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In a press release from the American Foundation for Equal Rights:
The American Bar Association, the nation’s leading legal organization, today passes the following resolution:From the ABA Journal:
“RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges state, territorial, and tribal governments to eliminate all of their legal barriers to civil marriage between two persons of the same sex who are otherwise eligible to marry.”
Gays and lesbians should have the right to marry in civil ceremonies, the ABA’s policy-making House of Delegates declared on Tuesday. The measure passed on a voice vote.Chad Griffin, Board President of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, explains:
A lineup of ABA leaders, both past and present, spoke in favor of the resolution. Incoming ABA President Stephen Zack asked “Why would anyone in this country not want two people who love each other to enjoy the blessings of marriage and the protections of law?”
Former ABA President Tommy Wells told the House that “our citizens of the same sex who are being denied the right to a civil marriage are only seeking to participate in an equal basis in a foundational institution of our civil life. They simply want to share in the legal blessings that we give to married couples. It can only strengthen marriage.”
“With this action, the American Bar Association has affirmed the principles upon which this nation was founded—that every American is vested with certain inalienable rights and that all Americans are created equal,”
“The ABA’s action is significant in that it represents a broad consensus among scholars and practitioners of the law.”
Things are looking good, folks! This is what progress looks like. Setbacks will get us down, but there are hills and valleys on every path. The more allies we gain, the stronger we are and the more friends we have to keep us going when we get discouraged. This is why it is so important to speak up and to speak out. We continue to build an increasingly impressive groundwork for more and more states to gain marriage equality, and for the federal government to grant those couples full equality in marriage and in all other civil rights areas.
The ABA’s announcement is only a step, but it is an important one. A step is small, but together, the steps we have made, and the steps we fight to make, are the ones that will bring us ever closer to full, federal equality.
~ Samantha
Community Editor
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