We should thank our lucky stars that SCOTUS ruled on marriage equality and not the people. Majority rule means minorities usually lose. That was very evident in Slovenia over the weekend.
Voters in the former Yugoslavian republic of Slovenia decided in a vote ending Sunday to repeal a marriage equality law enacted by the country’s parliament in March.
Around 63% of people who cast ballots in the election voted to repeal the law, according to preliminary tallies. This gave repeal voters enough ballots to make the vote binding under the country’s election laws, which require at least 20% of all the nation’s voters to cast ballots for repeal regardless of the margin of votes cast. That meant the repeal vote needed at least 343,104 votes; they got more than 380,000
Slovenia became the only country in Central or Eastern Europe with marriage equality after its parliament enacted a new law in March.
But opponents forced a referendum on repeal by gathering 80,000 signatures.
A number of nearby countries have passed bans on marriage equality in recent years, including neighboring Croatia, which held a referendum in 2013.
Janez Janša, a former Slovenian prime minister who leads the conservative Slovenian Democratic Party, wrote on Twitter that the result was a victory for the “voices of reason” and the country’s children.
In a statement, human rights group Amnesty Slovenia criticized the result as a civil rights setback for the LGBT movement in the region.
The group said the amended law was an act of discrimination against same-sex couples. “Same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, to be able to fully enjoy human rights without discrimination, just like couples of the opposite sex,” the group said. – buzzfeed.com
Are we protected from this happening in our nation? Could a popular vote take away marriage equality? The easy answer is yes / maybe. That popular vote will be the next Presidential election, but of course we all know the electoral college appoints the next president. Crap. I'm not sure if that makes things better or worse.
As long as the law of the land (SCOTUS) believes in marriage equality …
H.T. – buzzfeed.com
The only way that it could be
The only way that it could be changed here in the US is if 1) the Supreme Court changes it's position or 2) if there's a constitutional amendment. The first will only happen after months of court battles and if the make up of the court changes. That is highly unlikely, and a constitutional amendment will never happen.
I wonder how many Slovenians
I wonder how many Slovenians still think they're part of the Hapsburg Empire?
The genius of Montesquieu's Checks and Balances system as it is implemented in most Western-style democracies was to protect the rights of the few from that worst of democratic monsters, the Tyranny of the Majority. With a nod to Socrates, the 'people' aren't competent to make judgments on matters of law.