2 Supreme Court Decisions on Gay Marriage Expected This Week

@DorkySupergirl Said

My thoughts are that I do not understand why this is taking so long to have equal marriage rights for all. I do not grasp the fuss of the issue and I do not understand the fighting over the issue.

The problem for me is that I am not familiar with how things become laws in your country but I would think at the federal level, whoever is in charge simply is presented a bill for nation wide same sex marriage and they vote on it and if its passed, boom, nation wide same sex marriage in all states.

In Canada, it was former PM Paul Martin, who had by the way a minority government, who presented the bill for same sex marriage to the House of Commons. The House voted on it and approved it. Then the senate passed it and the day after the senate passed it, it received Royal Assent the next day. Then voila, nation wide same sex marriage for all. Before this passing of it at a federal level, some provinces already had same sex marriage but this ensured it would be recognized and allowed nation wide for all provinces.

I know our laws are passed differently here compared to America but Obama, your senators, congress or whatever the term is for who passes bills can't just make a bill, vote on it and pass it for nation wide same sex marriage?

@Leon Said

It would be nice if it were that easy, but Congress is controlled in part by the Republican Party (and the platform of the Republican Party is against same sex marriage due to the support of the Republican Party by the Christian contingent in America, most of whom are against homosexuality). As a result nothing can get passed in Congress without the consent of the Republican Party.

In my opinion, this is just one of many examples of how out of touch the party is with the thinking of the rest of the world.

@DorkySupergirl Said

Thank you for explaining.

In Canada, we do not have Democratic and Republican parties but we have Liberal party and Conservative Party. They have similar platforms to your Democratic and Republican parties so to me, would be equal to say a Canadian Liberal is equal to American Democrat and Canadian Conservative is equal to American Republican.

The reason I explain this to you is that when the bill was introduced in Canada, our PM(equal to your president) had a minority government so the bill was passed with the House having a Liberal leader but majority Conservative government. The same exact thing as what you mention to me. Right now your leader is Democrat with minority in house with majority being Republican so that is why I do not get why it can't be passed. We had the same exact situation in Canada but ours still passed.

@Leon Said

Well obviously not all the members of the Conservative majority in Canada at the time were against gay marriages or it wouldn't have passed.

@DorkySupergirl Said

Well, that is obvious, Leon. Most Conservatives in the house in Canada were against it but they had enough Conservatives to vote against their own party that it made enough votes to have it passed.

I thought and perhaps I am wrong, that some of the Republicans in your house would vote yes and then combine with all Liberals voting yes, it would have enough votes to pass. I see some Republican leaders on tv supporting gay marriage so I thought you guys had a few in favor for it so that if the votes were tallied, enough to push through.

@Leon Said

A repeal of DOMA would require enough Republicans in the House of Representatives to side with all the Democrats that are in favor of a repeal. It's been tried, but there simply haven't been enough.

It's also been tried in the Senate, which does have a Democratic majority. But the problem in the Senate is that anybody from the minority can keep it from ever getting to a vote through a process called a filibuster. To end this filibuster, a vote of 60 to 40 is needed. It is one of the most retarded rules of procedure in our Congress, in my opinion, and a major reason why nothing seems to pass in there anymore.

Both the House and Senate would need to repeal DOMA, which is so unlikely at this point, the originators of the repeal have said they won't even try anymore. All eyes are on the Supreme Court to determine its constitutionality, as it is the last hope for those who are against it.

@DorkySupergirl Said

Ah, thank you, yes, that makes more sense to me.

It seems we have some similar process and some very different ones. I could be wrong but I am sure here the PM introduces the bills he wants passed, the house votes and if approved, it goes to senate and if senate approves, that is it. There is no filibuster here I am aware of. When senate approves, it goes right to getting Royal Assent.

I looked it up and though our Liberals had a minority government, our same sex marriage bill was voted 175 to 123 for it to be passed though the Conservatives aka Republicans had the majority government at that time.

It took three years, three PM's and three Parliments for us to pass same sex bill but once voted yes, it appears our process in Canada is faster and no one can really do anything once its approved to be passed.

@Leon Said

Meanwhile, a repeal of Obamacare passed a 37th time by vote recently in the House of Representatives...

I am truly ashamed at the level of dysfunction in our congress.