Breaking news: 1000+ gay marraiges in Utah ruled invalid.


http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/08/utah-will-not-recognize-same-sex-marriages-performed-before-high-court-stay/?hpt=hp_t2

I saw that on my FB page - I have "liked" at least one media outlet for every city I lived in so I can keep up with my favorite places and the ABC4 in Salt Lake City link posted that news. It really is astonishing how Mormons, of all people, who were, in their opinion, harassed because they wanted to live their beliefs their way, would be so callous to others wanting to live their way. Even my somewhat believing Mormon husband thinks people ought to mind their own business and live and let live.

Just because some people want to trample the rights of rest of us we don't have to leave this beautiful State to fundamentalist retards.

Coverage from Think Progress:

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/01/08/3135831/breaking-utah-governor-says-stay-recognize-1300-sex-marriages-performed-state/

Excerpt below:

"While it is certainly true that the Constitution of the United States — with its requirement that gay couples be afforded the “equal protection of the laws” — trumps the Utah constitution, Utah has made it perfectly clear that they plan to fight offering equal rights to gay couples until the bitter end.

UPDATE
The governor’s office made this announcement despite the fact that Attorney General Sean Reyes (R) says that he was “unable to reach a legal conclusion as to the ultimate validity of marriage between persons of the same sex who completed their marriage ceremony in Utah between Dec 20, 2013 and Jan. 6, 2014.” [end excerpt]

Governor is a mormon, I assume.

"While it is certainly true that the Constitution of the United States — with its requirement that gay couples be afforded the “equal protection of the laws” — trumps the Utah constitution, Utah has made it perfectly clear that they plan to fight offering equal rights to gay couples until the bitter end."

Well then, I guess the end times are coming sooner for the church than first anticipated. its going to be messy - for them!

Salt Lake Tribune covers the story:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57367991-78/state-marriages-utah-court.html.csp

Excerpt below:

If couples had already received, for example, new driver licenses reflecting new names, those licenses will not be revoked, the letter said. But couples may not now seek new licenses.

"If someone was four steps along in process, they stop at step four and they remain at step four until we get further direction from court," Miller said.

Likewise, if a couple had completed a process — whether that was filing for health insurance coverage or preparing joint taxes — they are now frozen at that point, he said.

"Wherever anyone was at, that is now frozen in time until we receive further direction from the courts," Miller said. "We recognize it is the courts that will decide the validity and legality of those same-sex marriages. But we do need to follow the law, and the law tells us we are prohibited from recognizing those marriages."

Miller also said licenses, valid for 30 days, issued to couples who had not yet married would be frozen, too, until there is a final court decision.

No doubt this will be challenged in court and struck down as well, but it still sucks in the mean time for all those married couples who, for the first time in US history, just watched their legally and lawfully entered marriages go up in smoke on the whim of a religiously-motivated governor.

The Utah governor's office is going to find this new "no, you're not married, but, yes, you might be" position difficult to justify or enforce, as one legal expert noted:

"Doug NeJaime, a law professor at UC Irvine School of Law in California, said the line the state intends to draw between actions taken or not taken could be hard to maintain.

"What if a couple requested health benefits before this and continue to access going forward," NeJaime said. "There are ways in which this is going to create a lot of questions for people in state government."

The other big question, NeJaime added, is the different consideration same-sex couples may receive from the federal government versus the state government, which is also occurring in other states where gay marriage is not recognized.

That said, he called the state’s decision a "middle position."

"They are not saying the marriages are void," NeJaime said. "And they are not commenting on the ultimate validity of them. It’s a middle position that they are trying to carefully carve out it seems."

Well, they can't stop 1,300 people from lining up to sue their bigoted asses. If they think defending these kinds of lawsuits is a good use of taxpayer money now, they won't think so when this is all over.

I can just feel the civil rights lawyers smacking their lips and getting ready for banquet.

en passant Wrote:
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> Well, they can't stop 1,300 people from lining up
> to sue their bigoted asses.

Now, that is a brilliant thought.
Class action.
A great big one.

Why is it always stop what your doing until we can decide if it's legal? Why can't it be continue on until we decide it's illegal?

From the Readers Comments on the SL Trib site:

"Our governor and attorney general and Phil Robertson are men of steel. They are standing up to Obama's apprehensible war on procreation. The president wants to mandate gay marriage and force contraception on even priests and nuns! Don't let Obama take away our rights to pursue life, liberty, and procreation!"

Yeah, I saw that too. I'm pretty sure its a joke. I really hope it is, anyway. But on the other hand, there are really people who think like that, so its hard to be sure.

You are right. Other readers flagged that comment as satire. I hope it is.

Hard to tell when something like this is not satire, but the real deal:

"they DO have the authority to rescind marriages that were illegal when performed, and were only performed because some judicial tyrant issued a ridiculous opinion and utah was trying to follow what SHOULD have been a respectable federal court (which has thankfully been put on hold)."

"You libs are running out of arguments, and it's sad. How have we thumbed our nose at the 10th circus, by following our state constitution, which has been temporarily upheld by scotus (and soon to be permanently upheld, along with the majority of state constitutions in this nation)."

Mother Jones covers the story:

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/01/utah-just-decided-it-isnt-going-recognize-1300-same-sex-marriages-it-already-certified

The good that might come of this is that all the more casual consumers of Mormonism will see what the church "stands for".

The LDS church and its puppet government of Utah are "kicking against the pricks". By injuring these gay households they're advertising their top-down un-democratic philosophy. The church pays lip service to the Constitution and democracy, but their true feelings are that the world should be run by a theocratic oligarchy.

