A federal judge has struck down Utah’s same-sex marriage ban, saying it is unconstitutional, and gay couples are already receiving marriage licenses!
A county clerk’s office in Utah is issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, just hours after a federal judge struck down Utah’s ban on gay marriages.
The Associated Press reports that “Salt Lake County Deputy Clerk Dahnelle Burton-Lee says the district attorney authorized her office to begin issuing the marriage licenses today after U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby issued a 53-page ruling saying Utah’s law passed by voters in 2004 violates gay and lesbian couples’ rights to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment.
Shelby says the state failed to show that allowing same-sex marriages would affect opposite-sex marriages in any way, and the state’s unsupported fears and speculations are insufficient to justify deny allowing same-sex marriages.”
Read the full article from The Associated Press here.
The ruling followed a court decision on Thursday in New Mexico, where the State Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the right of same-sex partners to marry, saying that the “protections and responsibilities that result from the marital relationship shall apply equally” to them and to opposite-sex couples.
Think this amazing flash mob gay marriage proposal in a Salt Lake City Home Depot helped the judge see that love is love, no matter what gender the person is?
