WASHINGTON – Former Arizona Rep. Jim Kolbe joined representatives of business, church and civil-rights groups Thursday to file briefs supporting same-sex marriage in two upcoming Supreme Court cases on the issue.
Kolbe, who married his partner in Washington, D.C., said civil unions are no longer sufficient and that now is the time for marriage equality for gay couples across the country.
“There was a time when gay marriage seemed like just a vision so far in the future that it didn’t even seem possible,” Kolbe said. “Times have changed, and I think now we recognize that civil unions doesn’t do it. We need to have more. We need to have the full equality.”
He was one of nine speakers at a news conference intended to show the breadth of same-sex marriage supporters. Each of the speakers had signed on to various friend-of-the-court briefs.
Thursday was the deadline to file briefs in the high court’s consideration next month of California’s Proposition 8, which defines marriage as being between a man and a woman.
Friday is the deadline for briefs in the court’s consideration of the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that also says marriage is between a man and a woman.
The court will hear the Hollingsworth v. Perry, the Proposition 8 case, on March 26; U.S. v. Windsor, the DOMA case, will be heard on March 27.
The two cases have already attracted dozens of briefs, both from supporters and from opponents as varied as a group of Republican senators and the Westboro Baptist Church.
Kolbe is one of more than 100 Republicans who signed one of the briefs supporting gay marriage, according to the Respect for Marriage Coalition, which hosted the news conference. The Republicans include former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, Hewlett-Packard President and CEO Meg Whitman and Beth Myers, former manager for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.
Other groups at the news conference included Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, former members of the military, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, among others.
Kolbe said the ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act could affect an Arizona case currently “conferenced” by the court – meaning the justices have not decided if they will hear it or not. The case, Brewer v. Diaz, challenges the state’s law that denies health benefits to domestic partners of state employees.
Kolbe said if the court strikes down DOMA, it would be difficult for states to find legal ground for treating same-sex and heterosexual couples differently. Once the court rules, he said, he expects Arizona will “come along very quickly on this issue.”
“It’s evolving in Arizona the same way it’s evolving everywhere else,” Kolbe said.
But Center for Arizona Policy President Cathi Herrod said there is no telling how the DOMA case would affect the state or the Diaz case until after a ruling is handed down. The center supports traditional marriage.
“Until we have the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, offering any opinion on a potential impact to Arizona is pure conjecture,” she wrote in an email.
Kolbe compared current laws that ban gay marriage to past laws that did not let people of different races marry. Those laws are often looked back on in disbelief, he said, and he thinks someday there will be a similar response to the current restrictions on same-sex marriage.
“I think we recognize that now is the time to strike and to make this change,” Kolbe said.
jan-at-oasis posted at 10:35 am on Sun, Mar 3, 2013.
There is no such thing as "marriage equality." Marriage is a union between one man and one woman, and has been so since the beginning of time. All societies, regardless of religion, culture or type of government have recognized this unique institution as such. So all of a sudden, after eons of consistency, NOW Kolbe and the other disgruntled "activists" want to redefine something which cannot BE redefined. It IS what it has always been. They can whine all they want, and rename things and pass laws against the will of the vast majority of Americans with the help of the morally bankrupt politicians, but they CANNOT change marriage to suit their proclivities, Men cannot marry men, women cannot marry women, humans cannot marry birds, etc. etc. etc. One man, one woman. Find something else: domestic partnership, whatever. But you can't have marriage. Calling an apple an orange doesn't make it, alas, an orange.
rhmnlc posted at 10:45 am on Sun, Mar 3, 2013.
Societies through time have defined their mores and now is no different. As mentioned by Kolbe, American society once defined marriage as between men and women only of the same race. American society, through the courts, redefined marriage to include interracial couples. Now, in 2013, American society is poised to redefine marriage once again. To state we cannot change the definition of marriage is to ignore our history, not embrace it.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 1:56 pm on Sun, Mar 3, 2013.
WAIT A DOG-GONE MINUTE....IS THIS THE SAME DEMOCRAT EX-CONGRESSMAN JIM KOLBE WHO VOTED ....."AGAINST"....GAY MARRIAGE IN 1996 ???
He voted for the 1996 ..."Defense of Marriage Act"....along with 32 Democrat Senators and 118 Democrat Congressmen/women and was signed into Law by a ..."Democrat"...President Bill Clinton.
At the same time that this "openly gay" Democrat Congressman was coming out of the closet....he was voting against................"GAY MARRIAGE".
AND NOW HE HAS THE NERVE TO ....LECTURE....ARIZONIANS...GIVE ME A BREAK.
Ateam1 posted at 7:00 pm on Sun, Mar 3, 2013.
I know he was a republican and he is a "switch Hitter" I don't think he know's what the heck he is Except GAY! [wink]