aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Judge strikes Georgia gay-marriage ban

I’m in an Internet Cafe in Hradec Králové, a beautiful Czech city. My trip is going well but posting is virtually impossible. Maybe late next week when I arrive in Prague it will get better.

But here today Doug sent news that a Georgia judge struck down the ban on gay marriages. Old news for all of you no doubt, but good news from home for me here:

ATLANTA - A judge has struck down Georgia’s ban on same-sex marriages, saying the measure that was overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2004 had violated the state constitution’s single-subject rule for ballot questions.

“Procedural safeguards such as the single-subject rule rarely enjoy public support,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Constance C. Russell wrote in her ruling. “But, ultimately it is those safeguards that preserve our liberties, because they ensure that the actions of government are constrained by the rule of law.”

Activists had long awaited Russell’s ruling in their court challenge, which was originally filed in November 2004, soon after the constitutional ban was approved in that year’s general election. [...]

In her ruling, Russell said before the state’s voters can be asked to decide whether same-sex marriages should be banned, they must first decide whether same-sex relationships should have any legal status before the law.

“People who believe marriages between men and women should have a unique and privileged place in our society may also believe that same-sex relationships should have some place - although not marriage,” she wrote. “The single-subject rule protects the right of those people to hold both views and reflect both judgments by their vote.”

I’d love to see it on the ballot again. I’m betting that even if we lose again, it would be by a smaller margin.