All eyes should be on Utah this week, as the state heads to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to defend its anti-gay marriage ban.
The law was already overturned once, back in December. That led to a brief window in which Utah's gay and lesbian couples could marry. This Thursday, April 10, the court will hear the state's appeal of that ruling.
Proponents of the ban are likely to trot out the same discredited arguments that have failed in other cases; those claims range from "preserving tradition" to "protecting children," and lately courts haven't found them very persuasive.
But those are the only arguments that our opponents seems to have, so we keep seeing them in case after case. Last week saw a particularly egregious example of this in Virginia. A lawyer for anti-gay clerks filed a brief claiming that marriage equality would lead to relatives marrying. Just as in Utah this week, that Virginia claim will soon be put to the test. Oral argument in that case is slated for May 17.
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