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[ElectricBlanketFire]

Take a moment and reflect. This day is historic.

AWWWWWWWWW YEAHHHHHHHHHHH.

WASHINGTON — In a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Constitution guarantees a nationwide right to same-sex marriage.

The decision, the culmination of decades of litigation and activism, came against the backdrop of fast-moving changes in public opinion, with polls indicating that most Americans now approve of same-sex marriage.

As in earlier civil rights cases, the Supreme Court had moved cautiously and methodically, laying careful judicial groundwork for a transformative decision.

 

[ivysaur12]

Equality Case Files ‏@EQCF
From SCOTUSBlog Holding: Fourteenth Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex.

THE GENDERLESS DYSTOPIA IS HERE!!! AMERICA IS OVER!!

HOW WE GOT HERE

STONEWALL RIOTS: June 28th, 1969 (Friday night/Saturday morning)

https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Stonewall_riots

The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the gay community[note 1] against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. They are widely considered to constitute the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States.[2][3]

Gay Americans in the 1950s and 1960s faced an anti-homosexual legal system.[note 2][4] Early homophile groups in the U.S. sought to prove that gay people could be assimilated into society, and they favored non-confrontational education for homosexuals and heterosexuals alike. The last years of the 1960s, however, were very contentious, as many social movements were active, including the African American Civil Rights Movement, the Counterculture of the 1960s, and antiwar demonstrations. These influences, along with the liberal environment of Greenwich Village, served as catalysts for the Stonewall riots.

Very few establishments welcomed openly gay people in the 1950s and 1960s. Those that did were often bars, although bar owners and managers were rarely gay. At the time, the Stonewall Inn was owned by the Mafia.[5][6] It catered to an assortment of patrons and was known to be popular among the poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community: drag queens, representatives of the transgender community, effeminate young men, male prostitutes, and homeless youth. Police raids on gay bars were routine in the 1960s, but officers quickly lost control of the situation at the Stonewall Inn. They attracted a crowd that was incited to riot. Tensions between New York City police and gay residents of Greenwich Village erupted into more protests the next evening, and again several nights later. Within weeks, Village residents quickly organized into activist groups to concentrate efforts on establishing places for gays and lesbians to be open about their sexual orientation without fear of being arrested.

BAKER v. NELSON: October 10th, 1972

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_v._Nelson

Richard John Baker v. Gerald R. Nelson, 291 Minn. 310, 191 N.W.2d 185 (1971) is a case in which the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that a state law limiting marriage to persons of the opposite sex did not violate the U.S. Constitution. Baker appealed, and on October 10, 1972, the United States Supreme Court dismissed the appeal "for want of a substantial federal question."[1] Because the case came to the Supreme Court through mandatory appellate review (not certiorari), the dismissal constituted a decision on the merits and established Baker v. Nelson as precedent,[2] though the extent of its precedential effect has been subject to debate.[3]

BOWERS v. HARDWICK: June 30th, 1986

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowers_v._Hardwick

DECISION: 5-4
AUTHOR: Justice Byron White

Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986), is a United States Supreme Court decision, overturned in 2003, that upheld, in a 5–4 ruling, the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults when applied to homosexuals.[1]

The majority opinion, written by Justice Byron White, argued that the Constitution did not confer "a fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy."[1] A concurring opinion by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger cited the "ancient roots" of prohibitions against homosexual sex, quoting William Blackstone's description of homosexual sex as an "infamous crime against nature", worse than rape, and "a crime not fit to be named." Burger concluded: "To hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is somehow protected as a fundamental right would be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching."[2] Justice Lewis F. Powell later said he regretted joining the majority, but thought the case of little importance at the time.

ROMER v. EVANS: May 20th, 1996

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romer_v._Evans

DECISION: 6-3
AUTHOR: Justice Anthony Kennedy

Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620 (1996), is a landmark United States Supreme Court case dealing with sexual orientation and state laws. It was the first Supreme Court case to address gay rights since Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), when the Court had held that laws criminalizing sodomy were constitutional.[1]

The Court ruled in a 6–3 decision that a state constitutional amendment in Colorado preventing protected status based upon homosexuality or bisexuality did not satisfy the Equal Protection Clause.[2] The majority opinion in Romer stated that the amendment lacked "a rational relationship to legitimate state interests", and the dissent stated that the majority "evidently agrees that 'rational basis'—the normal test for compliance with the Equal Protection Clause—is the governing standard".[2][3] The state constitutional amendment failed rational basis review.[4][5][6][7]

Future Chief Justice John Roberts donated time pro bono to prepare oral arguments for the plaintiffs. Speaking during his nomination process, a case leader, Walter A. Smith Jr., praised his work on the case, recalling, "He said, 'Let's do it.' And it's illustrative of his open-mindedness, his fair-mindedness. He did a brilliant job."[32]

LAWRENCE v. TEXAS: June 26, 2003

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_v._Texas

DECISION: 6-3
AUTHOR: Justice Anthony Kennedy

Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003) is a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court. In the 6–3 ruling the Court struck down the sodomy law in Texas and, by extension, invalidated sodomy laws in 13 other states, making same-sex sexual activity legal in every U.S. state and territory. The Court overturned its previous ruling on the same issue in the 1986 case Bowers v. Hardwick, where it upheld a challenged Georgia statute and did not find a constitutional protection of sexual privacy.

