KTVX Station Employee Fired For Tweeting Mormons Are Sexually Repressed

So reports the Salt Lake Tribune.   Repressed sexual energy?  Are you kidding?  That must account for all those very small Utah Mormon families . . .

 

San Francisco Chronicle’s Hyperbole on the Appellate Process and Genderless Marriage

A quirky editorial today from the San Francisco Chronicle on jilting equality:

A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals took the cautious route Monday by putting same-sex weddings on hold until it can review a ruling that would have allowed them to proceed this week.

Yes, well that’s the whole point of American appellate jurisprudence: To review rulings of lower courts.

Opponents of same-sex marriage had made a last-minute appeal, arguing that the resumption of such weddings would undermine the traditional understanding of marriage and the encouragement of responsible procreation.

They made a timely appeal based on the court’s deadlines for filing appeals. And regardless what one thinks of the merits of the appeal, given the importance of the issue, and the magnitude of what genderless marriage advocates want–the wholesale redefinition of marriage all over the United States–such an appeal was not only inevitable, but prudent.

The arguments for preserving marriage discrimination in the state Constitution, as prescribed by Proposition 8, were thoroughly reviewed and debunked in Judge Vaughn Walker’s Aug. 4 ruling that found no rational basis or state interest to support such a restriction.

So, had Judge Walker’s decision gone the other way, would the Chronicle have been content to let the decision rest with the lone opinion of one federal district court judge? Not likely. Genderless marriage activists want Judge Walker’s single opinion to set the constitutional standard for their social agenda because they realize that as the appellate process unfolds Judge Walker’s analysis is likely to face much more legal scrutiny than it thus far has from an adoring media and pop culture.

Walker’s reasoning was supported by this state’s experience when 18,000 same-sex couples were married before the passage of Prop. 8 in Nov. 2008. Those marriages produced no discernible harm to the state of heterosexual unions or the ability of Californians to bear children and raise them in a supportive home environment. What the passage of Proposition 8 did was create two classes of gays and lesbians: Those whose right to marry the partner of choice was asserted in a small window of time, and those whose fundamental right to marriage was taken away by a margin of 600,000 votes out of the 13.4 million that were cast.

Except none of this meets the constitutional test in this case. Those defending California’s Constitutional Amendment defining marriage only have to show that they have a rational basis for the definition. This is not a difficult standard to meet, and in fact has been met in various courts all across the country prior to this particular decision.

Barring intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court, the three-judge appellate panel’s ruling will allow this two-tiered system to endure until at least December. There will be no rush to the altar, no rush to remedy an entrenched wrong. History is on hold.

A bit long on hyperbole, and short on rational analysis. There is no two tiered system. In California registered domestic partners enjoy all the law offers. This has not changed, and will not change for the foreseeable future. Hyperbole, not history is fortunately on hold, for now . . .

 

The Philosophies of Women–Mingled With Scripture . . .

The Episcopal Church again made headlines with its recent ecclesiastical ordinations.  Writes Mitchell Landsberg of the Los Angeles Times:

 

The Rest of the Story–Church Plaza Incident

(This post has been recently updated toward the end with additional links) The Church has released this news update on the “kissing” incident on the Plaza, now an extension of Temple Square and Church Headquarters: (Hat Tip Geoff B.):

 

Salt Lake Police Release Gay PDA Report

The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting the Salt Lake City Police Report on the expulsion of two men for unwanted kissing and hugging on Church property has been released (I’m assuming by the SLCPD–but the article is unclear).  The Tribune did post the entire report.  You can read the actual report here, which is linked at the bottom of the article.   

 

Gay PDA Day At Temple Square

Matt Aune and Derek Jones, photo by Scott Sommerdorf Salt Lake Tribune

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that two men, Matt Aune, and Derek Jones (above) were cited by the Salt Lake City Police Department for tresspassing on private religious property:

 

LDS Support of Man-Woman Marriage

[Admin Note:  The following post is currently posted over at Patheos.com.   For those who have not visited Patheos, you can read about the site in this review at Times and Seasons, and of course visit Patheos yourself and see their content.   They are also running an opposing view point by Nate Oman.   If you are so inclined to comment, please do so over at Patheos, as I have closed comments for this post over here.]

 

The New Civil Rights Movement Calls For A New March On Washington

I guess there was a “Utah Pride Parade today in Salt Lake City (sorry I missed out on that one).   The Salt Lake Tribune has a very nice write up in an article titled Gay Rights Advocates Strut Political Clout in Salt Lake. From the looks of the Tribune photographer, Scott Sommerdorf’s excellent photos, that’s not all they strutted:

 

Separate Realities–No Common Ground

So proclaims Paul Mero, President of the Sutherland Institute, a conservative think tank in Utah.  And, he’s referring to the two sides in the so called “gay rights” debate, one that encompases the most basic of civil rights and the so called fundamental right to genderless marriage.  The Salt Lake Tribune published Mero’s thoughts in an article entitled Too Complicated to find Common Ground. 

 

What Boycott?

Guess that anti-8 Utah boycott, so effectively concieved by the losing side, isn’t going exactly as planned–at least as to the Sundance Film Festival.  Anyone with any knowledge about Utah and its toursim industry understands that Park City, and the Sundance Film festival are likley the most “gay friendly” city and venue in all of Utah.    Who really gets hurt if the boycott succeeds?  Seems the same minds who ran the campaign are still in charge.