Fort Wayne, Indiana (Indiana's News Center)---The recent California Supreme court ruling allowing same-sex couples to marry has people talking throughout the country including here in fort wayne.
A proposed constitutional amendment prohibiting same sex marriage in the state of Indiana did not pass, but can be revisited soon.
To get a local perspective on California’s ruling, we spoke with Bishop John D’Arcy of the South Bend/Fort Wayne Catholic Diocese and asked him if he thought that this ruling could become a trend for other states.
D’arcy: “If it is a trend, it shows the arrogance of judges in overturning something that’s gone on for thousands of years, and applying to their constitution something that wasn’t even thought of when that constitution was written.
I’m sure in California they’ll try and legislate, or maybe pass a constitutional amendment.
We’ve been trying to have a constitutional amendment in this state that would define marriage as between a man and a woman.
We’ve been told by some legislators who are in favor of the present statute that marriage is between a man and a woman, we’ve been told by them, “we don’t need it”, and maybe now we need it.”
Of course there are two sides to every issue.
We also spoke with a heterosexual married couple that has been together for over 40 years.
They are members of an organization that helps create awareness for lesbians and gays, and their opinion is quite different.
Rachel and Roger McNett: “We do not see gay marriage as a threat what so ever.
Discrimination against any single group is discrimination against all of us.”
The process of amending the Indiana state constitution with a gay marriage ban has been visited a couple of times but the actuality of it happening could be as late as 2012.
Although California has legalized same sex marriage, the Federal Government does not recognize it.
Married couples of the same sex cannot file joint Federal Income tax returns or receive federal spousal benefits.
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