Mass. High Court Rules for Gay Marriage

Associated Press Writer ^ | Wed, Feb 04, 2004 | JENNIFER PETER

[presidio9]

BOSTON - The Massachusetts high court ruled Tuesday that only full, equal marriage rights for gay couples — rather than civil unions — would meet the edict of its November decision, erasing any doubts that the nation's first same-sex marriages would take place in the state beginning in mid-May.

AP Photo Slideshow: Same-Sex Marriage Issues

The court issued the opinion in response to a request from the state Senate about whether Vermont-style civil unions, which conveyed the benefits — but not the title of marriage — would meet constitutional muster.

The much-anticipated opinion sets the stage for next Wednesday's Constitutional Convention, where the Legislature will consider an amendment that would legally define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. Without the opinion, Senate President Robert Travaglini had said the vote would be delayed.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in November that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, and gave the Legislature six months to change state laws to make it happen.

But almost immediately, the vague wording of the ruling left lawmakers — and advocates on both side of the issue — uncertain if Vermont-style civil unions would satisfy the court's decision.

The state Senate asked for more guidance from the court and sought the advisory opinion, which was made public Wednesday morning when it was read into the Senate record.

[FUMETTI]

ModernPunk: "And you base this on what?"

Hey you base my opinions on one statement. Or did you forget that, genius? Maybe a few less hits on your bong and you may make a coherent statement.

ModernDegenerate: "Since we've never actually discussed anything to do with Columbine, you are pulling this statement out of a certain orifice. Try to stay on topic."

Listen punk, don't tell me what to do, and what not to do. Just because you are still rebelling against your parents (which I assume you still live with). You lack of efficacy in the world is manifesting here now. Maybe you just need a time out. LOL!!

ModerJunkie: "Then we should put it to gays (like the "lesbian" you supposedly hit on that spurned you). If she later went to a friend and screamed, then she must be straight."

No, that must have been your sister because she later came home with me after last call. LOL

Now, seriously....

I wonder aloud why modems don't come with mandatory IQ testing. Really, "dude," I should sue modem manufacturers for the damage inflicted on my IQ by having to read maniacally manufactured posts like yours.

Basically, you are overly-sensitive to the vagaries of the libidos and dalliances of others. In words you can understand without tilting your frankensteinian head, squinting like Peter Loree at your screen, and mouthing the words: you need to toughen up.

ModernLoser, you are as devoid of logic as a comatose crackhead with mad cow syndrome. Anyway, if the issue is a mild slight to my physical attractiveness, I can retort like-for-like with: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: which is why your parents had their eyelids sewn shut" LOL!!!

Or: Anyway, I better let you get back to trying to crack that triple-combination padlock on your mother's panty drawers. By the way, she really doesn't believe you when you tell her you accidentally spilled ice cream on her panties."


ModernLoser: "Now you're just babbling"

Now you are just making a fool of yourself. I am ready for another round of fish shooting. ROTFL

[FUMETTI]

ModernPunk: "That's a strawman. Just because you have a certain right, doesn't mean that anyone or anything has to facilitate your enjoyment of that right."

Ah, but a right is a right. Strawman is a convenient tactic when you cannot retort effectively. Maybe you should ask your bartcop.com buddies for another kind of filibuster.

"You have the right to free speech, but that doesn't mean anyone has to listen to you."

But a right is defined as "something that is due to a person or governmental body by law, tradition, or nature."

"Due" is defined as "Payable immediately or on demand."

Now do you see why YOU are the one with the flawed arguments?

"Rights have nothing to do with the interactions between private individuals. When we talk about a constitutional right, we're talking about something the government cannot take away from you. In this situation, just because you can't find someone to marry you doesn't mean the government has violated your rights."

Oh, that is hilarious, pony boy! You make it "can't find someone to marry you." No, little boy, I merely as of yetr met anyone who I think will be right for me. I could go for it and possibly be in a situation which is not beneficial. But I love how you construed my statement in order to insult me (however lame and hollow as it turns out).

You are just an angry, bitter little liberal man with snide comments which only buffet your fragile little immature ego.

No rights of gay people have been violated ever in matters of marriage. The law is uniform for all Americans who are not restricted judicially by incarceration: any man can marry any woman, and any woman can marry any man of a mandatory minimum age. Not "*some* men can marry *some* kind of women"...that is what Love vs. Virginia corrected.

