HOT BUTTON: GAY RIGHTS

The U.S. Supreme Court gave a major victory to gay rights advocates last week in two 5-4 rulings that struck down a provision of a federal law denying federal benefits to married gay couples and cleared the way for the resumption of same-sex marriage in California. Here are excerpts from online readers’ comments on a June 26 article at commercialappeal.com that reported the decisions:

CONSERVATIVE WROTE:

Divorce, homosexuality and abortion are the significant moral threats of our day to the traditional family and by extension to our society as a whole. ...

REFLECTION WROTE:

Good decision. Not shocked it was a 5-4, though.

HEARTS WROTE:

... This is great and about-time news, and while predictable that the (Justice Antonin) Scalia faction cannot see the issue here — they rarely do when it is inconvenient for their doctrine— it is fantastic enough of our court gets it.

2LSJ93U5YG WROTE:

The U. S. Supreme Court has no authority to redefine marriage. There is a heavenly Supreme Court that all of us will appear before someday. God almighty has made it very clear that marriage is between a man and a woman. We disobey and disregard what God says to our own peril.

BOGEYMAN WROTE:

It’s interesting that the Supremes would, with one stroke of their pen, strike down a major civil right, while with another stroke establish a new one.

FRAYSERMEDIC WROTE:

I guess the Supreme Court decided that if one is an American then they should have equal rights under the law. Shocker!

AMADAMS1#214971 WROTE:

... God belongs in churches, temples and mosques, not in the government. You can’t stop equality.

DOGMAN1 WROTE:

The country is sinking faster than the Titanic.

KAREN PULFER FOCHT / THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL If the hands of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist John H. White could talk, what stories they would tell. They have traveled the world, capturing images of many great people and events of our time. White, my hero and mentor, was among the...