Posts Tagged ‘same-sex marraige’
Ashley Madison’s Conservative Values
AshleyMadison.com, an online dating site that facilitates extramarital affairs, has never been too popular among moral conservatives. Earlier this year, Deroy Murdock argued on Human Events that Ashley Madison has edged out gay marriage as the number one threat to traditional matrimony. Now, cluck-clucking conservatives won’t have to choose between the cheaters and the gays: Ashley Madison has begun marketing itself as a place where the married can pursue their same-sex attractions, too.
Toward A Brighter Gay Marriage Map
Last month, I pointed to a gay marriage map created by NPR to illustrate the status of the same-sex marriage fight in states across the country. I characterized the map, I believe, as a “bummer”—nearly the whole nation was painted blue, marking states that hold to the Defense of Marriage Act.
Yesterday, a reader pointed out a map that is a little more interesting (via Wikipedia)—and not just because new states are constantly being added to the coalition. In addition to marking the states where same-sex marriages (purple) and civil unions (navy) are legal, this map also shows states that respect foreign same-sex marriages (light blue) and states with civil unions that grant some (but not all) marriage rights to same-sex couples (green). The map also differentiates between states with statutes banning same-sex marriage (yellow), states with constitutional bans on same-sex marriage (orange), and states with constitutional bans on same sex marriage and “other kinds of same-sex unions” (red).
This map doesn’t necessarily paint a more promising picture. But it does show that many, many states in the union hold compromise positions on gay marriage that are more nuanced than a blanket ban—and could lead the way to future alliances.
Iowa’s Gay Marriage Ban Found Unconstitutional
Wow. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that the state’s same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional, striking “the language from Iowa code limiting marriage to only between a man a woman.” The fight for gay marriage has been moving through the state courts since 2005. This is huge.
