US: Same-sex weddings to begin in Alaska, Sarah Palin’s home state
A judge has struck down a same-sex marriage ban in Alaska, the home state of Republican Sarah Palin.
Palin, the former Governor of Alaska who ran for Vice President in 2008, spoke last month at the conference of a listed hate group that compares same-sex marriage to the holocaust.
Last night, district court judge Timothy Burgess ruled that Alaska’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, striking it down.
The state has this morning begun accepting applications for marriage licenses from gay couples – though weddings will not start until Wednesday, due to a three-day legal notice period.
The judge wrote: “Refusing the rights and responsibilities afforded by legal marriage sends the public a government-sponsored message that same-sex couples and their familial relationships do not warrant the status, benefits and dignity given to couples of the opposite sex.
“This Court finds that Alaska’s same-sex marriage laws violate the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment because no state interest provides ‘excessively persuasive justification’ for the significant infringement of rights that they inflicted upon homosexual individual.”
The Republican politician has not responded to the ruling.
Palin, renowned for her constant gaffes, recently got the address of the White House wrong in a speech to the anti-gay American Family Association – listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre.
She last year admitted to defending a homophobic rant made by anti-gay Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson without actually reading his comments, while she was attacked by singer Sia in March for sampling her song Titanium without permission in an anti-gay speech.
