scotus.jpg

Today and tomorrow, the Supreme Court will attend to two hotly debated issues centering around marriage equality in this country.

With tides ebbing clearly in one direction (at speeds reminiscent of glaciers), public opinion around the U.S. has swung dramatically in overall favor for gay marriage and, ultimately, equality in such matters. In Ohio, a major movement is under way to place a referendum before voters in November.

This week’s widely publicized trip to the Supreme Court highlights a civil rights struggle that has been fomenting – less and less privately – for decades. Here’s at least one local data point to etch out the magnitude of the legal, legislative and popular decisions to come:

According to The Williams Institute’s analysis of the 2010 U.S. Census, 19,684 same-sex couples are living in Ohio, representing 4.3 same-sex couples per 1,000 households.

Justices this morning will likely issue opinions on Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative that relegated “marriage” to only a man and a woman. According to SCOTUSblog, it is unlikely that this issue will be upheld:

Tomorrow, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is on the table. This 1996 law also serves to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

This article appears in Mar 20-26, 2013.

Eric Sandy is an award-winning Cleveland-based journalist. For a while, he was the managing editor of Scene. He now contributes jam band features every now and then.

4 replies on “Supreme Court Takes Up Prop. 8, DOMA Debates”

  1. Oh boy, I can’t wait for this to appear on the ballot in November. You know, because there aren’t enough freaking annoying commercials already. Maybe they can cut out a few TV shows so we have enough time for all the commercials for both sides of the issue.

    Please, please, please, please, please ban all political commercials. Unless you want to start paying ME to watch them.

Comments are closed.