Proponents of same-sex marriage have introduced an initiative that would put a whole new twist on traditional unions between men and women: It would require heterosexual couples to have kids within three years or else have their marriages annulled. […]<\/p>\n
Under I-957, marriage would be limited to men and women who are able to have children. Couples would be required to prove they can have children to get a marriage license, and if they did not have children within three years, their marriages would be subject to annulment.<\/p>\n
All other marriages would be defined as “unrecognized” and people in them would be ineligible to receive any marriage benefits.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Now, it’s important to remember that this is little more than a stunt. The people behind the initiative refer to their own proposal as “political street theater” and “very…absurd,” and admit they have no intention of having it become law. But, proponents argue, “[T]here is a rational basis for this absurdity. By floating the initiatives, we hope to prompt discussion about the many misguided assumptions” underlying the state Supreme Court’s ruling.<\/p>\n
In general, I disapprove of using the political process to play games or prove a point, but proponents of Initiative 957 have a point, don’t they?
\n<\/p>\n
Gadow said that if the group’s initiatives were passed, the Supreme Court would be forced to strike them down as unconstitutional, which he believes would weaken the original ruling upholding the Defense of Marriage Act. […]<\/p>\n
Gadow said the [court’s] argument is unfair when you’re dealing with same-sex couples who are unable to have children together.<\/p>\n
“What we are trying to do is display the discrimination that is at the heart of last year’s ruling,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In case there was any doubt, this measure isn’t going anywhere fast. Lawmakers have denounced it, activist groups hate it, and the in-state media is already mocking it. Supporters of I-957 must gather at least 224,800 valid signatures by July 6 to put it on the November ballot. That seems pretty unlikely.<\/p>\n
Still, it’s some clever outside-the-box thinking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last summer, the Washington state Supreme Court upheld a ban on same-sex marriage in a ruling that emphasized procreation as a rationale. The 5-4 opinion, written by Justice Barbara Madsen, concluded that “limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples furthers the state’s interests in procreation and encouraging families with a mother and father and children biologically related […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9844\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}