Supreme Court Issues Ruling On Same Sex Marriage Legalizing Marriage Nat.

[Skill and Chance]

Politically, it would be very hard now for any Republican or the courts to overturn this.  The backlash would be career-killing and legacy killing.  When you're fighting an unwinnable battle, the best thing you can do is restructure so that you have a chance to win the war.

I would actually be quite concerned about it being overturned if Ginsburg died under a Republican president and senate.  The fallout would be Dred Scott level, but they only need one more vote.  2016 just got a lot more important this week, with gay marriage, housing discrimination protections and a fully intact Obamacare now on the line.

[Skill and Chance]

Actually lots of Polynesian societies include a "third gender" of effeminate males who marry other men. I wonder why you never hear the "bbbbut EVERY SOCIETY has always said marriage is man-woman!!!" crowd address that fact?

That really is a stretch.

What? Are you seriously arguing that the fa'afafine somehow aren't a direct, indisputable counterexample to typical right-wing argument of "marriage was defined by every society and every religious group as the union of a man and a woman"

Colleges and universities do not accept Wikipedia as a source for scholarly writing because of its inaccuracies.

Let's say I give you this one example, out of all the societies and civilizations that existed.  If the shoe were on the other foot; if such a group of people were the ONLY group you knew of in the annals of civilization that practiced only man-woman monogamous marriage, would you consider that enough to ban SSM?  This example is so idiosyncratic . . . I mean, I'm at a loss for words if one actually believes that this one counterexample offsets the assertion that marriage being between a man and a woman is how every society has defined marriage.  OK, every society but one, until 15 years ago.  I suspect that this counterexample was known to the plaintiffs who did not point it out because it would appear to support the opposite point of view.

Many native American tribes had a "3rd gender" that would live and work according to the opposite gender's social expectations.  It's only unheard of among agricultural, urban cultures.