Michigan Ban on Gay Marriage Declared Unconstitutional

A federal judge, appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1988, has declared Michigan's ban on Gay Marriage unconstitutional.

The case wasn't even directly about Gay Marriage but rather about a gay couples right to adopt each others children.

Some quotes from the judge's decision.

"Many Michigan residents have religious convictions whose principles govern the conduct of their daily lives and inform their own viewpoints about marriage. Nonetheless, these views cannot strip other citizens of the guarantees of equal protection under the law."

In other words your rights do not include the privilege of enforcing them on others to their detriment. Christians please take note.

"No court record of this proceeding could ever fully convey the personal sacrifice of these two plaintiffs who seek to ensure that the state may no longer impair the rights of their children and the thousands of others now being raised by same-sex couples."

Experts testified that there were no differences between children raised by same sex couples and a couple consisting of a man and a women.

Mark Regnerus testified for the state of Michigan that, based upon his research, there was a difference and that children raised by same sex couples did relatively poorly.

The University of Texas took the extraordinary step of disavowing the Regnerus testimony.

The state of Michigan says that it is obligated to appeal the decision and will ask an appeals court to stay the court order until after appeal.

A statement from Michigan's Catholic bishops demonstrated how out of touch the church is with reality.

"This decision ... mistakenly proposes that marriage is an emotional arrangement that can simply be redefined to accommodate the dictates of culture and the wants of adults."

Yes, in a secular country, under secular laws, that PRECISELY defines a legal marriage. The church is free to sanctify, or not sanctify, such a marriage.

My marriage is not, and never would have been, sanctified by the Catholic Church which is one reason why I'm no longer a Catholic. Yet I'm still legally married. The last time I looked my marriage license still hasn't expired.

So the Catholic Church and the bishops of Michigan can go perform a biological function on themselves.

County Clerk's offices in Michigan say that if no stay is issued, they'll be ready to start issuing marriage licenses to gay couples on Monday morning.