<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><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;">Courtesy of Web Pro News at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://www.webpronews.com/oklahoma-state-rep-wants-to-ban-all-marriages-2014-02">http://www.webpronews.com/oklahoma-state-rep-wants-to-ban-all-marriages-2014-02</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">-----------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><h1 class="title entry-title" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); font-size: 40px; font-family: 'Cabin Condensed', sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Oklahoma State Rep. Wants To Ban All Marriages</h1><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Oklahoma state representative Mike Turner (R-Edmond) may look like <a href="http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/12000000/Samwise-Gamgee-samwise-gamgee-12089038-960-404.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">Sam The Wise</a>, but don’t be fooled into thinking their feats are similar; while they both want to destroy rings that represent powerful bonds, the former wishes to end all bands of matrimony for the sake of keeping same sex marriage illegal.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Armed with a shell bill – a proposal that can alter at almost any time to react to upcoming rulings – Turner wishes to counter U.S. District Judge Terence Kern’s decision made on January 7<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span>, which invalidates Oklahoma’s <a href="https://www.sos.ok.gov/documents/questions/711.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">Question 711</a>, an amendment that bans same-sex marriage.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Kern reasoned that the ban violated the Fourteen Amendment’s equal protection clause, noting the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last term in <i>United States v. Windsor</i> which <a href="http://www.webpronews.com/feeling-pride-following-doma-ruling-facebook-lets-you-show-it-with-a-rainbow-2013-06" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">defeated the Defense of Marriage Act</a> (DOMA).</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“[Courts] must be wary of whether ‘defending’ traditional marriage is a guise for impermissible discrimination against same-sex couples.” Kern <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/01/25/3205541/oklahoma-lawmaker-ban-marriages-revival-jim-crow-tactic/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">wrote</a>.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Patience is key for Turner, as he waits for Kerns’ case to be appealed at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver; once the federal appeals process is over, Turner will add the final touches to his bill.</span></p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“[My constituents are] willing to have that discussion about whether marriage needs to be regulated by the state at all,” Turner <a href="http://m.news9.com/story.aspx?story=24543033&catId=112032" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">told News 9</a>.</span></p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font color="#000000"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/01/25/3205541/oklahoma-lawmaker-ban-marriages-revival-jim-crow-tactic/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">Nicole Flatow of Think Progressive</a> mentioned how Turner’s move draws parallels to the tactics used during Jim Crow south where the U.S. Supreme Court ordered states to desegregate schools in <i>Brown v. Board of Education</i>. Virginia Senator Harry F. Byrd contributed to a “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_resistance" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">massive resistance</a>” campaign in which “Virginia legislature <a href="http://www2.vcdh.virginia.edu/xslt/servlet/XSLTServlet?xml=/xml_docs/solguide/Essays/essay13a.xml&xsl=/xml_docs/solguide/sol_new.xsl§ion=essay" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">ordered the closure of schools</a> subject to a desegregation order.”</span></font></p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“When that tactic was invalidated by courts, one county went so far as to shut down its public school system entirely from 1959 until 1964.” Flatow wrote.</span></p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Turner knows that his idea has made a few people uncomfortable, but says “I accept that.”</span></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">-----------------------------------<br><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"There's room at the top they are telling you still.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But first you must learn to smile as you kill,</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- John Lennon</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div></div></div></div></body></html>