Same-sex marriage never achieved enough support to be legalized [0][1]. It was voted against throughout the country including liberal states such as California. Same-sex marriage was legislated by a small number of judges.
I'm not making an argument for or against so please don't debate me on the merits of this issue. I am merely pointing out that the people did not decide this issue. A very small number of elites did.
It turned into a thread about same-sex marriage, which has nothing to do with the article. Whimsical tangents can be ok, but well-worn-political-debate tangents are off topic on HN.
Keep in mind that when we moderate something like that, it's never just about the root comment (i.e. the one you posted). It's always about the subthread as a whole.
You are wading into the complex web of how democracy works in the US. Denigrating the "elite" Supreme Court and ignoring all the other elites and distortions involved in any state legislation seems disingenuous.
The link only goes to 2015, but polling had already changed 15-18 points in favor of marriage equality by then. California had 48% vote against prop 8 in 2008, which was still ~8 points above the national level of support for same-sex marriage.
It's also worth noting that "super liberal" MA, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2004 via a state Supreme Court decision, failed multiple times in its legislature to ban it https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Massach... and multiple opponents of it were defeated in elections and replaced with proponents.
Same-sex marriage rights were obtained in several states via a vote in the legislature. And Americans overwhelmingly support the US Constitution and court system. So "the people" were involved in both of those paths.
In some states, sure. But where I live in Indiana, the strongly Republican state hates gay people (government and much of the citizenry). Remember that one of the cases in northern Indiana was the 'Gay Cake lawsuit'.
Our state only allowed gay marriage because SCOTUS ajudicated it so.
Also, the decision also affected me directly because women could legally change their name in marriage for free. But men doing so (I am one of them) had to pay a bunch and go in front of a judge and ask permission. The Gay Marriage decision removed this form of sexual discrimination as well.
The point that I'm getting at is that even in states where a majority dislikes gay people, there's not much of a move to abolish the 14th Amendment. People complain about "activist judges", and there's been one significant recall (Iowa), but that's it.
FWIW California was about the same as Indiana in how marriage equality was achieved: a popular vote against followed by a court ruling for. It's popular now, but it wasn't at the time of the court ruling. It's extremely rare that minorities get 14th Amendment rights in a referendum.
It was voted against throughout the country including liberal states such as California.
The relevant vote took place in 1868, when the states ratified the 14th Amendment.
A very small number of elites did.
And by "elites" you mean "Tax-exempt churches doing everything they possibly could to subvert, deny, and if possible eliminate peoples' existing rights." [1]
Can you explain to me the intent of your argument? Never mind that there were many states that voted in favor of same-sex marriage, it seems rather disingenuous to claim that it was simply a 'small number of elites' as well as claiming your argument is somehow not debatable.