<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><img src="cid:FE395565-AFDB-4DF1-9059-5A0557F0FCDD" alt="image.jpeg" id="FE395565-AFDB-4DF1-9059-5A0557F0FCDD" width="640" height="478"></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of today's (November 9, 2013) Spokesman-Review.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><h1 style="font-size: 28px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Idaho same-sex couples sue state over marriage ban</h1><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BOISE – Four same-sex couples from Boise filed a federal lawsuit Friday challenging Idaho’s ban on gay marriage and its laws that deny recognition of same-sex marriages from other states.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The lawsuit says both violate the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of due process and equal protection.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Amber and I want all the same things that other families want,” said Rachael Robertson, an Iraq War veteran and one of the plaintiffs. “We want to build the life we dream of together, to share a home and a family name, and to be treated the same as any other married couple.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She and her partner, Amber Beierle, applied for a marriage license two days earlier at the Ada County Recorder’s Office but were turned away because they’re a same-sex couple. Another couple, Shelia Robertson and Andrea Altmayer, had the same experience that day.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The other two couples named in the lawsuit were legally married in other states, but their unions aren’t recognized in Idaho. “The state of Idaho treats us as if our legal marriage never happened,” said Lori Watsen.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Idaho’s ban on same-sex marriage is one of the nation’s most far-reaching; it also forbids recognition of civil unions. The sweeping ban was approved by Idaho voters in a constitutional amendment in 2006; 63 percent of voters supported it. It requires that “a marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The lawsuit brings the first challenge to Idaho’s ban since the U.S. Supreme Court made two key decisions bolstering the legal status of same-sex marriages earlier this year. It uses a legal strategy that has been effective in a similar case in Ohio, arguing that the state has historically recognized marriages performed in other states that would have been considered illegal under Idaho law, such as marriage between people of different races.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Idaho law barred marriages between white people and other races until 1959. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled those types of laws were unconstitutional in 1967.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples are entitled to federal benefits. The high court also declined to decide a case from California this year, leaving in place a lower court’s ruling that struck down a ban on same-sex marriage in that state.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The four couples are represented by Boise attorneys Deborah A. Ferguson and Craig Durham, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">They include university instructors, a teacher of deaf children and a licensed social worker. Three of the couples are raising children.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The lawsuit, filed against Idaho Gov. Butch Otter and Ada County Recorder Chris Rich in their official capacities, asks that Idaho’s constitutional ban and all its laws forbidding recognition of same-sex marriages be voided, and that the state permit marriage licenses to be issued to same-sex couples.</span></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Happiness is where you find it, V-Peeps, even when it's . . . </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b>"Just Two Men Who Do-Si-Do"</b></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/songs/DoSiDo.mp3">http://www.tomandrodna.com/songs/DoSiDo.mp3</a></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">(Sing along . . . )</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Life’s just like a rodeo</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We aint putting on a show</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Nothing to make you squawk or crow</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Just two men who do si do</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dirty looks for holding hands</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Spying matching bright gold bands</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When you gonna understand</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That this guy here is my man</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He’s my beau, what’s more to know</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Its two men, get with it, hello</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We’re committed to love and grow</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Names on the mailbox in a row</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Life’s just like a rodeo</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We aint putting on a show</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Nothing to make you squawk or crow</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Just two men who do si do</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Making a home for our pet</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Eating dinner off chinette</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sharing air miles for the jet,</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Even merged our god damn debt</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ceremony we underwent</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Nice small family friends event</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Legal with a document / from the government</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Even got my mama’s consent</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Life’s just like a rodeo</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We aint putting on a show</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Nothing to make you squawk or crow</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Just two men who do si do</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now Listen Up</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Our Great Gran Daddies came to this frontier</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Settled the land and made it clear</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">All men are created equal here</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">They never said unless your queer</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Next year maybe buy that farm</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Walkin around arm in arm</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Be good neighbors do no harm</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Givin’ our town some new charm</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Times are changing left and right</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Holding my man close and tight</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Still makes folks wanna fight</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But more and more are quite polite</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Life’s just like a rodeo</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We aint putting on a show</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Nothing to make you squawk or crow</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Just two men who do si do</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Life’s just like a rodeo</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We aint putting on a show</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Nothing to make you squawk or crow</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Just two men who do si do</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Just two men who do si do</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Just two men who do si do</span></p><p style="text-align: start; margin: 0px auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Just two men who do si do"</span></p><br><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">There's room at the top they are telling you still</span><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> </span></div><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill </span><br style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></font></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">- John Lennon<br></span></font><div> </div></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>