Supreme Court on gay marriage

I drafted a rather long review and analysis of the Supreme Court's less-than-clear decisions re gay marriage in general and California's ban in particular. On second and third thought, I decided the real-world impact of those decisions will take more than a decade to settle in. So, a few bullet-points should be enough to help us keep track of developments.

• Libertarians should love those decisions. Essentially, the federal government is moving out of the way here.
• Despite measurably growing acceptance -- acceptance, not approval -- of gay rights, the majority of Americans remain morally uncomfortable with homosexuality.
• Secularization to the contrary, that moral discomfort is based on religion: Jewish, Christian, Muslim.
• Those who claim to find no validity in moral objections to anything -- gay marriage, abortion, lying under oath, cheating on tests -- will increasingly be considered anti-religious bigots by otherwise loving people of Faith.
• Those who are looking for someone or something to blame for the nation's having morally "lost our way"  choose the Sixties, or the failure to impeach and re-election of Bill Clinton, or both, depending on their age and study of cultural history worldwide.
• Those who are searching for "our way back" have been given an emotional boost at the same time as the lgbt community and its supporters celebrate their, very real, victory.
• "Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said the high court's ruling in no way invalidates a ballot amendment passed in 2004 defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman." -- Detroit News

USA TODAY (Passages)

§ The Supreme Court decisions Wednesday on gay marriage, while historic, didn't settle the issue. They fuel it.

§ The Human Rights Campaign set a goal to achieve that in all 50 states within the next five years.

§ And for opponents of gay marriage, the battle turned to state capitals where 36 states bar gay marriage by statute or constitutional amendment.

§ "We didn't lose," Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage said, noting the high court had declined to recognize a constitutional right to marry. "They punted."

§ "The good side of this ruling is that they have affirmed to states that this is a state issue and states can decide,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, said on Glenn Beck's show. "The battle is going to be lost at the federal level. Concentrate on your state."

§ That leaves an expanse of battle grounds and a patchwork of of laws. While every state in New England recognizes same-sex marriages, for instance, not a single state in the South does. That reflects regional politics: 64% of those in the Northeast support gay marriage, a survey by the Pew Research Center last month found, compared with 43% in the South. Overall, by 51%-46%, Americans said they favor allowing gay men and lesbians to wed, the first time a majority has espoused that view in a Pew poll.

Frank Versagi is the editor of Versagi Voice.