Equality in New Mexico! Merry Christmas!

From the Albuquerque Journal:

The New Mexico Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of same-sex couples, granting them all the same rights of marriage enjoyed by heterosexual couples. 

The court’s 31-page ruling states, in part, that: “All rights, protections, and responsibilities that result from the marital relationship shall apply equally to both same-gender and opposite-gender married couples.”

From the opinion:

Although this question arouse sincerely-felt religious beliefs both in favor and against same-gender marriages, our analysis does not and cannot depend on religious doctrine without violating the Constitution....

Procreation is not the overriding purpose of the New Mexico marriage laws. The purpose of the New Mexico marriage laws is to bring stability and order to the legal relationships of committed couples by defining their rights and responsibilities as to one another, their property, and their children, if they choose to have children....

We fail to see how depriving committed same-gender couples, who want to marry and raise families, of federal and state marital benefits and protections will result in responsible child-rearing by heterosexual married couples. ...

Excluding same-gender couples from civil marriage prevents children of same-gender couples from enjoying the security that flows from the rights, protections, and responsibilities that accompany civil marriage. There is no substantial relationship between New Mexico's marriage laws and the purported governmental interest of responsible child-rearing. There is nothing rational about a law that penalizes children by depriving them of state and federal benefits because the government disapproves of their parents' sexual orientation.

What's happening in New Mexico?

Back in the heyday of Bush-Rove, who cynically ran for office on a wave of anti-gay sentiment, there was a flurry of anti-equal-marriage amendments to state Constitutions. These now must be laboriously undone. New Mexico somehow managed to escape either amendment or initiative, and its laws and constitution say nothing either way on same sex couples.

Now,three counties in NM will provide licenses to same sex couples. From the StarTribune:

An Albuquerque judge on Monday ordered the clerk of New Mexico's most populous county to join two other counties in the state in issuing marriage licenses for gay and lesbian couples.

State District Judge Alan Malott ruled that New Mexico's constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.... [A] judge in a separate case ordered the Santa Fe County clerk to issue same-sex licenses. The clerk of Dona Ana County in southern New Mexico decided on his own early last week to recognize same-sex marriage.

Predictably, Republican legislators are trying to stop it, but it's not clear how, since there is no law against it. They could try a Prop8-style effort. Remember, in CA, the state supreme court found that marriage was legal, and 18,000 couples married in the 6 months between that decision and the passage of the H8 amendment (which has now fallen). We'll see. Meanwhile, one more quote from the paper.

Christine Butler of Albuquerque, who opposes gay marriage and attended the hearing, said the judge's ruling violates her rights.

"I don't want to bring my children or go to places and see same-sex couples showing a lot of affection. ... That's against God's law," said Butler.

Bless her heart. Honey, we don't have to be married to go places and show affection. Your children are just going to have to learn that there's a whole rainbow of people out there, whether you approve of us or not. And those of us with faith are quite sure that God is smiling upon us.