Michigan!!!

[osodecanela]

The judgement was just handed down. Judge Friedman has ruled that Michigan's constitutional ban on marriage equality is unconstitutional under the 14th amendment to the US Constitution. I have not yet had a chance to read the whole decision to see what it has to say about two parent adoptions where the couple is unmarried, which is why this couple went to court in the first place. (DeBoer and Rowse are a lesbian couple who were co-foster parents of three special needs kids. One adopted two of the kids and the other, the third child, neither woman had any parental rights of the other's adopted child/children.)

The case is being appealed to the 6th federal circuit Court of Appeals.

So, let's see. Utah (10th), Oklahoma (also 10th), Virgina (4th), Texas (5th), and now Michigan have all had federal district courts that have overturned state constitutional bans on marriage equality.

Will someone let me know if Brian Brown or Maggie Gallagher have strokes?

Comments

[aofe.livejournal.com]

My state of birth!! Euphoria!

[osodecanela.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the club - like you, both my chosen home state and the state of my birth are on board. (CA and NY)

[andywhobear.livejournal.com]

I cried when I watched the news. The women who are the center of the case make such a great couple with their kids! I am over the moon about it!

[osodecanela.livejournal.com]

Now we just have to introduce you to Mr Right, Andy!

[danthered.livejournal.com]

I'm sure the whole decision's worth reading, but for now I'm especially enjoying this part:

The Court finds Regnerus’s testimony entirely unbelievable and not worthy of serious consideration. The evidence adduced at trial demonstrated that his 2012 'study' was hastily concocted at the behest of a third-party funder, which found it 'essential that the necessary data be gathered to settle the question in the forum of public debate about what kinds of family arrangement are best for society' and which 'was confident that the traditional understanding of marriage will be vindicated by this study.' While Regnerus maintained that the funding source did not affect his impartiality as a researcher, the Court finds this testimony unbelievable. The funder clearly wanted a certain result, and Regnerus obliged. Whatever Regnerus may have found in this 'study,' he certainly cannot purport to have undertaken a scholarly research effort to compare the outcomes of children raised by same-sex couples with those of children raised by heterosexual couples. It is no wonder that the NFSS has been widely and severely criticized by other scholars, and that Regnerus’s own sociology department at the University of Texas has distanced itself from the NFSS in particular and Dr. Regnerus’s views in general.

Also worth adding to your reading circle: http://jesushas2daddies.blogspot.com/ -- a bearish coupla Michigan dads directly affected.

[osodecanela.livejournal.com]

It was about time some discredited Regnerus in court. The man gives tenure a bad name. (and I'm a former schoolteacher!)