actor’s support for New York’s same-sex “marriage” legislation comes as no surprise, given his history of vocal and monetary advocacy for its legalization.   In September 2008, the star  made  a $100,000 donation to the campaign against Proposition 8 , which upheld true marriage and banned gay “marriage” in California . “It is each American’s Constitutional right to marry the person they love, no matter what state they inhabit,” he said in a statement to People.com this month. “No state should decide who can marry and who cannot.” “Thanks to the tireless work of so ...

Public Opinion on Same-Sex Marriage: It's All in How You Ask

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The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) recently released results from a poll suggesting that a majority of Americans believe in traditional marriage .  The poll  found 62 percent of Americans believe that “marriage should be defined  only as a union between one man and one woman.” The poll results seem to run counter to other recent polls showing a majority of Americans support same-sex marriage, but like all polling, the results depend on how the question is asked. What makes the ADF poll unique is that it is the first to ask a question that borrows the same language often used in ballot initiatives. One explanation given for this difference has been to  question the poll's sponsorship .  The ADF’s lawyers are the key defenders of Proposition 8 , which effectively bars same-sex marriage in California . The poll was conducted by Polling Opinion Strategies, a research firm often works  with Republican candidates. The sponsorship may explain why the poll was ...

Judge Walker should resign

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Image via Wikipedia Judges have a duty not only to apply the law without bias, but also to do so in a way that avoids even the mere appearance of impropriety .  This idea is a cornerstone of the judiciary .   Thus, the Supreme Court has long been clear that “no man can be a judge in his own case and no man is permitted to try cases where he has an interest in the outcome.”    Against the backdrop of these bedrock principles, it is clear that the ruling of Judge Walker must be vacated. Over eight months after declaring unconstitutional the democratic decision of over 7 million Californians to reaffirm traditional marriage, Judge Walker publicly revealed that he has been in a committed same-sex relationship for over 10 years.  Instead of revealing these facts to the parties and their counsel, Judge Walker kept them to himself, even though the subject matter of the case presented an issue in which Judge Walker and his partner had a direct interest....

Homosexual judge bias is not questioned

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Image via Wikipedia  A federal judge in San Francisco   has dismissed  an argument that a judge’s hidden homosexual relationship is grounds to throw out his ruling against Proposition 8 , California ’s constitutional amendment declaring marriage as between a man and a woman. Prop. 8 supporters have argued that former Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ’s long-term relationship with a man gave an appearance of bias that would damage public trust in his even-handededness in the historic debate. Walker failed publicly to confirm the relationship until after he had ruled to overturn Prop. 8 and retired from the bench. California voters approved Proposition 8 in November 2008; the new amendment cut off all benefits associated with marriage that had been made available to “married” homosexual couples since the state Supreme Court imposed same-sex “marriage” earlier that year. However, Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware argued that because Walker never sought to ...
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Image via Wikipedia I am frequently asked how the legalization of same-sex marriage will have any impact on our culture. It's a good question, and this week I want to share just two recent examples of what we must expect as the effort to redefine marriage relentlessly continues. Last month, the U.S. Olympic Committee named Peter Vidmar , a former gold medalist in men's gymnastics, as its "chief of mission" for the 2012 London Olympics . In this honored position, Vidmar would interact with other countries and the International Olympic Committee to ensure that our country's participation would come off without a hitch. But almost immediately he came under public attack by proponents of same-sex marriage, who called his selection "disgraceful." What was this gold medal recipient's offense? It turns out that, acting upon his religious convictions about marriage, Vidmar donated money to the proponents of California's 2008 marriage amendment, P...