Becuase Everything Else Sucks

California Becomes Second State to Allow Gay Marriage

By Manila Ryce
Published Thursday, May 15th, 2008, 12:33 pm
Filed under: Human Rights, Society/Culture: Sexuality, Society/Culture: Law/Order, Society/Culture, US Politics

Following lawsuits from several gay and lesbian couples as well as the city of San Francisco and gay rights groups, the California Supreme Court has struck down a ban on same-sex marriage today as unconstitutional. The 120-page ruling stated, “There can be no doubt that extending the designation of marriage to same-sex couples, rather than denying it to all couples, is the equal protection remedy that is most consistent with our state’s general legislative policy and preference.”

After Massachusetts, California has now become the second state to allow same-sex marriage. The following 7 international jurisdictions have also legalized same-sex marriage: Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, South Africa, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec.

In 2004, the same year Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage, San Francisco officials also allowed same-sex couples to wed. However, the state had banned same-sex marriages in 2000 with the “Defense of Marriage Act”. Justices had to decide whether San Francisco’s laws carried legal weight on the grounds that the 2000 ban was unconstitutional. Now that the ban has been struck down, an appeal is expected to be made by anti-gay-rights groups to the US Supreme Court, which has never addressed same-sex marriage.

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5 Responses to “California Becomes Second State to Allow Gay Marriage”

  1. Sly photo choice Mr. Ryce!

    JojoMojo
    05/15/08 at 1:40 pm

  2. The timing of this seems a little bit odd to me, we are heading into the general election and suddenly California has given conservatives political gold when it comes to rallying their base (even though they hate John McCaine he is anti gay marriage). What is even more interesting is that California’s Supreme Court is Republican as well as their governor yet Democrats are quickly rushing to take the credit. This seems pretty odd.

    Artugon
    05/15/08 at 3:59 pm

  3. I have read this report all day and it lists 3 provinces in Canada that have gay marriage. Good grief, the entire country legalized gay marriage years ago. How can a news report be that behind the times on an issue like this?

    I also have wondered if this ruling was a way to energize the conservative base(less). I truly believe the people of California will amend the constitution in November to undo what was just done. I don’t have much faith in people anymore. The prejudice is just too deep. And people are just too ignorant. In our society, people are Catholics or Mormons or Evangelicals first, and Americans second.

    Robert
    05/15/08 at 4:57 pm

  4. Good.

    I remember when they passed that ridiculous law way back in the early 2000’s. My best friend at the time and I almost had a falling out over it. He was Mormon, so of course he had religious reasons for opposing it. But I tried to explain that, according to the California Family Code, gay marriage wasn’t legal already, and that an additional law to ban it “more” was not only a waste of time and money, but completely unconstitutional, given the Full Faith and Credit Clause.

    Sadly, after $70 million dollars spend in campaigning, mostly from the “Faith Over Facts” Crowd, the superfluous 14 word amendment was added to the state constitution.

    It’s about fuckin’ time the courts came to their senses.

    Now, naturally, the Wackjobs are planning yet another initiative for November which will most likely be a carbon copy of the 14 word unconstitutional amendment that was already passed like a decade ago. I’m sure they’ll spend (waste) even more time and money on what should be a non issue.

    Personally, as a Nontheist, I see nothing wrong with using the term Civil Unions, if for no other purpose than to silence the religiosos. But of course, there are plenty of gay religiosos as well, and of course they are entitled to equal protection blah blah blah. JUST GIVE IT TO THEM ALREADY!

    This “controversy” is almost as retarded as “evolution vs creation” or “global warming vs God’s will to destroy us.”

    Can we move on yet?

    PapaFigue
    05/15/08 at 9:09 pm

  5. Good for California!!!
    Now the rest of the states.
    I have to wonder how long that will take!

    Xandra

    xandra47
    07/14/08 at 2:58 am

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