Alabama Supreme Court Stops Same-Sex Marriage, Because Of Course It Did

[Content Note: Homophobia.]

This is as utterly pathetic as it is cruel:

The Alabama supreme court has ordered the state's probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, saying a previous federal ruling that gay marriage bans violate the US constitution did not preclude them from following state law, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

The all-Republican court in Montgomery on Tuesday sided with the argument offered by a pair of conservative organisations, appealing against a decision by US district judge Callie Granade of Mobile, who ruled in January that both Alabama's constitutional and statutory bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional.

It was not immediately clear what impact the latest ruling would have, or whether it would stand.

It won't stand. It's only a matter of how long it won't stand. This is the last gasp of bigots who know they have lost, just fucking with people's lives a little bit more to try to delay the inevitable, and parading out the same baseless arguments about "protecting the family."

Joe Godfrey, executive director of the Alabama Citizens Action Program, said he was excited about the decision. "We are concerned about the family and the danger that same-sex marriage will have."

"It will be a devastating blow to the family, which is already struggling," Godfrey added.

There is literally no validity to what Godfrey is saying. Zero. Zip. Nil. It's a complete falsehood, and the only families that are struggling in any way related to same-sex marriage are the families headed by same-sex couples who are being denied important protections to keep their families safe.

This is all about straight bigots who feel like their rights are being eroded because they can't distinguish between "rights" and "privileges." Their right to get married is wholly intact; their privilege of being conferred that right while it is denied to others based on sexual orientation is vanishing.

What feels like a loss of "rights" is actually just a desperate insecurity about their super-special relationships losing the shimmering, golden glow that only denying marriage equality to same-sex couples conveys upon their gloriously gilded unions.

All of this breathtaking indecency, because there are people who are mad that their relationships won't be special anymore.

Well, tough shit. Marriage isn't an exclusive country club. It's a legal contract that confers rights and legal privileges, and as long as we're going to use marriage as the threshold for accessing those rights and legal privileges (which is a whole different discussion altogether), then everyone needs to have access to it the end.

If your different-sex marriage isn't special or "sacred" or whatthefuckever just because more people are allowed to do it, then that's not a problem with the law; that's a problem with your marriage.