Today’s Prop. 8 hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court didn’t go the way LGBT activists had hoped, but it wasn’t necessarily a setback for marriage equality either. In fact, when SCOTUS issues their decision in June, there’s a chance the build-up to today’s hearing will reveal itself as nothing more than a giant tease. Based on the reflex analysis of pundits and reporters, it doesn’t seem likely that the court will uphold or strike down Prop. 8. If the case is dismissed, which is what many people are theorizing right now, the 9th Circuit Court’s ruling, in favor of same-sex marriage in California, will stand.
While we won’t know the decision for several months, it was disheartening to hear some of the thoughts presented by Supreme Court justices today. Justice Kennedy, for example, thinks it might be “too soon” to decide on same-sex marriage. And Justice Alito is uncomfortable with the fact that the concept of marriage equality is younger than cell phones and the internet. Of course, knee-jerk analysis of the Affordable Care Act hearing wrote it off as a “train wreck” that left the law in “grave, grave trouble,” and Justice Robert’s eventual decision – that the law should remain in tact – stunned the country. So, it’s important to remember that it really is all speculation at this point.
While we wait on this week’s DOMA hearing and saturate ourselves in pundit analysis, let’s also cheer ourselves up by taking a look at some of the awesome gays and gay allies that came out to defend our rights today, both in Washington D.C. and the rest of the country.
Dumbledore’s Army is here and it’s queer:
And so is the United States Army:
Jesus is our homeboy. (And our homo-boy.)
You can’t pray away the gay:
Sometimes you’ve gotta fight for the right to be fabulous:
No, but for real:
For real, for real:
The Supreme Court will hear the case on DOMA later this week and hand down decisions on both later this summer.
