D**S
发帖数: 24887 | 1 消息还是振奋人心的．估计代表了未来一段时间的态势．
在宾州这种州立法机构到州长都被共和党把持的地方，走这种渠道，恐怕是眼下唯一现
实的选项了．虽然地理上紧相邻，宾州却和新泽西情况那般不同：后者现在完全是被一
个充满了个人政治考量的肥胖州长阻挡，前者却是更大面积的反同势力．有人这样描述
宾州之于LGBT议题：
PA is Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and ALABAMA.
关键词：Alabama.
－－－－－－－－－－－－
A.C.L.U. Lawsuit Aims to Overturn Pennsylvania’s Ban on Gay Marriage
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/us/aclu-lawsuit-aims-to-overt
By TRIP GABRIEL
Published: July 9, 2013
The Supreme Court returned the battle over same-sex marriage to the states
last month, and Deb and Susan Whitewood are among the first to pick up the
fight.
A couple for 22 years with two teenage daughters, the Whitewoods filed suit
on Tuesday to overturn Pennsylvania’s ban on gay marriage, one of the
first of an expected outpouring of cases around the country to cite the
court’s majority opinion that same-sex couples are denied a “status of
immense import” and their children deprived of “the integrity and
closeness of their own family.”
The suit, carefully assembled by the American Civil Liberties Union, was
filed in Federal District Court in Harrisburg with the aim of adding
Pennsylvania to the column of 13 other states permitting same-sex marriage,
plus the District of Columbia. The 23 plaintiffs come from many walks of
life, including a doctor, college professors, a truck driver, a Vietnam
veteran and a widow who lost her partner of 29 years.
“What we’re looking for is the validation from the legal system that we
are equal in our marriage as anyone else,” said Susan Whitewood, 49, in an
interview before a planned news conference to announce the suit at the
Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg.
The legalization of same-sex marriage has primarily come through the
political process, with lawmakers and voters approving it in six states in
just the past year. But earlier victories were achieved through state courts
, including in Massachusetts and Iowa. The A.C.L.U. acknowledged that it was
bringing suit in Pennsylvania because overturning the state’s gay marriage
ban in the Republican-controlled legislature is a near-term impossibility.
Pennsylvania’s law defines marriage as between a man and a woman – similar
to the federal law struck down by the Supreme Court — and it denies
recognition to same-sex marriages legally performed elsewhere.
Gay-marriage opponents say using the courts undermines the will of the
voters. Michael Geer, president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, which
opposes same-sex marriage, said that in 1996 when the state passed its law,
fewer than 25 out of some 240 legislators opposed it.
“The fact the A.C.L.U. is turning to the courts to try to redefine marriage
takes it out of the hands of the people,” he said.
The A.C.L.U. plans to file suit shortly in two other states, Virginia and
North Carolina. In Michigan, a federal judge blocked a state law denying
domestic partner benefits to public employees, citing last month’s United
States Supreme Court rulings. “You’ll have these things filed all over the
place,” said Frank Schubert, political director of the National
Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage.
James Esseks, national director of the LGBT Project at the A.C.L.U., agreed.
“No question this issue will get back to U.S. Supreme Court over the next
several years,” he said.
At the heart of many of the cases is the issue the Supreme Court ducked in
one of its two recent rulings, a narrow decision on a California case: If a
state prohibits same-sex couples from marrying, does it trample the
guarantee of equal protection in the United States Constitution?
Supporters believe that enlarging the map of states that allow same-sex
marriage will ultimately influence the Supreme Court when it next takes up
the issue of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, as it is expected
to do in the next few years. Activists are pressing legislatures in three
more states that appear ready to pass measures legalizing same-sex marriage:
New Jersey, Hawaii and Illinois.
“We think what the map of the country looks like is going to make a big
difference to how the issues in the case feel to the Supreme Court,” Mr.
Esseks said. “Will we have the 13 states plus D.C., or will we be at 20 or
more?”
Opponents are fighting back under the same logic. They believe they have an
opportunity to add Indiana to the 29 states with constitutional bans on same
-sex marriage.
“Our challenge is to let the court see they’re not going to get away with
this without a massive public revolt,” said Mr. Schubert of the National
Organization for Marriage.
Both sides have trained their focus on one man, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy,
the frequent swing vote on the court, who wrote the 5-to-4 majority opinion
striking down a key part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Justice
Kennedy did not say whether there was a constitutional right to same-sex
marriage, leaving it up to individual states. But he defined the terms of
battle.
Opponents said that their course is to show how same-sex marriage is a
breach of thousands of years of history.
Advocates have seized, especially, on Justice Kennedy’s language that
denying marriage to gay and lesbian couples harms their children by
assigning them second-class status. The Pennsylvania suit argues that
children of same-sex couples are deprived of “social recognition and
respect” and of financial benefits that married parents enjoy.
The Whitewoods said their daughters, Abbey, 16, and Katie, 14, were eager to
join the suit.
“Having children means we have to protect our children in the utmost way,”
said Susan Whitewood, a human resources executive. “We have to be
enormously proactive in everything we do that we don’t get discriminated
against or don’t have negative ramifications.”
Before school each year, she and her partner, Deb Whitewood, 45, a stay-at-
home mother, met with teachers in their suburban Pittsburgh community to
explain their family and answer any questions. Invariably their girls were
the first a teacher had encountered with two moms, the women said.
“People would ask the questions,” Deb Whitewood said, “and then things
would just go totally normal from there.” | n**********y
发帖数: 1446 | 2 并洗发你呀为什么是红州呢，农民太多？
北部不是很开放吗？ | m******1
发帖数: 19713 | 3 宾州应该算swing state
【在 n**********y 的大作中提到】
: 并洗发你呀为什么是红州呢，农民太多？
: 北部不是很开放吗？
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