Gay Groups Seek to Recoup Costs of Marriage Litigation from Losing States
December 15, 2014
South Carolina’s anti-gay Attorney General may have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to gay rights groups. New research shows why marriage equality has been so successful so fast. And Hillary Clinton gets thanks for supporting the freedom to marry from an unlikely source.
Marriage is here to stay in South Carolina, but Attorney General Alan Wilson seems to be having a hard time accepting it. Even though South Carolina couples have been getting married since last month, Wilson has continued his losing battle to stop the weddings. But the longer he drags out his appeal, the more money he may wind up having to give to a coalition of gay rights groups.
That’s because the coalition has filed a petition seeking to recoup the money that they’ve had to spend to keep marriage legal. If the court grants their request, Wilson will have to give over $150,000 to organizations fighting for equality. Wilson really has no chance of stopping marriage at this point. He’s appealing to the Fourth Circuit, which has repeatedly allowed marriages to go forward. So all he’s doing now is running up a huge tab.
And the same thing’s happening Arkansas. Outgoing Governor Mike Beebe and incoming Governor Asa Hutchinson both say they oppose marriage equality. Last week Beebe went even further, telling supporters that he might be willing to consider limited civil unions. That might’ve been an okay position twenty years ago. But civil unions are a compromise, and at this point we’re so close to winning we don’t have to compromise anymore.
In fact, there’s a new study this week that shows why we’re so close to winning. And no surprise, it’s what Harvey Milk said back in the ’70s: you have to come out. The new study in the journal Science shows that when door-to-door canvassers come out, and talk about wanting to get married, voters’ minds change — and stay changed. If we don’t come out, their minds change back after less than a week. So that’s why coming out is so important, and why those anti-gay politicians are going to lose.
And finally this week, congratulations to Hillary Clinton, who came out in favor of marriage equality last year and has now won the “Straight Ally of the Year” award, as decided by users of Grindr.
23 Comments
1.
kohltd | December 15, 2014 at 8:14 am
So now hook-up sites are giving out awards to straight allies? That's relevant. I'll only be impressed if she shows up for the ceremony…..
2.
Eric | December 15, 2014 at 10:26 am
She will flake, it's Grindr.
3.
BillinNO | December 15, 2014 at 8:22 am
Reading this I just snorted coffee all over my desk.
4.
Wolf of Raging Fires | December 15, 2014 at 8:27 am
Oh yeah? Does snorting coffee give you a rush? 馃槢
5.
Jen_in_MI | December 15, 2014 at 8:53 am
Kind of like a-WIGGLE? 馃槈
6.
Wolf of Raging Fires | December 15, 2014 at 9:34 am
I would think so!! hehehe
7.
BillinNO | December 15, 2014 at 9:08 am
Now if we could only make voting as easy as clicking 'Like' we might actually be able to turn this country around…
8.
Wolf of Raging Fires | December 15, 2014 at 9:35 am
Totally agreed. I'm all about the Internet voting concept.
9.
Mike_Baltimore | December 15, 2014 at 1:48 pm
Sony Pictures doesn't come to mind?
Hacking of sites that are on the Internet is a problem that no one has yet found a way to prevent. If you think the CONservative Noise Machine is not loud enough, let them be able to say that Democrats were able to hack in and 'adjust' the results at will. The noise today is small potatoes to what it will be in the future (or Russia or North Korea or mainland China, etc. could hack in to get their 'favored' candidate elected [a scenario I think is much more probable than a domestic group hacking in] ) if Internet voting is allowed before there is a solution to the hacking problem.
10.
BillinNO | December 15, 2014 at 3:46 pm
Now Mike, I didn't suggest that internet voting was the answer- I said "Now if we could make voting AS EASY AS CLICKING LIKE". How do we do that? By suing for liberalized voting practices, by making election day a holiday, by declaring unconstitutional the recent infringements of the voting rights act, and especially the racist laws that take the vote away from former felons. The right wingers have made a science of disenfranchising all the people who are most likely to vote against them. We need to be fighting back twice as hard as they are. Why the hell are we taking it lying down? And while we're at it, we need to demand that the lower house (at least) be more representative of the people. The total number of votes cast nationally must be brought to coincide with the party holding the most seats in House of Representatives. Its time for a goddamn democracy in the USA.
11.
x15gal | December 15, 2014 at 10:28 am
It's always nice to see the stories on marriage equality and the struggle for equality, but I notice that there are not as many articles that appear here when it comes to transgender rights. A major story happened a few days ago where trans people in Fayettville, Arkansas had their rights stripped away by the christian propaganda machine, the Duggars. This was a huge setback since trans protections were the law there until this "family" took their money and waged a successful campaign to have them removed.
12.
hopalongcassidy | December 15, 2014 at 12:40 pm
Well, the explanation (NOT an excuse) is pretty simple…it was a 'special election' that wasn't well publicized to the general public but the "christian right" (which of course is neither) made sure that all the religious knuckledraggers got the message about it coming up…and only about 27% of eligible voters bothered to go to the polls. It was rigged, if not legally, as a practical matter.
13.
guitaristbl | December 15, 2014 at 2:41 pm
It was not only trans protections, trans rights were just used as the usual propaganda machine about bathrooms etc. It was LGBT rights in general that were protected from this ordinance. I have written (angrily) about it in previous threads.
The Duggars must come down. Not tomorrow, not in the future. Now.
14.
RnL | December 15, 2014 at 12:37 pm
Did the format change on the Desktop version of EoT?
15.
F_Young | December 15, 2014 at 12:52 pm
RnL: "Did the format change on the Desktop version of EoT?"
No, the desktop version has not changed on my Windows Vista desktop, on Internet Explorer 9 or Firefox 30.0, provided it is the desktop format that actually displays instead of the mobile version, which has been happening randomly and fairly frequently in the last few weeks.
I assume that you are aware that EoT has had frequent problems over the last few weeks with its mobile version randomly loading onto desktops.
16.
RnL2008 | December 15, 2014 at 1:28 pm
Yes, F_Young……I use to be able to reply directly to your comment…..at the moment I can’t nor are there any points behind my name……like there is with Wolf and others.
17.
F_Young | December 15, 2014 at 1:33 pm
RnL2008, it looks to me that you are not logged in. You can try logging in using the icon just above and to the right of the comments section of this article.
18.
RnL2008 | December 15, 2014 at 2:01 pm
F_Young…according to intensedebate.com…..I am signed in and even that is NOT visible for me to see my dashboard, which is typically at the top of the comments
19.
ebohlman | December 15, 2014 at 2:07 pm
You may need to delete any cookies associated with EOT and then try logging in again; when I recently switched from Opera to Firefox as my main browser, I had an impossible time logging in until I did that.
20.
RnL2008 | December 15, 2014 at 2:03 pm
This is what I am seeing at the bottom of the page:
XHTML: You can use these tags:
21.
RnL2008 | December 15, 2014 at 2:57 pm
ebohlman, it’s like this site was before they required us all to sign in……I cleared my cookies and still a problem!!!
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