Freedom To Marry Week

The week of Valentine's Day is is the 9th Annual Freedom To Marry Week, February 12-18, 2006 . The highlight this year will be arguments on Wednesday February 15 before the New Jersey Supreme Court in a gay marriage case, Lewis v. Harris. The queer media is following this case pretty closely. Interetingly, as the picture above shows, the top court in New Jersey "looks a lot more like America" than most courts. The chief judge is female, as are two other Justices on the Court. Unfortunately, four of the seven members were appointed by a (moderate) Republican Governor, the slightly sapphic Christine Todd Whitman. The other three members (which features an African American and a Latino) were appointed by the first openly gay Governor in U.S. history: Democrat James E. McGreevey.

Freedom to Marry Week comes as at a time when it appears the momentum against anti-gay marriage ballot measures appears to be in our favor. In California and in Florida heterosexual supremacists have failed to qualify initiatives for their initended election date. In California they are still gathering signatures and there may be a devastating anti-gay proposition on the November statewide ballot. In Florida, they are aiming for 2008. In Maryland, a judge ruled last month that state's gay marriage ban to be unconstitutional. In New York and Washington State we are still waiting for definitive ruling from those state's highest courts. In Massachusetts, where discrimination-free marriage has been legal since May 17, 2004, opponents have been caught forging citizens' signatures to a petition to have a vote to amend the state constitution to end gay marriage. Our side has filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General of Massachusetts Tom Reilly (who is running for Governor). The earliest a vote could occur in that state is 2008.