SAME-SEX “MARRIAGE” LAWSUITS LOSE IN TWO STATES: IS CONNECTICUT NEXT?
July 10th, 2006 by Brian
ALBANY — The highest courts in two states dealt gay rights advocates setbacks Thursday, rejecting same-sex couples’ bid to win marriage rights in New York and reinstating a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Georgia.
Activists had hoped to widen marriage rights for gays and lesbians beyond Massachusetts with a legal victory in liberal New York, but the Court of Appeals ruled 4-2 that the state’s law allowing marriage only between a man and a woman is constitutional…
In Georgia, where three-quarters of voters approved a ban on gay marriage when it was on the ballot in 2004, the top court reinstated the ban Thursday, ruling unanimously that it did not violate the state’s single-subject rule for ballot measures.
Pivotal same-sex “marriage” decisions are expected soon in the courts of New Jersey and Washington and at least five states will be voting on Marriage Protection Amendments in November. Kerrigan, Connecticut’s same-sex “marriage” lawsuit, is currently being heard in a lower court, while our state’s Supreme Court has yet to rule on FIC’s motion to intervene.
We cannot predict how our state courts will rule or whether the pursuit of former Chief Justice Sullivan by pro same-sex “marriage” legislators Michael Lawlor and Andrew McDonald will have any bearing on our motion.
But judges do watch what other courts are doing and the strong affirmation by New York’s liberal court of pro-family and pro-democracy principles is a hopeful sign for Connecticut. Our courts must come to understand, as their brethren in liberal New York do, that it is not their role to radically redefine marriage for all of society.