Dammit!!!!

Breaking news from the state of Washington (via the Seattle P-I):

The state Supreme Court today upheld Washington's law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, rejecting the argument of 19 same-sex couples that they've been unfairly denied the right to wed.

In a splintered decision, Justice Barbara Madsen wrote that the state's marriage law was enacted to "promote procreation and to encourage stable families."

"The legislature was entitled to believe that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples furthers the State's legitimate interests in procreation and the well-being of children."

She wrote that the same-sex couples failed to prove that they had a fundamental right to marry, or that the state's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional.

The ruling -- signed by Chief Justice Gerry Alexander and Justice Charles Johnson -- also noted a hardship for same-sex couples, however, and suggested that the legislature "may want to re-examine the impact of the marriage laws on all citizens of this state."

[...]

Attorneys for the state and King County -- as well as a group of state lawmakers and religious leaders opposing same-sex marriage -- argued that the question of who can marry should be left to the Legislature.

They said lawmakers had a rational reason for limiting marriage to people of the opposite sex: Only those couples are biologically capable of having children, and keeping them together is generally best for those children.

As my good pal York Norman (currently in the long-lost category) once said, "That's bullshit, man." Mrs. F and I were treated to a fantastic ceremony recently at Mrs. F's (well... our) church, dedicating the newly adopted son of two of our good friends... who just happen to be gay men. I can't think of two people, be they women or men and in whatever combination, who would make better parents. And I just get increasingly incensed that the state will not recognize them as being officially married (and thus conferring upon them many of the perks that Mrs. F and I enjoy as an opposite sex married couple).