Pretzel logic at its finest
This afternoon Governor Snyder acknowledged that the nearly 300 same-sex marriages that were performed last Saturday are legal. He then said his administration won’t recognize them.
With respect to the marriages, we believe those are legal and valid marriages. The stay being issued makes it more complicated. Because of the stay, we won’t recognize the benefits of the marriage until there’s a removal of the stay.
It’s a rather astonishing display of pretzel logic to say that the marriages are legal but that he can’t enforce them until the stay is lifted. The stay is on any further marriages and nothing in it prevents the state from recognizing those already performed as legal.
Well, that’s not entirely true, I suppose. The homophobic Republican base prevents Governor Snyder from recognizing the marriages as legal.
Meanwhile, his Attorney General Bill Schuette is spending enormous amounts of taxpayer dollars to fight the decision by federal District Court Judge Bernard Friedman that Michigan’s discriminatory ban on same-sex marriages is unconstitutional. To paraphrase an old saying, “Don’t tell me what your values are, show me what they are.”
Here’s his statement:
Democrats were quick to respond. Here’s State Representative Kate Segal:
https://twitter.com/katesegal/status/448881865273786369
And Bob McCann, Communications Director for the Senate Democrats:
If @onetoughnerd believes same-sex marriages were legal, why is he denying those couples the same legal rights other married couples have?
— Robert McCann (@mccannr1) March 26, 2014
State Rep. Sam Singh released this statement:
I appreciate Governor Snyder’s acknowledgement that the marriages were legal but to refuse all of the same rights and benefits of marriage to these couples is blatant discrimination. He is taking us down an unconstitutional and costly path by continuing to deny full marriage equality. The same-sex couples married this past weekend have waited many years, in some cases decades, to have their relationships legally recognized. By refusing to grant the protections and benefits associated with marriage, Governor Snyder continues to put partisan politics ahead of the constitutional rights of Michigan residents
And this from Emily Dievendorf, Executive Director of Equality Michigan:
Equality Michigan finds it despicable that a Governor claiming to stand for families, children, and the economy would side with his out-of-touch Attorney General and continue this wasteful crusade to harm Michigan families. The DeBoer-Rowse family and their legal team will continue to defend our families in court, and the efforts by people like East Lansing Mayor Nathan Triplett and Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum to get the government to recognize these marriages will not be forgotten. Equality Michigan calls on the Governor to end the second-class treatment of LGBT families in Michigan and the executive branch’s attack on marriage equality.
I’m particularly partial to Progress Michigan Executive Director Lonnie Scott’s straightforward assessment:
In a move typical of a politician, Gov. Snyder is desperately trying to play both sides of the fence on this issue. On one hand he says the marriages that took place on Saturday are ‘valid,’ but then turns around and said he won’t afford any of the rights that come with marriage to these loving couples. My message to Gov. Snyder is simple: Love is love. Stop standing in the way of progress.
As usual, it’s impossible to tell how Governor Snyder really feels about this since he says one thing and uses completely bizarre, convoluted logic to justify doing the exact opposite. It’s not a flip-flop, really, since he’s not changing his mind. It’s more like pandering double-speak, trying to be all things to all people and accomplishing neither.
Strong leadership is clearly not Governor Snyder’s strong suit. Not by a mile. And if there was ever a time that our state needed it, it’s right now.
Eclectameme/photo by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog
