Comments on: Same-sex Benefits Case Goes to State Supreme Court
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By Steelcoyot on 04-13-12 @ 4:07 pm
Now tell me how not allowing gays to have the same right as straights in their private lives going to affect the outcome of the world? Also the excuse that it’s to promote families is just that an excuse, if
you’re so concerned about procreation then allowing first cousins, non-fertile couples or people who
choice not to have children should be banned.
By Tox on 04-14-12 @ 3:59 am
Clearly, this is ultimately a civil rights issue, and Constitutional Initiative 96 never shouldhave been sent to the ballot box. This is where the (Montana) Supreme court should have stepped
in and done the job it is mandated to do, namely to protect the rights of minorities, so they
are not subjected to the tyranny of the mob majority. Eventually this will, of course, go to the
Supreme Court and gays will be granted the same rights as everybody else. It’s the only logical
and just conclusion. But do we really have to go through another Civil Rights Movement to get
there? Do we Americans have to continue to be held hostage to such deplorable bigotry and
intolerance, until our sacred creed “Liberty for All” sinks in deep enough with everybody, so
that consenting adults are free to marry whomever they happen to love?
In 2004 when Initiative 96 won a majority vote which banned same-sex marriages and bigotry
against homosexual orientation was written into our State Constitution, I was shocked, in spite
of the fact that I suspected that this would happen. I was so deeply disappointed by the
intolerance of my fellow Montanans. I have never felt so ashamed for my beloved home state. How
could the majority of Montana voters be so utterly bigoted? Where was this most fundamental,
sacred American ideal that all men and women should be treated equally before the law? This was
the central theme of what our country fought for in the Civil War. It was what the Civil Rights
Movement, during which I grew up, was all about. To overcome segregation and the Jim Crow Laws.
And now in the 21st Century we write similarly bigoted laws into our State Constitution. How
utterly disgraceful for our great State - a state that prizes and proudly heralds its love of
freedom.
What really boggles the mind here is the extreme intolerance of social conservatives who seek to
deny gay couples the same rights that straight couples enjoy. They are the ones who are imposing
their moral values on OTHERS and forcing them to live by their standards. On the other hand gays
aren’t asking others to give up anything at all, and simply want them to mind their own
business. But that’s just not good enough for the conservative moral fascists who seek to impose
their standards on everybody else.
Let’s hope this court has the spine and the integrity to do its job
and protect the rights of minorities, and to uphold
our two most fundamental American ideals:
Equality before the Law.
Liberty for All.
The views expressed in the comments section do not reflect those of the Beacon.