FACEBOOK FEEDBACKLots of readers commented on coverage of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals decision. Here is a small sample:Nick Serpas: “Now that we have offsetting rulings by appeals courts, SCOTUS will hopefully grow a backbone and take up this case and end the debate once and for all. It’s going to happen in Tennessee, it’s no longer if but when.”Marilyn Bell: “The needs of the many … outweigh the needs of the few. It should be up to state residents to decide.”Chris Lawson: “… What has been done here is honoring the fact that the majority of the electorate does not wish to allow same sex marriage benefits to those whom cannot procreate. Nobody has taken away your right to chose your sexual preference, only where you can get married or be married as a homosexual.”Pat Hagan: “No equality on Tennessee! What a backward state.”
The state’s wrongheaded bias will cost us – in dollars, time and hearts.
Especially after the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Thursday closed the door on gay marriage in Tennessee by upholding an eight-year-old Tennessee constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman, and which does not recognize same-sex marriages from other states.
The ruling will be a wasteful delay as we wait for what comes next.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 6 turned away appeals from states seeking to prohibit gay and lesbian marriages, choosing not to decide on same-sex marriage cases. But this 6th Circuit appellate ruling by three justices in a 2-1 division puts a new light on that stance: The 6th Circuit’s ruling veers away from more than 20 other appellate court decisions that favor supporters of same-sex marriage since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act last year. A federal judge in Louisiana recently upheld that state’s ban, but four other U.S. appeals courts ruled against state bans.