The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported today that gay Wisconsin couples going to California to get married might be subject to prosecution when they get back home. The story points to an obscure Wisconsin law which prohibits Wisconsinites from going to another state to get married, if that marriage would otherwise be illegal back at home. Apparently the law was established to guard against under age couples from getting married in other states and coming back to Wisconsin. Some gay couples have called off their plans to get married in California, specifically citing the Wisconsin law. The statute calls for up to a $10,000 fine and nine months in jail.
Legislators quoted in the story don’t think that the obscure law would apply to these gay couples, but it seems that the decision to prosecute would be up to each individual District Attorney. Even the legislator that sponsored the anti-gay marriage amendment suggests that the law would not apply to gay couples getting married in California. That wasn’t enough to stop anti-gay crusader Julaine Appling from calling for the prosecution of gay couples. As if cheerleading for anti-gay discrimination wasn’t enough, now she seems to be calling for the outright jailing of people that simply want to get married. If you needed any more proof at just how obsessed and extreme some people are on this subject you need not look any further than Appling.
On Wednesday Democrats and some Republicans in Congress tried to pass a discrimination bill. It would have allowed employees more time to sue if they were being discriminated against in pay. The bipartisan effort was unsuccessful because of an almost exclusively Republican filibuster. Even if the measure would have passed, it would have also faced a promised veto from the President.
Specifically at issue was a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. It allows employers to continue paying their employees in a discriminatory fashion for the workers’ entire career if the employees don’t dispute their pay within the first 180 days. Prior to the ruling, most people understood that the 180-day limit was intended to apply to any paycheck not just the very first one. It can be difficult for employees to find out what other co-workers are making within the short time frame outlined in the Supreme Court decision.
Read More »To sign up for this group you can simply click "Join Group". If you have already registered for our site you must first log in. If you have never registered for our site then please enter the requested info in the sign up section. Once you have signed up you will get an email verifying your information. After verification you can simply sign into "My Own Page."
On the "My Own Page" left column you first have your profile which you can edit as you wish. Do this by clicking the arrow,choosing an option on the drop down menu, and clicking "go."
Below that is your own blog. Simply click the arrow on the drop down menu and choose to manage, view, write, or edit a blog posting. If you select "write" click "go" and let the world know what is on your mind! After writing scroll down and choose the catagory that the post belongs in and what group pages that you would like to display your blog posting on. Read More »
Bucher a conservative Republican deserves credit for charging these men with the hate crime enhancer. The same can not be said for the Democrat DA from neighboring Milwaukee County. It has been very clear that E. Michael McCann has a problem with the hate crime statutes because although there have been clear hate crimes committed, he has never actually applied that law. It has often annoyed me to see him ignore this specific statute because of his personal problem with it. I have often said that if he does not like a law that he should lobby against it with lawmakers. A District Attorney is responsible for enforcing the law as it stands not using only statutes with which he agrees.
I have no idea what Waukesha DA Paul Bucher's personal opinion is about the hate crime enhancer. If I had to guess, given that he is a conservative Republican, I'd assume that he has a problem with it. Even if he does, he did the right thing in this case by separating his own personal and ideological feelings about the enhancer and held the defendants accountable to the law, all of it, not just the parts that he likes. Hopefully the new Milwaukee County DA will follow that example, at least when it comes to prosecuting hate crimes.
PostsHighestRated Posts
