Handily showing up Missouri’s ban on gay marriage, King County Superior Court Judge William Downing ruled this morning that banning gay marriage would violate the state constitution, clearing the way for gay marriage in Washington once the ruling is reviewed by the state Supreme Court.
Gay couples can marry in Washington state, a judge ruled Wednesday, saying that banning such marriages violates the state constitution.
“The denial to the plaintiffs of the right to marry constitutes a denial of substantive due process,” King County Superior Court Judge William L. Downing said in his ruling.
[…]
Downing rejected arguments that a ban on same-sex marriage would protect children from harm that may be caused by being raised in a nontraditional family.
“Although many may hold strong opinions on the subject, the fact is that there are no scientifically valid studies tending to establish a negative impact on the adjustment of children raised by an intact same-sex couple as compared with those raised by an intact opposite-sex couple,” he wrote.
The judge concluded: “The exclusion of same-sex partners from civil marriage … is not rationally related to any legitimate or compelling state interest and is certainly not narrowly tailored toward such an interest.”
The ruling still needs to be reviewed by the state Supreme Court, but as they’ve ruled in favor of gay couples in two prior cases, the outlook is quite optimistic.
Hooray for Judge Downing, hooray for Washington — and hooray for all the prospective newlyweds-to-be!
(via DeAnna and the Seattle LiveJournal Community)
iTunes: “Tiptoe Through the Inferno” by MC 900 Ft Jesus from the album One Step Ahead of the Spider (1994, 4:50).