Society as a whole can and has a right to measure how important civil and legal events are conducted and recorded. The majority of people do not want this at all; a backlash will be imminent and I will be proven right.

[visualops]

legal part is not lifetime commitment ::slaps self::

[xzins]

Actually, I've come to that same conclusion. We must have an amendment for the direct election of judges. This garbage about impartiality is a facade and always has been.

[Modernman]

It is more like you are SOL...for your backtracking and arrogance getting your widdle panties in a bind.

What are you talking about? You're babbling again. Some examples of my so-called backtracking would be nice.

Duh, maybe if you went to college instead of failing eighth grade nine times you would understand it.

Heh. My friend, I guarantee I went to better schools than you did. But that's neither here nor there. Feel free to Freepmail me your academic qualifications, if you desire, and I'll Freepmail mine back to you.

[Modernman]

Just because you hang up with body pierced degenerates and drug taking losers, it does not make YOU worldly.

Heh. Again, you make assumptions based on your petty predjudices. Anyone who disagrees with you must hang out with "body pierced degenerates and drug taking losers."

you are merely the representative of unsophisticated, immature youth

Youth? LOL. I wish that was true. You're very good at throwing insults out without actually staying on topic.

You are among those unwashed vermin

Ahh.... we see your brilliant rhetorical style here. Insults, followed by more insults. You have done a very good job of taking a fairly civil discussion and turning it into a flame-fest.

[Modernman]

That is a poor analysis because you have already contradicted yourself and have backtracked, only using derogatory terms like "hater" "bigot" et al. which is not debate terms

Babbling, as usual. Are you having a stroke?

Oh, now you are trying to use power because you have no power to persuade or converse.

What power would that be? I'm just a regular poster here. I have no special "power." I haven't even hit the abuse button on any of your posts, preferring to leave them up for the whole world to chuckle at.

YOU are merely an agent provacateur

Again, anyone who disagrees with you is an agent provacateur? How juvenile.

who really loathes himself from the looks of your posts.

Yawn. As usual, insults used to mask intellectual weakness.

I am sure you run to bartcop.com or michaelmooore.com and brag "I am really pissing off Freepers" for some cyber backslaps from the other degenerates you associate with online

I've never even heard of those websites until you mentioned them.

[FUMETTI]

ModernFool: "What are you talking about? You're babbling again. Some examples of my so-called backtracking would be nice."

You call any good retort "babbling." You are among the stupidest posters I have ever met here.

ModernJunkie: "Heh. My friend, I guarantee I went to better schools than you did."

Hmmmm...I went to the top rated SUNY school in my state. It gave me all kinds of opportunities. My MA was in a college which is now among the top tiered in poly sci.

And I am not your friend.

[Modernman]

Listen punk, don't tell me what to do, and what not to do.

Who is the one acting juvenile now? "You're not the boss of me!" LOL. Somebody needs a nap.

ModerJunkie: "Then we should put it to gays (like the "lesbian" you supposedly hit on that spurned you). If she later went to a friend and screamed, then she must be straight."

No, that must have been your sister because she later came home with me after last call. LOL

Ummm... You quoted yourself there, for some reason. That was not my writing. This is just getting weird. And the second line, well, I think it says volumes about you that you would say something like that. Quite classy, really.

Basically, you are overly-sensitive to the vagaries of the libidos and dalliances of others.

You're the one who seems to be freaked out about homosexuals. I really don't care about other people's libidos.

Or: Anyway, I better let you get back to trying to crack that triple-combination padlock on your mother's panty drawers. By the way, she really doesn't believe you when you tell her you accidentally spilled ice cream on her panties."

Really, do you really think that Beavis and Butt-head level humor is all that impressive. Know any good fart jokes? They seem like the type of thing that might be on your intellectual level.

[FUMETTI]

ModernFreak: "But that's neither here nor there. Feel free to Freepmail me your academic qualifications, if you desire, and I'll Freepmail mine back to you."

What a great idea! *sarcasm mode off*

Great ModernLoser, I will do that just so you can lie to me and make a game of this. Ergo, if I said my GPA was 3.7, you will say yours was 3.9; and so on.

Nice try, little man. You are a really pathetic creep as well as a narcissist.

[Modernman]

But a right is defined as "something that is due to a person or governmental body by law, tradition, or nature."

"Due" is defined as "Payable immediately or on demand."

Now do you see why YOU are the one with the flawed arguments?

