SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch conceded Wednesday it’s only a matter of time before gay marriage is legal across the country, even though he doesn’t think that’s the right way to go.
Hatch said people who can’t see what’s happening aren’t living in the real world. He made the remarks during an appearance on KSL-Radio’s Doug Wright Show (http://bit.ly/1koFdlh).
“Let’s face it: anybody who does not believe that gay marriage is going to be the law of the land just hasn’t been observing what’s going on,” said Hatch, a seven-term Republican senator who has been a proponent of keeping marriage exclusively between a man and a woman.
He said he doesn’t agree with the string of pro-gay marriage rulings, but defended two Utah judges who issued such decisions. Hatch said Robert Shelby and Dale Kimball are both excellent federal judges. Hatchrecommended both for the bench — Shelby in 2011 and Kimball in 1997.
“How do you blame the judge for deciding a case in accordance with what the Supreme Court has already articulated?” Hatch said.
His only criticism of Shelby was that he didn’t immediately put his ruling on hold when he struck down Utah’s same-sex marriage ban in December. More than 1,000 gay and lesbian couples until the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay more than two weeks later. The case is before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
Gay rights activists have won 14 lower court cases since a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling last summer. Gay and lesbian couples currently can marry in 19 states and the District of Columbia, with Oregon and Pennsylvania being the latest states to join the list.
Hatch also questioned whether judges should be able to tell states how to handle an important matter like marriage.
He said he believes nobody should suffer discrimination, and said religious people should try to understand other people’s beliefs.
The former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee predicted the Supreme Court would take a gay marriage case in 2015.
“Sooner or later gay marriage is probably going to be approved by the Supreme Court of the United States, and certainly as the people in this country move toward it, especially young people,” Hatch said. “I don’t think that’s the right way to go, on the other hand, I do accept whatever the courts have to say.”
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He “accepts what courts have to say”, but just yesterday he said he would amend the Constitution if the courts ruled against Hobby Lobby.
It’s just a shame that giant bags of hate-filled shit, like Hatch and the rest of the GOP, have spent so many years fighting to keep equal rights off the table for certain people. How about we just legalize and let people be happy?
He said he believes nobody should suffer discrimination, and said religious people should try to understand other people’s beliefs.
I grow so tired of people speaking as if the only “religious people” are conservative Republicans. I’d be willing to bet that most liberals, most progressives, most Democrats and most gays are religious, just not of the right-wing variety. When did believing in the Divine and attempting to live in accordance with such a concept become the exclusive province of those who think the only good people are themselves?
I don’t understand…since he won’t be running for another term in 2016, why doesn’t he just let his freak flag fly and say what he really means?
(you can find his sincere views by watching a Westboro Baptist Church protest and imagining Orrin in the role of Fred)
Nice to see the Senator hasn’t lost any of his insufferable ass qualities that would be better utilized writing a swell hymn full of pee-pee and old apple juice.