We'll have same-sex marriage in Illinois by next year (we have civil unions now).
Texas has a state constitutional amendment forbidding same-sex marriage. Virginia has a constitutional amendment banning both same-sex marriage and civil unions.
The Illinois constitution, sanely, is silent on the issue; every year we get closer to passing a same-sex marriage law; it's a foregone conclusion.
Re: Texas, the Texas constitution can be amended by a simple majority in a referendum, so the status of the SSM ban there is roughly the same as it was in California under Prop 8 (i.e. it can be overturned by 50% + 1 vote).
In general it's nearly useless as a constitution, in the sense of a stable document setting forth some general principles. It's been amended 474 times! So it's more like a giant grab-bag of legislation. That's usually bad, but in this case good (if you support SSM), since it's not set in stone.
The bigger issue isn't the structure of it being in the constitution, but the fact that supporters of SSM can't currently get within striking distance of 50% support in the state.
Virginia will probably be the last state to change. They deny any kind of protection for any kind of sexuality, identity, lifestyle or relationship other than a straight biologically-male man and a straight biologically-female woman getting married. If you want equal rights you end up moving to DC or Maryland. They're getting closer to transpeople getting protected status after a spate of individuals beaten nearly to death in public.
Well at least their history is consistent. They were also the state that most strongly resisted making interracial marriage legal. (To those who would say that several states had such laws on the books at the time, Virginia was more actively enforcing it than most. That is why it was Virginia that got sued for putting an interracial couple in jail. By, and I can't make this up, a loving couple actually named Loving.)
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We'll have same-sex marriage in Illinois by next year (we have civil unions now).
Texas has a state constitutional amendment forbidding same-sex marriage. Virginia has a constitutional amendment banning both same-sex marriage and civil unions.
The Illinois constitution, sanely, is silent on the issue; every year we get closer to passing a same-sex marriage law; it's a foregone conclusion.
Re: Texas, the Texas constitution can be amended by a simple majority in a referendum, so the status of the SSM ban there is roughly the same as it was in California under Prop 8 (i.e. it can be overturned by 50% + 1 vote).
In general it's nearly useless as a constitution, in the sense of a stable document setting forth some general principles. It's been amended 474 times! So it's more like a giant grab-bag of legislation. That's usually bad, but in this case good (if you support SSM), since it's not set in stone.
The bigger issue isn't the structure of it being in the constitution, but the fact that supporters of SSM can't currently get within striking distance of 50% support in the state.
Virginia will probably be the last state to change. They deny any kind of protection for any kind of sexuality, identity, lifestyle or relationship other than a straight biologically-male man and a straight biologically-female woman getting married. If you want equal rights you end up moving to DC or Maryland. They're getting closer to transpeople getting protected status after a spate of individuals beaten nearly to death in public.
Well at least their history is consistent. They were also the state that most strongly resisted making interracial marriage legal. (To those who would say that several states had such laws on the books at the time, Virginia was more actively enforcing it than most. That is why it was Virginia that got sued for putting an interracial couple in jail. By, and I can't make this up, a loving couple actually named Loving.)
This seems really weird, given that Virginia was extremely important back during the revolution.
...what does the revolution have to do with interracial marriage legislation?