The following are editorial opinions from newspapers from around the world which may be of interest to Royal Gazette readers.

St. Petersburg Times, Florida,

on gay marriage

In 1948, the California Supreme Court led the way in striking down a ban on interracial marriage. Now, 60 years later, the court has issued another groundbreaking decision on marriage that, whatever its flaws, is likely to stand tall in history's judgment. ...

Through a citizens' initiative, Florida's voters will be asked this November whether they want to amend the state's Constitution to add a ban on gay marriage and other forms of domestic partnerships. No doubt, the California ruling will embolden proponents of this measure. Already a number of states have responded to the gay community's call for legal equality for same-sex couples by slamming the door shut with constitutional amendments. And there continue to be calls for the adoption of a federal amendment banning gay marriage. ...

Florida will come to accept gay marriage at its own pace. The worst thing we could do is lock today's attitudes and prejudices into the state Constitution by passing the ban on gay marriage in November.

Los Angeles Times,

on the Texas polygamist sect

Texas' top prosecutors and child services directors should have read their Arthur Miller before tearing hundreds of children from their mothers who belonged to a polygamist sect. ...

Many of us find these people odd, their customs baffling. But the eagerness to brand the sect as abusers and molesters rang more of religious bias than of concern for the children. The breathless announcements about pregnant minors seemed naive at best when American cities are filled with teen mothers. It's not something to celebrate, but neither do we take their children away without cause or regularly charge their sexual partners with crimes.

Yearning for Zion members are followers of Warren Jeffs, who was convicted last year in Utah of being an accomplice to rape after he forced a 14-year-old girl to marry. There was, and is, reason for concern, especially in the cases of a few teenage girls who might have been married illegally.

But Texas authorities painted the whole sect with the same brush, arguing in court that the entire ranch should be considered a single household. The appeals court judges who ruled unanimously in the parents' favour saw through that fallacy. The state has ten days to appeal, but it would be better off conceding that, like the self-righteous accusers in Miller's Salem, it was overzealous in its efforts to root out presumed evils.