Tomorrow, the Ninth District Court of Appeals will rule on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, which banned marriage equality, in California. I posted about this in November and December of last year.

In a matter of hours, we will find out whether or not those in favor of banning same-sex marriage were able to convince the three judges on the panel that retired Judge Vaughn Walker should have recused himself from the case. Judge Walker, who struck down Prop 8 in California, is accused of bias since he is also gay.

Those following the case believe that the ruling will be in favor of Walker’s decision, which will uphold the ban on Proposition 8.

Naturally, I’ll post the results of their decision tomorrow.

(story via Towleroad)

With Washington State a stone’s throw away from having marriage equality, New Jersey is the next state where homosexual couples might be able to legally wed. I posted a couple of weeks ago that politicians in New Jersey had advanced a bill that would bring about marriage equality to the state. Well, as reported on Queerty, the bill “is on its way to the legislative floor.”

Yesterday, “The Assembly Judiciary Committee approved the measure with a 5 to 2 party-line vote after hearing more than 6 hours of testimony from dozens of supporters and opponents,” as reported in On Top Magazine. The bill, which already passed the state Senate, will now go before the Assembly for a vote.

If the bill passes there, it will be presented to Governor Chris Christie, who is now promising to veto the bill. Instead, he wants the citizens to vote on the issue and is calling for a referendum to do just that.

According to Bloomberg, Christie knows that the state favors gay marriage based on the following comment he made: “The polls that I’ve seen show that if this goes to the ballot, I lose.”

If that’s the case, Christie could save the state and its citizens the trouble of having to go through such a referendum and simply sign the bill if it passes through the Assembly, who represent the will of the people in his state.

But that would mean actually governing for the people and not for himself, something Christie is apparently incapable of doing.

It just might be!

Today, politicians in New Jersey advanced a bill to allow marriage equality in the state by a vote of 8-4, as reported by ThinkProgress. In order for the bill to become law, it must pass the full senate as well as the governor. Previously, Governor Chris Christie had pledged to veto any bill promoting marriage equality; however, public opinion in the state shows that “52 percent — support marriage equality while only 42 percent oppose it. Likewise, 65 percent believe same-sex marriage is not a threat to traditional marriage, 53 percent agree that denying same-sex marriage is a form of discrimination, and 66 percent [support] adoption rights for same-sex couples.”

As such, Christie has revamped his views in favor of public opinion. He is now utilizing a “wait and see approach” to what happens with the state’s elected politicians. If the bill passes the Senate, Christie might not veto the bill since doing so might be seen as “offensive and discriminatory” and be “politically unpopular” for his career.

While Christie’s motives might be far from altruistic, it certainly shows that he is willing to put the wishes of his constituents above his own personal bias. In my opinion, that’s what a good politician does.