Lawrence explicitly overruled Bowers, holding that it had viewed the liberty interest too narrowly. The Court held that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part of the liberty protected by substantive due process under the 14th Amendment. Lawrence invalidated similar laws throughout the United States that criminalized sodomy between consenting adults acting in private, whatever the sex of the participants.[1]

UNITED STATES v. WINDSOR: June 26, 2013

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Windsor

DECISION: 5-4
AUTHOR: Justice Anthony Kennedy

United States v. Windsor, 570 U.S. ___ (2013) (Docket No. 12-307), is a landmark civil rights case[1][2][3] in which the United States Supreme Court held that restricting U.S. federal interpretation of "marriage" and "spouse" to apply only to heterosexual unions, by Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), is unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment; Justice Kennedy wrote: "The federal statute is invalid, for no legitimate purpose overcomes the purpose and effect to disparage and to injure those whom the State, by its marriage laws, sought to protect in personhood and dignity."[4]

FACTS

America is the 18TH country in the world to legalize marriage equality (by order of full country-wide implementation):

The Netherlands
Belgium
Spain
Canada
South Africa
Norway
Sweden
Portugal
Iceland
Argentina
Denmark
Uruguay
New Zealand
Brazil
France
England & Wales, Scotland (later)
Luxembourg

The following countries have legalized marriage equality, but have not yet gone into effect. America beat you! Suck it, Slovenia. Gay marriage drops:

Finland (2017)
Slovenia (TBD, potential referendum pending)
Ireland (Summer/Fall 2016)

Additionally, Mexico's legal system is weird, but marriage equality should be the law of the land sooner rather than later.

The United States is now the most populous country in the world with marriage equality. The second largest is Brazil with 200.4 million people vs. The United States's 318.9 million.

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[The Last Wizard]

Thanks Obama.

 

[LiK]

Boom

 

[SocksAndShoes]

GIGATON

 

[Grakl]

Well, to be specific, the ruling holds that the "Fourteenth Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex, and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when a marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out of state."

Super happy with this ruling, let's go gays.

 

[T'Zariah]

YES!

Obamacare AND SSM within the same week?

Can I get some fresh salty tears?

 

[Pagusas]

what was the vote breakdown, 6-3 ?

 

[rexor0717]

We in there.

 

[Patryn]

I'm a little surprised it was 5-4 and not 6-3, but either way congrats to all!

Big day!

Now how many states are going to throw tantrums today?

 

[American Eskimo]

I didnt think it would be so close

It's 5-4.

Chief dissents, joined by Scalia and Thomas.

Justice Scalia dissents, joined by Justice Thomas.

Thomas dissents, joined by Scalia.

Alito has filed a dissenting opinion, joined by Scalia and CT.

 

[Crayons]

we did it

 

[schlongdog]

Well done America!

 

[butalala]

Link?

Also

in before that gif.

 

[Zaptruder]

Congratulation gay people. It's been a long time coming.

Now to topple the tradition of marriage entirely! (not that I'm suggesting that gay marriage makes marriage meaningless - just that this shit has taken so long that marriage itself has become pretty meaningless in the mean time).

 

[RowdyReverb]

Wow. It finally happened, huh? Link?

Seriously, I can't find this on ap.org
Are you making us fiddles, OP?

Edit: nvm

 

[Dedication Through Light]

My state allowed it already, but which ones were the holdouts?

 

[Prompto]

Finally

 

[Grym]

historic

 

[Blader]

what was the vote breakdown, 6-3 ?

5-4, with 4 different dissents apparently

 

[dkeane]

Wow, actual progress. Fantastic.

 

[Ecotic]

The big one.

 

[Veritigo_X]

RIP America. 1000 years of darkness begins today.

 

[SocksAndShoes]

what was the vote breakdown, 6-3 ?

5-4 I believe

 

[BowieZ]

Congrats to people all across the country who can now move on with their lives like they are normal people.

 

[Valkyr Junkie]

RIP 'Murica

 

[The Elite]

That sounds important.

So the individual states don't have a say?

 

[Fenderputty]

Finally!!!!

Suck it bigots

 

[Grakl]

what was the vote breakdown, 6-3 ?

5-4, Kennedy wrote the majority opinion. Dissenters are Alito, Scalia, Thomas, Roberts. They all wrote their own dissents.

 

[epmode]

5-4, with 4 different dissents apparently

Yeesh. Merica.

 

[PhoenixDark]

Boom.

Now to watch the schadenfreude.

 

[Zach]

 

[SDCowboy]

Good. As it should be.

 

[Ensirius]

Good job Americans.

 

[chadskin]

Good job, Murica.

 

[BumRush]

Congrats to all! Big day for the U.S.

 

[Montresor]

HeCan'tKeepGettingAwayWithIt.gif

 

[Macho Madness]

That sounds important.

So the individual states don't have a say?

Not anymore.

 

[Ahasverus]

My state allowed it already, but which ones were the holdouts?

Who do you think? Hahaha

Celebrate!

 

[American Eskimo]

I knew it would be a yes because

a) June 26 is always gay court decision day

2) They want to keep the parties on Friday during pride weekend

 

[cutmeamango]

Everyone gets to enjoy divorce.

 

[The Llama]

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf

Opinion is here.

 

[RedDeviLMUFC]

congrats /s

 

[Gordon Shumway]

WHAT!?

Make her dance, folks! Congrats to you, GayGAF..enjoy the good life.

 

[The Elite]

Not anymore.

Done and done.

Sounds great.

 

[~Devil Trigger~]

Hey guys

Lets act surprise

:O!!!!!!!

 

[kmax]

 

[LiK]

Alabama Chief Judge probably wants to hang himself now.

 

[Lemonz]

 

[Wafflecakes]

Do we know the margin?