I think the last thing we want is for this to come down just before the elections next year. The right has a tendency to use these things as weapons around election time. If enough time for this to blow over between now and the elections passes, this could mean the end of gay bashing as an effective politcial tool. But that's only if they win.

Without a vocal gay population, right wing miscreants, or oil-for-blood wars, Honduras was left to fail on its own.

"They need to be careful here

I think the last thing we want is for this to come down just before the elections next year. The right has a tendency to use these things as weapons around election time. If enough time for this to blow over between now and the elections passes, this could mean the end of gay bashing as an effective politcial tool. But that's only if they win."

Religious homophobes hate us, and will never stop. Who gives a damn if they bring this up for an election. We need to continue to rise up against them. I'm not afraid of the holy assholes!

Just thinking.

This is Ted Olson, after all, former Solicitor General and protector of the virtue of Paula Jones.

Could there be a plan to get in there and lose the big one while Kennedy is still the fifth vote?

While it's not mentioned in the article, that's one reason that civil rights groups have gone slow on this. They worry that it's a weak case to be taking to the federal level and that taking the wrong case could push back rights for years.

Having realized that they've lost, it's possible that some have decided to try to postpone it for as long as possible.

can anyone tell me why Olson is taking this case?

we might as well get the government on record instead of all this conjecture.....well Obama might do this and he might do that and maybe then but not now, etc.

The sooner we get a definitive answer from the Supreme Court, the sooner we will know how to fight it.

That we have civil rights protections for gays and lesbians and equal marriage in any states in this country is because of the careful, thoughtful, outstanding legal and public policy work done by such civil rights groups as Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders in Boston, Lambda in New York, the National Center for Lesbian Rights in California, the ACLU, and others. This work has spanned decades and included some of the best lawyers in the country, most of whom you do not know because the mainstream media generally does not report on news from our community.

Everyone I know agrees that DOMA is unconstitutional and that it will eventually be struck down (if Congress doesn't repeal it first). But GLAD, Lambda, the ACLU also all know that we are living in a world where the majority of federal judges have been appointed by Republican presidents and the current U.S. Supreme Court is hostile to civil rights claims -- unless you are white and straight, that is. So any challenge to DOMA had better be damn good and pretty much irrefutable, if it is to succeed. And that's the case that has been filed by GLAD in federal district court in Boston:

http://www.glad.org/

As a result of just the filing of GLAD's litigation, same sex married couples can now, for the first time, have their passports changed to reflect their married names, if they wish. Read the stories about the plaintiffs: all of them have suffered real and identifiable harm because of DOMA, and everyone can understand and identify with their stories.

No such claim can be made by the plaintiffs in the California suit, which was filed by these two straight guys without any consultation with the civil rights community that has gotten us this far, which, you have to admit, is pretty far. But Olson et al. have treated our attorneys and organizations as if they are invisible and have nothing of substance to say.

I'm sorry, but no one asked for and we certainly don't need these guys' "help." If the team who brought us the constitutional disaster known as Bush v. Gore wants to do pennance, pick some other issue (like getting us universal health care!). But for god's sake, leave this important work to the people who know what they're doing.