And, again, you are free to exercise your rights as you see fit. However, nobody is required to help you exercise your rights. Why are you having such a hard time with this concept?

You sound like those liberals who say that, since abortion is a "right," the government should have to pay for abortions.

[FUMETTI]

ModernJerk: "Heh."

What an effeminate laugh. Do you also cover your delicate mouth with a silk hanky when guffawing that way?

ModernMoron: "Again, you make assumptions based on your petty predjudices. Anyone who disagrees with you must hang out with "body pierced degenerates and drug taking losers."

No, that is a generalization. I said YOU hang out with body pierced degenerates et al. You see, you have to read a message and understand it before answering it, or you look foolish. "Heh!"

[Modernman]

You seem like a very angry man. I'm guessing life has been hard on you. I feel kind of sorry for you.

[FUMETTI]

ModernMeatHead: "Youth? LOL. I wish that was true. You're very good at throwing insults out without actually staying on topic."

Finally a LOL instead of a "heh." I am glad you are trying out new ways to simulate a laugh online.

ModernZilch: "Ahh.... we see your brilliant rhetorical style here. Insults, followed by more insults. You have done a very good job of taking a fairly civil discussion and turning it into a flame-fest."

No, you have went after me and I shoved your arrogant, self centered and nasty rhetoric back in your face, and made you eat it tail and all. Ahh....indeed, kid. You are nothing but a troll who wanted to get people riled up, but instead failed miserably, and now must leave with your tail between your leg "heh heh." But this may serve as a lesson to you in the future.

You need to grow up.

[FUMETTI]

ModernMeatHead: "Youth? LOL. I wish that was true. You're very good at throwing insults out without actually staying on topic."

Finally a LOL instead of a "heh." I am glad you are trying out new ways to simulate a laugh online.

ModernZilch: "Ahh.... we see your brilliant rhetorical style here. Insults, followed by more insults. You have done a very good job of taking a fairly civil discussion and turning it into a flame-fest."

No, you have went after me and I shoved your arrogant, self centered and nasty rhetoric back in your face, and made you eat it tail and all. Ahh....indeed, kid. You are nothing but a troll who wanted to get people riled up, but instead failed miserably, and now must leave with your tail between your leg "heh heh." But this may serve as a lesson to you in the future.

You need to grow up.

[Modernman]

Hmmmm...I went to the top rated SUNY school in my state. It gave me all kinds of opportunities. My MA was in a college which is now among the top tiered in poly sci.

Would that be SUNY Albany? Certainly not a bad school. I went to Michigan undergrad, spent part of my time at Cambridge (the one in England). Cornell for law school, with part of the time spent at the Sorbonne.

You are the one who brought up college, BTW.

[FUMETTI]

ModernApe: "Babbling, as usual. Are you having a stroke?"

No, I run 2 miles a day. I probably outrun you if you did not already have such a terrible self-image.

I am "babbling" to you? No, I am talking sense and correctly analyzing you. You are the one babbling, and trying to retort every remark I make. That is so damned sad that your "support" is merely from those capable of arousing sympathetic sadness and compassion for your idiotic posts.

[Modernman]

What an effeminate laugh. Do you also cover your delicate mouth with a silk hanky when guffawing that way?

You really do fixate on the strangest things.

I said YOU hang out with body pierced degenerates et al

I'm not sure I know anyone with body piercings, other than some women who have pierced belly-buttons. Again, a strange thing to be fixated on. What's the relevance of the body-piercing status of the people I hang out with?

[Modernman]

You are nothing but a troll who wanted to get people riled up,

A troll? What makes you say that? I'm far from the only FReeper who thinks that gay marriage may not be the end of the world as we know it. For what it's worth, I'm not in favor of gay marriage, but I am not all that worried about it.

[FUMETTI]

You are damned right I bought up colleges, diddlyman.

I went to SUNY Geneseo; class of 1990. Great grades, and had a great time.

Cambridge? I doubt it; you do not have the acumen and wit which is a trademark of such an education.

English schools never impressed me. If an idiot like Wesley Clark can get into Oxford (he does not even know the difference between a republic and a democracy), it does not wear well on the old school.

I never tried out for overseas schools or study abroad programs because I had to work two jobs and I also had responsibilities at home as my family was only a couple of miles away. I am sure you will try to say something clever to underscore my situation. I earned my way through college, worked all through and paid every penny back of my loans.