Supremes Sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow

U.S. Rainbow Court RulingsWe have arrived at an incredible moment with the Supreme Court deciding against the DOMA, Defense of Marriage Act, and instead for marriage equality in California only by a ruling which allows an earlier District Court decision to overturn law to stand, which banned gay and lesbian marriage by law in a state-wide ballot election majority vote, and to grant full marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples for legal status with all the attendant rights. It also remains as a state by state Constitutional challenge for passage throughout the country.

The states Constitutional rights remain intact to decide whether gay marriages can be legally conducted within their borders. Thirty-six U.S. states that have banned same-sex marriage, either through legislation or constitutional provisions. Twelve states allow same-sex marriage and four states that allow civil unions between same-sex couples, but not marriage.  It is by no means over and defines the challenge ahead to sway an entire country's sentiments to support such a devisive movement.

There are fourteen countries worldwide where same-sex marriage is legal in the entire country. They are: Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and Uruguay.  Even with legal rights in many countries, what about the undercurrent of disgust that continues from other parts of the world?

We don't hear any ranting, raging, raving and railing about gay rights atrocities in countries like Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Burma, Bolivia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.  Why?  It's when you live in countries where the government has complete control over every aspect of your life you have no power to change it, that is a totalitarian government. It can be run by a dictator, an emperor, a king, or President. To be totalitarian, a country does not need their leader be charismatic or the government be willingly accepted by its citizens. Individual rights are recognized as non-existent, gay rights are not even considered existent, especially under Islamic Sharia Law.

Globally, homosexuality is widely shunned and banned as a scourge that corrupts people with deviate abnormal behavior that also leads to the dreaded sexually transmitted AIDS virus and hepatitis C diseases. It is not considered an alternative lifestyle, accepted sex category or even a human rights issue.

Traditional American Values Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, growing faster than the world population. One out of every four humans, Muslims have increased by over 235 percent in the last fifty years up to nearly 1.6 billion people as of 2010.  Islam does not negotiate or change its scripture and essential religious mores. The Islamic Sharia Law is Allah’s Devine word, not to be challenged by Muslims or infidels, non-believers. This Islamic doomsday scenario destines the Gay Rights movement to total annihilation by stoning to death.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a measure that stigmatizes gay people and bans giving children any information about homosexuality. The lower house of Russia's parliament unanimously passed the Kremlin-backed bill on June 11, 2013 and the upper house approved it last week. The Kremlin announced Sunday that Putin had signed the legislation into law.

Just who is Putin winking at?The ban on "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" is part of an effort to promote traditional Russian values over Western liberalism, which the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church see as corrupting Russian youth and contributing to the protests against Putin's rule.  Hefty fines can now be imposed on those who provide information about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to minors or hold gay pride rallies.  

Rainbow Diversity: Gay - Lesbian - Transgender

It's a Rainbow Sky with

Storm Clouds & Lightning

Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high

Birds fly over the rainbow

Why then, oh why can't I?

  ~ Maybe it's because you can't fly!

Reference: Official Washington, DC Site:

Updated June 26, 2013

U.S. Supreme Court Declines Jurisdiction on Appeal of California Law Prohibiting Same-Sex Marriage

Ruling Allows Earlier District Court Decision to Overturn Law to Stand

In its decision in Perry v. Hollingsworth, the U.S. Supreme Court declined jurisdiction on the appeal to the court decision that overturned California’s Proposition 8, which limited marriages to relationships between a man and a woman and prohibited same-sex marriages. It did so on narrow legal grounds. This reasoning applies only to California so it leaves in place the existing pattern of laws in the other 49 states and D.C. 

• Thirty-five states prohibit same-sex marriage in their constitutions and/or state laws. 
• Thirteen states (including California) and D.C. now allow same-sex marriages.  (Recently passed laws in Delaware, Minnesota and Rhode Island take effect this summer.) 
• Four states allow same-sex couples to enter civil unions (including three states that prohibit same-sex marriage).