The Nation’s — and Arizona’s — Road to Marriage Equality

Protesters advocate for marriage equality as the Supreme Court hears Hollingsworth v. Perry. Image: Victoria Pickering

Protesters advocate for marriage equality as the Supreme Court hears Hollingsworth v. Perry. Image: Victoria Pickering

June is often known as a big month for weddings. Last June, that was more true than ever as a political battle over the right to marry was in front of the Supreme Court.

In the spring and early summer of 2013 and the days and weeks leading up to the decision in Hollingsworth v. Perry, it was clear that no matter what that case decided about same-sex marriage, the public had decided in favor of marriage equality. Hollingsworth v. Perry challenged Proposition 8, a California same-sex marriage ban that was passed by voter initiative in 2008. The plaintiffs in the case charged that Proposition 8 violated the Constitution’s equal protection clause.


Arizona was the first state to defeat a ballot initiative against marriage equality, but it still doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage today.


Interest built as the case made its way through the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court. The attorneys challenging the ban were themselves a sign of the change taking place in the United States, as former rivals in the Bush v. Gore trial — the Supreme Court trial over the disputed 2000 presidential election — joined forces to challenge Proposition 8. David Boies, a Democrat who had represented Al Gore, joined Theodore Olson, a Republican who had represented George W. Bush.

Before agreeing to serve as counsel for the plaintiffs, Olson had been approached by backers of Proposition 8 to serve as their counsel. Olson declined on the grounds that the law was contrary to both his legal and personal views. However, a high-profile Republican had made the case that the tide was turning, and polling before the Hollingsworth decision provided proof in numbers. Support for marriage equality was growing across all major demographic sectors, and 14 percent of those polled by the Pew Research Center had switched from opposing to supporting marriage equality. A CBS News poll showed that a 53-percent majority now supported same-sex marriage. Alex Lundry, a data scientist who had worked on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, called it “the most significant, fastest shift in public opinion that we’ve seen in modern American politics.” At the same time, celebrities ranging from hip-hop artist Jay-Z to Baltimore Raven Brendon Ayanbadejo joined the fray as allies. Continue reading

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

  • Planned Parenthood’s fearless leader, Cecile Richards, put the verbal smackdown on Todd Akin and the rest of the anti-choice clowns of the GOP at the Democratic National Convention last night. (HuffPo)
  • And then Sandra Fluke chimed in with her own takedown of Mitt Romney! (ABC News)
  • Remember how Arizona (specifically Jan Brewer) passed legislation stipulating that only licensed physicians can provide abortion care? Well, new research concludes nurses and midwives can perform abortions just as safely as doctors. The study echoes research last year that found care delivered by advanced practice nurses is just as safe and effective, if not more so, than care provided by physicians. (Fierce Healthcare)
  • Karen Handel, former exec at the Susan G. Komen foundation, has written a book called “Planned Bullyhood” (haha @ that asinine title) in which she whines incessantly about the fallout from Komen’s ill-fated decision to pull its annual grant for breast cancer screenings from Planned Parenthood. Handel has the nerve to compare us to a “schoolyard thug.” Is that LOL-worthy or what?! She blatantly disregards the fact that it was Komen who decided to prioritize politics over women’s health. She fails to acknowledge it was Komen who was soooo eager to jump on the “Attack Planned Parenthood” bandwagon that they were just fine with ceasing funding for potentially life-saving breast exams to women simply for being patients at Planned Parenthood. Oh, and it was Komen who’d known for-freaking-ever that 3 percent of our services go toward abortion care, but only decided to pull the grant because of a highly charged political climate — without regard for the health of the women we both have a responsibility to serve. But we’re the bullies for fighting on behalf of the women who depend on us for their preventive care??? #YeahRight #NotGonnaFlyLady #TryAgain (The Daily Beast)
  • Fox News is making stuff up (shocking, I know) about the Affordable Care Act and pretending like there isn’t a GOP war on women. In other words, it’s business as usual at Fox News. (Newshound)
  • The prognosis for women in four southern states with high rates of maternal mortality — Texas, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Mississippi — could be getting even worse thanks to their Republican-led governments trying to decline federal aid to expand Medicaid. (Forbes)
  • The male birth control pill we’ve been waiting 50 years for might finally be on the horizon in the not-so-distant future. (Science 2.0)
  • A new animal study has found that an anti-HIV vaginal ring can prevent virus transmission. Yay science! (Science Daily)
  • Texas continues its fight against Planned Parenthood, and as per usual, it’s women who’ll have to deal with the negative consequences. (CBS News)

