Supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage in Kentucky are reacting to the news that the Supreme Court now appears poised to settle the issue.
"LGBT couples across Kentucky and the entire nation have been waiting for this for this day some of them their whole lives," says Chris Hartman, director of the Kentucky Fairness Campaign.
Hartman sounds optimistic a ruling for gay marriage advocates is at hand – and he’s basing that optimism on the signals the court has already sent.
"Certainly there is a bit of trepidation. There's never a way to know for certain which way justices will rule, but the Supreme Court's actions up to this point, not just with the Windsor ruling, but then deciding not to rule on several of the cases that came before it, which opened the doors for the freedom to marry in many more states. It would seem incredibly unlikely that the Supreme Court will start moving backwards on this issue," he tells WUKY.
The move came as a bit of a surprise, however, for Kent Ostrander with the Family Foundation, an organization that opposes same-sex marriage. His expectation was that the justices might wait for more circuit courts to weigh in.
"That way the nation would be pretty well represented. At this point only the 6th Circuit has ruled in favor of traditional marriage, and so I would have thought the case would have been more ripe if they had waited another six months," Ostrander says.
Ostrander says he agrees that the Supreme Court’s recent passive rulings could bode well for his opponents, but he's also hopeful the court will ultimately decide to honor the wishes of states that enacted the bans.
In a statement released Friday, Gov. Steve Beshear said the court made the right decision and any further delay would “prolong the instability and uncertainty which states and families currently endure.”
