Yesterday was a banner day for marriage equality, especially in the US, as well as for lesbian visibility.<\/p>\n
Most of y'all have probably heard most of this, in which case skip down to the Washington section, where the news is less certain.<\/p>\n
The really big news is that Maine and Maryland passed their respective marriage-equality ballot measures.<\/p>\n
In Maine, Question 1<\/a> passed with about 53% of the vote. Marriages will begin sometime in early 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n (I'm especially pleased about Maine because in 2009, after the governor and legislature approved marriage equality, the voters voted against it, by about 53% to 47%. The equality organizations in Maine have done an amazing job over the past three years of engaging with the public and changing minds.)<\/p>\n In Maryland, Question 6 passed with about 52% of the vote. Marriages will begin on January 1, 2013.<\/p>\n So that's at least two states that have achieved equality through voting. I personally feel that rights shouldn't be put to a vote, and that the courts are a perfectly legitimate way to acquire equality in the eyes of the law; but there's a widespread idea that votes are more legitimate than courts, so it's heartening to see votes go our way.<\/p>\n NOM in particular keeps saying (paraphrased), “Sure, all three branches of government in various states are in favor of same-sex marriage. But what does government know? The only important opinion is a majority vote.” Now, presumably, they'll start downplaying the importance of a majority vote, in favor of some other previously undiscovered branch of government that they'll invent and declare to be the only legitimate opinion.<\/p>\n Minnesota has rejected the anti-equality constitutional amendment that was on their ballot. I'm relieved and pleased. I really didn't think this would happen; even last night, there was a while when (if I read the returns right) the Yes vote had a significant lead. So I'm delighted that No won the day. Minnesota doesn't, of course, have marriage equality yet; but at least they won't have to overturn a constitutional amendment to get there in the future.<\/p>\n I'm seeing a bunch of people putting Washington on the winners list, and that's understandable; the current count there<\/a> as of this morning shows it ahead, roughly 52% to 48%. But the vote-counting status page<\/a> shows that there are still 618,000 votes left to be counted (about a quarter of the total votes cast), and about a fifth of those votes are from Pierce County, where No is ahead. (Though a lot are also from King County, where Yes is winning 2-to-1.) I have yet to see a major news organization call this vote, so I'm thinking that the results are still uncertain, unfortunately.<\/p>\n The status page indicates that the next updates will be out around 4 or 5 p.m. tonight (Pacific time) in some counties, with other counties not updating until Friday. Fingers crossed that this all turns out well.<\/p>\n “Spain's highest court upheld the country's gay marriage law on Tuesday<\/a>, rejecting an appeal lodged by the ruling People's Party seven years ago and confirming the legality of same-sex unions.” Yay, Spain!<\/p>\nMinnesota<\/h3>\n
Washington<\/h3>\n
Spain<\/h3>\n
France<\/h3>\n