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

  • In case you hadn’t heard, Arizona’s new abortion law is horrendous. (RH Reality Check)
  • Arizona has also passed a craptacular contraception bill that would allow employers with “religious objections to birth control” to opt out of the state’s requirement that health plans cover contraception. (ABC15)
  • Since we’re on such a roll discussing how much things suck in Arizona — it should also be noted that we have some surly, rude, wildly unprofessional lawmakers in this state. (NARAL)
  • Surprisingly, Arizona did not make Jezebel’s list of the 10 scariest places to have ladyparts in the United States. (Jezebel)
  • FYI: Childbirth = WAY more dangerous than abortion by pill. (Minn Post)
  • How the War on Women Became Mainstream (TruthOut)
  • Provocative new research might help explain why black women are so much more likely than whites to develop and die from cervical cancer: They seem to have more trouble clearing HPV, the virus that causes the disease. (MSNBC)
  • A teen wellness clinic inside a Virginia high school distributes birth control and emergency contraception — and something crazy happened — pregnancy rates have dropped! (USA Today)
  • Why Are 17-Year-Olds Being Denied the Morning After Pill? (Fox Charlotte)
  • A handy guide to Mitt Romney’s flip-flop on abortion. (Slate)
  • A pill that could prevent the transmission of HIV? Let the testing begin! (Boston Herald)

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

  • Women with children have more abortions than anyone else, and by an increasingly wide margin. So why is the topic taboo? (Slate Double X)
  • If you couldn’t tell from recent events, in America, women’s lives are expendable. (The Hill)
  • GOP presidential candidate, Rick Santorum, is a staunch opponent of birth control and asserts that contraception is a “license to do things.” “Things” that have absolutely nothing to do with him and are none of his damn business, but that’s of no consequence to him you see. In any case, this idiotic statement confirms that Ricky doesn’t want you women having a license to “do things” in the privacy of your own bedrooms that won’t lead to serious consequences like pregnancy! Why should you have that kind of freedom? Where do you think you are, America??? (RH Reality Check)
  • In other, “Rick Santorum likes to speak out of his rectum” news, the birth control adversary recently argued that Republicans should work to lessen single motherhood in order to score political points against their Democratic rivals. You see, single mothers who run households, in Ricky’s opinion, have “a desire for government,” and thus, often vote Democrat. So let’s see if we have this straight: This dunce wants to lessen single motherhood and eliminate birth control because it gives women a “license to do things”? Mmmkay then. How exactly would you lessen single motherhood if you took away birth control? Don’t these goals wildly contradict one another? This guy is in no danger of being recruited by MENSA anytime soon, is he? (Feministing)
  • Planned Parenthood’s stellar leader Cecile Richards opines on how parents are falling short with the “sex talk.” (Time)
  • Can Herman Cain Be Pro-Life but Pro-Choice? Sorry Mr. Pizza Godfather, but no. (Slate Double X)
  • What is Mitt Romney’s real stance on women’s health? Due to his incessant flip-flopping, your guess is as good as ours. (Planned Parenthood)
  • Ten questions for anti-choice candidates who want to make abortion illegal. The first being, how much hard time should a woman do for terminating a pregnancy? I’d like to see if we could get an answer to that humdinger at the next GOP debate. (Ms. Magazine)
  • Medical science FTW: A vaginal gel developed to reduce a woman’s risk of infection with the AIDS virus also cuts the risk of contracting genital herpes! (NYT)