Wait...I know, I know, a TBM's gonna say we're being persecuted, our religious freedom is being threatened, we're the defenders and true patrons of the Constitution. Right. They have not demonstrated that their religious freedom is threatened. They are not being deprived of any rights...only criticized. Any/every Mormon now has all the religious liberties they ever had. Ah, then there's the Constitution thing. Ye hypocrites. They're demanding a Constitutional right on one hand and wanting to deny it on the other hand. So transparent.

The church is digging its own hole to fall in.

USA Today covered the story:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/08/utah-same-sex-marriages-not-recognized/4372657/

Excerpt below:

"That means that same-sex couples who were married since the Dec. 20 ruling who might be in the process of applying for benefits for spouses or adopting children will have those actions put on hold."

Just when I thought Utah was finally making it into the 21st century, they take another step back to the 1950s. God, I want to move out of this theocracy.

That's peculiar, I can't seem to find any negative comments about the LDS church in the readers comments section of the Deseret News. I'm at a loss as to why.

http://www.deseretnews.com/user/comments/865593743/State-recognition-of-same-sex-marriage-on-hold-governors-office-says.html

Fox News emphasizes the court battle:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/08/utah-governor-says-state-will-not-recognize-gay-marriages-amid-court-battle/

Excerpt below:

"The state is appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and won a stay on Shelby's decision earlier this week. The state argued that Shelby's "unlawful injunction" interferes with Utah's enforcement of its own laws."

A touching personal story is included in NBC coverage:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/06/22203692-utah-gay-marriage-ruling-from-wedded-bliss-to-legal-limbo?lite

Excerpt below:

Engaged for two years, Carrie and Stacey Carkhuff didn't waste any time when a federal judge green-lighted gay marriage in Utah on Dec. 20.

They got gussied up, put Stacey's three kids in formal wear, and went that very afternoon to the county clerk's office, which was so overwhelmed it had already stopped issuing licenses for the day.

[…]

"It feels like that weight that was lifted off our shoulders is now back on and heavier," Carrie Carkhuff, 32, an assistant gas-station manager, told NBC News.

"Stacey and I were making big plans for our future. She had gotten her name changed and was getting me on her insurance — all the regular things normal married couples do. And it seems like we've taken a step back." […]

Governor Herbert's decision will hurt the children of newly-married gay couples.

"Carkhuff said she and her wife had not yet told the three kids about the stay.
"This is going to break their hearts," she said."

Gary Herbert must feel so smug and powerful. There isn't anything he can't get overturned. Remember when he was a lowly county commissioner and got a UVSC campus cop demoted for giving him a speeding ticket? And he got out of the ticket. You give somebody with that lack of character a position like the one he's got and he's a God. Probably had his 2nd anointing too, so he thoroughly believes it.

More comments from readers of the SL Trib article:

"You have a false understanding of equality, (gays are freer in utah than gun owners are in MA) but yes, they should leave."

"I think it would have been a wise decision for same sex partners to wait to get married until after all of the legal appeals were complete. They kind of jumped the gun getting married when they had to know the state would appeal and that it was possible that the courts would not rule in their favor. They created their own problems by not waiting for the 10th circuit and Supreme Court to make their final rulings."

"WHICH state is freer:

State A where gays can practice their behavior freely, and exercise the second amendment but can't get the stamp of government approval on their marriages.

State B (sam's fascist state of MA) where gays can do the same as state A, with the added benefit of marriage, but if ANYONE in the fascist state of MA has a spent shell casing, they are arrested as felons.

Tell me which state is freer. Tell me how MA is freer, while utah fully allows homosexuals to live their lives without fear of jail (fear of jail IS an important aspect)."

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Comments from the WTF category.

But you can get gunz here and gays can get married. MA is better than UT.

Just so we do not forgot how far off the tracks the true-believers are, here is one more comment from readers of the SL Trib article:

"No one judge can declare anything "legal" if there is an appeal to his decision. Those so called "marriages" were never legal. Only a fool would think otherwise. This case will wind its way through the appellate process and will ultimately be decided by the United States Supreme Court. Until that happens, no same sex marriage in the state of Utah will be legal. All those who think they are legally married, hold only worthless pieces of paper."

From MSNBC:
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/utah-wont-recognize-same-sex-marriages

Excerpt below:

"Two weeks ago Utah asked the Supreme Court to stay a decision allowing same-sex marriages in the state, warning that those couples would be harmed by the dissolution of their marriages if Utah won their case. On Wednesday, following the Supreme Court’s decision to grant a stay, Utah’s governor announced that the estimated 1,300 same-sex marriages that occurred after a federal court overturned the state’s same-sex marriage ban no longer count."

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So they threatened harm to gay couples, and then they made sure that harm did come to gay couples. That's a sneaky, unethical way to get to "I told you so."

Big corporations are now in support of equal rights for gays. Utah, say goodbye to millions of convention and tourism dollars if you keep fighting the tide. When this starts to sink in and bite their wallets, they'll probably soften. Until then, the politicians are just posturing for their bigoted Mo constituency.

but I'm not worried. It is too bad that it will be this big of a fight, but I have no doubt that in the end, Utah will end up with gay marriage. The door has been opened--a lot sooner than I ever expected.

I hope all the couples sue, I wish I had the money to give them so they could do it. Really what they have done to thees couples is cruel and evil

I'm at a loss as to how you can say couples are married one day, and not married the next day. Why should a state be able to change its mind about that? That means that the state can change its mind about anyone's marriage. How can that possibly hold up?