I've been on the road this past week, so here is a newly updated marriage map with a number of changes:

a. There are now only three states without a lawsuit seeking same-sex civil marriage:  Montana, North Dakota, and Alaska.

b. Georgia finally came on board the marriage lawsuit train as has South Dakota.

c. The 6th Circuit Court issued a stay on a Tennessee judge's order for the Volunteer State to recognize three same-sex couples as legally married while their lawsuit progresses.

d. One of the handful of out gay Federal judges heard a lawsuit seeking to overturn that state's anti-marriage constitutional amendment and legalize civil marriages there.  The state's attorney general also feels the amendment is unconstitutional and so there is no one defending the law before the court.

e. Alaska's Supreme Court also ruled this week that the state's refusal to give the same tax exemptions to same-sex couples as it gives to opposite-sex couples was discriminatory and unconstitutional.

f. And finally an Idaho cemetery for veterans refused the request of an elderly lesbian veteran to be buried with the ashes of her late partner under the claim that Idaho's state constitution prohibited recognition of the couple as married.  This woman who lived her life serving our country responded that she has spent her life being discriminated against and guess that this would not end with her death.  Sad.

Updated Marriage Map

After the rush of court rulings in the first three months of 2014, April has been relatively a slow news period. The new Federal court rulings on same-sex marriage have created even greater complexity.  Judges in Tennessee and Indiana have ruled those states must recognize civil marriages performed out-of-state...but only for the plaintiffs in the lawsuits involving those cases.  So, this means Indiana must recognize the marriage of a lesbian couple in Evansville where one of the spouses is dying.  In Tennessee the judge ordered the state to recognize the three couples suing the state for recognition of their marriages.

Today an Ohio judge ordered that state to recognize marriages legally performed out-of-state.  He will decide tomorrow whether to stay his decision or not.

As for the number of states with and without a lawsuit seeking recognition of same-sex marriage, it is a challenge knowing which states have such lawsuits.  Lambda Legal put out a press release that to expect a lawsuit in Georgia this week, but there is no news there yet.  So stay tuned.

An Updated Marriage Law Map

Middling America reader Vin alerted me to a divorce case in Mississippi involving a same-sex couple.  So, I've added a blue asterisk for Mississippi.  Also a Federal judge in Tennessee has ordered the Volunteer State to recognize the out-of-state marriages of three same-sex couples suing for recognition of their marriages.  The judge based her decision on the couples' suit likely being successful.

To recap:  To date Federal judges appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents have ruled in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in some aspect in:

• Utah
• Texas
• Oklahoma
• Ohio
• Kentucky
• Virginia
• Tennessee

(It seems I may be missing some decisions, but there have been 100% favorable decisions to date.)

Toothless in Tennessee

As part of my continuing series on health data from the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS), I thought I'd look at seniors who are missing all their teeth.  While this may seem a humorous topic, having poor oral health can open the door for bacteria and shave around 7 years off your life.

This map breaks the data by standard deviations from the mean/average.  So the pale, gray/white states' seniors are average -for the USA- in the percentage who are toothless.  The purple states have higher percentages of toothless seniors with WV, TN, MS, and KY having the worst data on senior oral health.

My friend Lee B. from Clinton, CT, used to tell me that people in Connecticut had great teeth.  Apparently she is right because the Nutmeg State and Hawaii have the most older Americans with their choppers.

What's Up with Knoxville and Turkeys?

Google Trends offers hours of bizarre fun.  With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I decided to see what trends pop up for the word "turkey".  And what interesting trends emerge:




First, you can see the cyclic nature of searches for "turkey".  As Thanksgiving rolls around each year, more people search for "turkey."




But it turns out more people from Tennessee search for "turkey" than any other state.  Hmmm...




And it turns out that all those turkey searches are coming more from Knoxville than other parts of the state.



Gobble, gobble indeed.