SCOTUS ruling heats up marriage equality fight in South Carolina

Wilson

In spite of today's SCOTUS ruling, SC Attorney General Alan Wilson will continue to fight for the state's ban on marriage equality:

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson says he will keep fighting to uphold the state's constitutional ban on gay marriage. Wilson issued a statement Monday hours after the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal of a ruling allowing same-sex marriage by a federal appeals court with jurisdiction over South Carolina.Wilson says no ruling has been made in a lawsuit by a same-sex couple legally married in Washington, D.C., who live in South Carolina. They are asking to overturn the state's gay marriage ban. Wilson says he will keep fighting until there is a ruling in that case.

A lawyer for the same-sex couple, Carrie Warner, says she'll be filing paperwork soon asking for an immediate ruling in their favor.

Wilson's decision to keep on fighting, which is supported by Governor Nikki Haley, is going to be interesting because South Carolinians who support marriage equality and, no doubt invigorated by today's ruling, will be uniting on the State House steps in Columbia at noon on Wednesday.

Led by SC Equality, they will hold a press conference and a rally urging the state to allow marriage equality.

SCOTUS ruling creates shock, happy chaos for marriage equality supporters

Unless you were living in a cave with your fingers in your ears, you know the surprising decision the United States Supreme Court made this morning in denying appeals from five states regarding federal judges overturning their marriage equality bans. The collection of articles and tweets below will give you a picture of where it all stands. But I do say this - the lgbt community and especially our leadership organizations should be out of the gate not only explaining what these decisions mean but how we got to this point. The other side will immediately raise the talking point about "activist judges," when in fact it was their hubris, lies, and inability to fashion a coherent and logical argument against marriage equality which has led them down the path of loss.

The graphic above, taken from Think Progress, gives a view of what marriage equality looks like after today's SCOTUS decision 

SCOTUS Denies Appeals On Gay Marriage From 5 States - This article from Talking Points Memo is huge. It says that marriage equality has not only come to five states (Utah, Indiana, Virginia, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin), but six other states will most likely eventually have marriage equality because of the SCOTUS ruling (Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming).

 Same-sex marriage legal in at least 10 more states after Supreme Court declines to intervene - Reuters confirms the second point made in the Talking Points Memo article.

 Virginia Attorney General: Same-Sex Marriage Should Begin ‘Later Today’ - Oh yeah. This is getting good.  

LIVE BLOG: The freedom to marry comes to 5 more states - Follow the Freedom To Marry blog for updates regarding todays' ruling. 

Meanwhile, the opposition is in a complete state of shock. Bryan Fischer issued this uncharacteristically boring tweet:
 

The Supreme Court, by doing nothing, just issued the de facto Roe v. Wade ruling of sodomy-based marriage.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) October 6, 2014

It's boring because we can usually count on him for visions of fire, brimstone, and an angry God knocking heads. Now Peter LaBarbera has a better, but more confusing tweet:

It's civil disobedience time in #Oklahoma + other states: OK (76% opposed) offers the best chance to reject the SCOTUS ruling on SSM. #tcot
— Peter LaBarbera (@PeterLaBarbera) October 6, 2014

What that hell does that mean? People who don't support marriage equality should refuse to attend gay weddings? Sure. Works for me.

Or does it mean come to gay weddings and interrupt the proceedings. Feel free to come to mine. We will sit you right next to the mothers of the grooms and when the preacher asks if anyone objects and you feel the need to stand up, we will take a 15 minute intermission to watch you get your behind whipped.

Bakery vs. gays is not just about cakes

It's sad how lazy people are when it comes to the case of the bakery in trouble for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple.

It's not about a business having a First Amendment right nor is it about a lesbian couple refusing to take their business elsewhere.

It's about basic fairness. A secular business should not be allowed to use the "religious liberty" card to discriminate. 

The folks at the progressive show, The Young Turks, puts it better than I can: