What the article doesn’t explicity say (which is a shame) is that the Proposition 416 did not merely ban same-sex marriages. It also banned civil unions or any sort of non-religious manner in which gay couples could commit to one another outside of the church and still maintain the rights of straight couples who committed to one another. The precise wording is below:
Only marriage between a man and a woman shall be valid or recognized in Nebraska. The uniting of two persons of the same sex in a civil union, domestic partnership, or other similar same-sex relationship shall not be valid or recognized in Nebraska.
At that point, I’m not sure Nebraskans should be surprised. It’s one thing for people to say that marriage needs to be preserved between a man and a woman (one thing I don’t necessarily agree with, mind you)… but another thing entirely to deny basic rights to gay people at the same time. I applaud this decision by Judge Bataillon.
Oh, and to all my friends from the more “liberal” states. I think we see whose home state is truly more progressive. =P
I wonder whether my parents voted for that…