California shows some sense! Prop 8 ruled unconstitutional, appeal may end up in Supreme Court

Gawker.  The Advocate.  NYTimes.

Editorial from the Times:

Until Wednesday, the thousands of same-sex couples who have married did so because a state judge or Legislature allowed them to. The nation’s most fundamental guarantees of freedom, set out in the Constitution, were not part of the equation. That has changed with the historic decision by a federal judge in California, Vaughn Walker, that said his state’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the 14th Amendment’s rights to equal protection and due process of law.

...One of Judge Walker’s strongest points was that traditional notions of marriage can no longer be used to justify discrimination, just as gender roles in opposite-sex marriage have changed dramatically over the decades. All marriages are now unions of equals, he wrote, and there is no reason to restrict that equality to straight couples. The exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage “exists as an artifact of a time when the genders were seen as having distinct roles in society and in marriage,” he wrote. “That time has passed.”
To justify the proposition’s inherent discrimination on the basis of sex and sexual orientation, he wrote, there would have to be a compelling state interest in banning same-sex marriage. But no rational basis for discrimination was presented at the two-and-a-half-week trial in January, he said. The real reason for Proposition 8, he wrote, is a moral view “that there is something wrong with same-sex couples,” and that is not a permissible reason for legislation.

“Moral disapproval alone,” he wrote, in words that could someday help change history, “is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and women.”

The ideological odd couple who led the case — Ted Olson and David Boies, who fought against each other in the Supreme Court battle over the 2000 election — were criticized by some supporters of same-sex marriage for moving too quickly to the federal courts. Certainly, there is no guarantee that the current Supreme Court would uphold Judge Walker’s ruling. But there are times when legal opinions help lead public opinions.

Just as they did for racial equality in previous decades, the moment has arrived for the federal courts to bestow full equality to millions of gay men and lesbians.

Femonomics reads the internet so you don't have to

It turns out, the government could be storing your baby's DNA.  Without asking you.  Apparently most hospitals are required to do routine genetic testing (for certain treatable conditions) on all babies, and then they keep the samples.  Kinda makes the case for home birth, doesn't it?

I am not big on the whole "let's make fun of Republicans" thing, because I don't think it solves anything.  The Daily Kos has no such inhibitions.  They present a poll (done by them) of what self-identified Republicans think on a variety of things.  There are some scary things in there, like the 34% who say they believe birth control is abortion (which they think is murder, and they believe in the death penalty...), but you have to wonder how much of this is simple misinformation.  I'd like to see a breakdown by socioeconomic status and education.  538 breaks down the poll by age, gender, race, and region and finds very few differences, but he doesn't look at socioeconomic status or education.

The NYTimes has a neat Q&A about the coming of 3D TV.  Apparently, your existing set could show 3D, but that wouldn't get you to spend any money, so the companies have a $5000 solution for you instead.  For now, I'll stick with my $18 movie ticket twice a year.

Apparently being a man driving a hot car makes you hotter, but being a woman driving a hot car doesn't matter.  I'm wondering if the problem here is that they tested this with people of average attractiveness?  I know a lot of guys who get bowled over by an already hot woman in a killer ride.

And finally, in DADT (don't ask, don't tell) news, Colin Powell has come out in favor of repealing the policy he helped enact, saying that the culture has changed in the 17 years since the DADT compromise.  Elsewhere, McCain is railing against it, which must be awwwwk-ward for him and Megan, a vocal marriage equality supporter (though I don't know if she's commented specifically on DADT) and Cindy, who recently posed for NoH8.

[Hat tips to Steph and Woodstock]