Good news headline: Judge Strikes Down Md. Ban on Gay Marriage. Bad news subheadline: Constitutional Fight Ignites.
If the judiciary route leads to a constitutional amendment banning both gay marriage and civil unions, will activists admit that suing for marriage (rather than working for legislatively approved civil unions, or even full marriage) is counterproductive?
More bad news: Virginia's Democratic governor, Tim Kaine, says he opposes the scope of the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, civil unions, and anything resembling partnership rights, which is working its way quickly through the Virginia legislature. But he says he'll nonetheless sign the measure as written, putting it to a referendum.
Virginia's gay lobbies worked hard to elect Kaine, whose Republican opponent was a vocal gay-marriage critic. But the proof is in the pudding, which here seems rather thin indeed.
More/Virginia: Blogger Tim Hulsey gives Kaine
no slack:
he followed the Clinton playbook all the way to the Governor's Mansion. Now that he's elected, Kaine continues to follow the Clintonian example-by betraying his Gay and Lesbian supporters first.
Ouch!
More/Maryland: Many of the state's leading
Democrats are
hoping that the Baltimore circuit court judge's ruling is
reversed, quickly, so the Republicans can't demagogue it.