Wednesday, May 21, 2014

An Avalanche of Dominoes

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The dominoes of marriage equality are falling state by state - and they are falling fast.    This week federal judges threw out gay marriage bans in two states, Oregon and Pennsylvania, bringing the total of court wins to an astonishing fourteen in the last six months - with no losses!

The writing, it would seem, is on the wall - in bright, bold lettering so enormous that even Justices Scalia and Thomas should not be able to ignore it.  Recent polls show over seventy-percent of Americans in the 19-29 age range favor the right of gay couples to marry.   And it's not just the young people.  Those same surveys show that over forty percent of people sixty-five and older also favor gay marriage.  That, folks, is the future - writ large!

The judges who have made those decisions, staunch defenders of the Constitution one and all, come from across the political spectrum.  The were appointed by Obama, both Bushes, Clinton, and even Reagan.

And politicians are also feeling the winds of change.  Governor Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, a Republican in a tough re-election campaign, has announced that he will not appeal the decision in his state.  Gay marriage is going to stay on the books in Pennsylvania.

As of yesterday there are nineteen states in which gay couples are being married, and a few more where the right has been upheld in court but has been stayed pending appeal.

Dylan said it best:  "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."   That wind is blowing hard, and it's knocking down dominoes faster than anyone could have imagined just a couple of years ago.

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