<p>@GovAffairs - Obviously those things would have to be worked out through the legal system as things went, these are the kinds of thorny legal issues that would come with the territory. Those things would be decided and THEN we’d have precedent. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m gonna bring up something you aren’t gonna like here. Slavery. We decided the government should be mostly “hands-off” about slavery and let it be decided on a state-by-state basis. The problem with that is that it assumes that marriage equality and marriage banning are a simple dichotomy and each valid. To me the question is the same as saying “Should we gas the Jews, or shouldn’t we?” It isn’t a Coke vs. Pepsi issue, it’s a “This is the right choice” and “This is the wrong choice” issue. Alabama saying no-no to marriage equality is not an equally valid choice to Massachusetts saying yes to it. One of those choices is right and the other is very clearly mistaken. </p>
<p>The government has to step in and mandate it now because the states decided they weren’t going to play nice and give people the rights they deserved. Furthermore, some states decided to go in the opposite direction, and directly enshrine unconstitutional laws in their state constitutions to attempt to discriminate against LGBTs. If the states would do their jobs, the government wouldn’t have to. “States Rights” is a dangerous thing, because some states are being governed by… well let’s use Wisconsin’s anti-union bill so it’s more polite… Crazy people. Some states are being governed by dangerously crazy people who have absolutely no business governing what shoe they put on first, let alone an entire state because they clearly have no legal knowledge to speak of. (let’s also use the Texas Board of Education fiasco last year which anybody with a working brain can see was stupid as hell). States Rights lets these people enshrine discrimination into their constitutions. That cannot happen, so the government has to step in and slap them, say “no! You are NOT allowed to do that!” And we need to have the ability to do that.</p>