The Massachusetts Legislature apparantly has a problem reading court decisions. After last year’s Supreme Judicial Court decision stating that gays must have the right to marriage, the legislature has cooked up a few different schemes to “get around” this decision.
Civil Unions appeared to be the easy way out for them. Until they asked the SJC for an advisory opinion. Well, they got one.
“The history of our nation has demonstrated that separate is seldom, if ever, equal,” four justices wrote in the advisory opinion. “For no rational reason the marriage laws of the Commonwealth discriminate against a defined class; no amount of tinkering with language will eradicate that stain. The (civil unions) bill would have the effect of maintaining and fostering a stigma of exclusion that the Constitution prohibits.”
Welcome to the world of having to live under the laws that we chose hundreds of years ago. Equality means equality folks.
For all of the moaning, groaning, and complaining that I do about living here from time to time, I’m enormously proud of the SJC for their two decisions in this case.
