• "Gay Spouses" (Mentally Ill Queers) May Not Be Entitled to Workplace Be

    From Making America Great Again@21:1/5 to All on Thu Aug 10 17:11:57 2017
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    Faggots are dysfunctional mentally ill pervert child molesters.

    (AUSTIN, Texas) — Gay spouses may not be entitled to government-
    subsidized workplace benefits, the Texas Supreme Court ruled
    Friday in a unanimous decision that was quickly condemned by gay-
    rights groups.

    The court overturned a lower court's decision that favored same-
    sex marriage benefits, ordering the issue back to trial. Social
    conservatives hope the case will help them chip away at the U.S.
    Supreme Court's landmark ruling legalizing gay marriage.

    Gay rights groups denounced the ruling as an "absurd distortion"
    of established law regarding marriage equality.

    "Marriage is marriage and equal is equal. We will take steps to
    protect these families," said Kenneth Upton Jr., Dallas-based
    attorney for Lambda Legal.

    Friday's decision was a major reversal for the all-Republican
    Texas high court, which previously refused to even consider the
    benefits case after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the
    Constitution grants gay couples who want to marry "equal dignity
    in the eyes of the law."

    The Texas court only agreed to hear it after coming under
    intense pressure from Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and
    Attorney General Ken Paxton, as well as dozens of other
    conservative elected officials, church leaders and grassroots
    activists. They filed a flurry of briefs saying the case may
    help Texas limit the scope of the Supreme Court ruling —
    especially in how it's applied to states.

    The decision didn't block same-sex spousal benefits but said the
    U.S. Supreme Court decision did not decide the issue. The U.S.
    Supreme Court "did not hold that states must provide the same
    publicly funded benefits to all married persons," the Texas
    Supreme Court wrote in its opinion.

    The case came from Houston, where a coalition of religious and
    socially conservative groups sued America's fourth-largest city
    in 2013 to block a move to offer same-sex spousal benefits to
    municipal employees.

    The groups argued that the U.S. Supreme Court didn't declare
    spousal benefits a fundamental right of marriage, and that it
    should be up to states to decide. The city argued that the gay
    marriage ruling meant all marriages are equal, so anything
    offered to opposite-sex couples must be offered to same-sex ones.

    The groups suing also called the case a chance for Texas to
    defend religious liberty. Texas voters approved a gay marriage
    ban in 2005.

    Jared Woodfill, a conservative activist at the center of the
    case, called the decision a big victory for states' rights and
    religious rights. He said he hopes the case will eventually help
    push the U.S. Supreme Court to someday overturn its gay marriage
    ruling.

    "Courts can change their mind," Woodfill said. "From time
    immemorial, family law has been left to the states."

    Conservative activists will argue to the trial court that the
    decision to offer same-sex benefits was an overreach by the
    Houston mayor's office that violated state law, and that
    benefits shouldn't be supported by taxpayers who would consider
    it a violation of sincerely held religious beliefs, Woodfill
    said.

    Houston has been paying the benefits and Friday's decision
    doesn't stop them, but Woodfill said opponents will use the
    ruling to ask a judge to block them pending a trial on the
    issue. Mayor Sylvester Turner said the city is reviewing the
    ruling but won't stop providing the benefits.

    "The City of Houston will continue to be an inclusive city that
    respects the legal marriages of all employees," Turner said.
    "Marriage equality is the law of the land, and everyone is
    entitled to the full benefits of marriage, regardless of the
    gender of their spouse."

    Gay rights groups noted that the Texas decision came just days
    after the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly ruled that states may not
    treat married same-sex couples differently when issuing birth
    certificates. That decision overturned an Arkansas court ruling
    that said married lesbian couples were not entitled to have both
    spouses listed on their children's birth certificates.

    Sarah Kate Ellis, president and chief executive of GLAAD, an
    LGBT rights group, called the Texas ruling a "warning shot to
    all LGBTQ Americans that the war on marriage equality is ever-
    evolving, and anti-LGBTQ activists will do anything possible to
    discriminate against our families."

    http://time.com/4843102/lgbt-texas-court-gay-marriage- benefits/?xid=gonewsedit&google_editors_picks=true
     

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