After California’s welcome verdict in favour of same-sex marriage in that state, what happens now?

The US Christian Right isn’t sure what to do. If it merely uses the citizens initiated referendum “bigot’s charter” again, and churns out yet another anti-SSM citizens referendum result, then it risks having that invalidated within the Californian Supreme Court, as happened with its predecessors. On the other hand, they could appeal to the US Supreme Court, which could either refuse to hear it, or strike it down, invalidating the lower court’s decision. However, there’s a fish hook in that particular strategy- what if there’s a delay, and Obama wins the presidency, and then sets to work removing the Bush legacy within the US Supreme Court? In the long term, that might well mean that when such an appeal reaches the highest court in the land, it may be far removed from the current Bush-stacked version of the institution.

Or, they could try to introduce a Californian constitutional marriage amendment banning same-sex marriage, but I suspect Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wouldn’t countenance that, given his own Republican presidential aspirations.

Speaking of Republicans, former Republican Georgia House of Representatives Representative Bob Barr (t 1996-2003) has just accepted the Libertarian Party’s record for nomination. As is sometimes the case with libertarians though, the Libertarian Party is a pretty broad church, encompassing anti-abortionists and other conservative Christian advocates of fiscal stringency and authoritarian statism within its ranks. As for Representative Barr’s Congressional record, it’s not pretty.  While Republican, he was a wholesale supporter of the illiberal/anti-libertarian War on Drugs, and even supported the prohibition of medicinal cannabis when the District of Columbia tried to decriminalise it there in 1998. He was one of the authors of the Defence of Marriage Act, which sought to outlaw federal recognition of same-sex marriage, but opposes the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would enshrine it within the US Constitution. And as for religious freedom, he advocated discrimination against Wiccans within the US military. (Personally, I don’t think Wiccans should serve in the military either- but then I also think Christians, secular humanists and others shouldn’t.)

This is a “libertarian”? Even if he has reportedly reversed his position on medical cannabis derivatives, this is not a particularly libertarian record, as the Independent Gay Forum’s “Culture Watch” blog correctly observes. Ick. Still, it may end up splitting the centre-right vote as a spoiler, leading to Barack Obama’s victory in November 2008.

Recommended:

http://www.indegayforum.org

Independent Gay Forum (centre-right libertarian/neocon lesbian/gay website)