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California Supreme Court decides that gay people are American citizens

From BBC News:

California's top court has ruled that a state law banning marriage between same-sex couples is unconstitutional.

The state's Supreme Court said the "right to form a family relationship" applied to all Californians regardless of sexuality....

"Limiting the designation of marriage to a union 'between a man and a woman' is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute," California Chief Justice Ron George said in the written opinion.


About time.

Comments

The California Supreme Court played the hand it was dealt, but in the process it has given John McCain a leg up in the fall. An initiative to amend the state constitution and ban same-sex marriage will qualify for the ballot in November, which means more McCain supporters will turn out- maybe even more African-American voters who will support Obama but not same-sex marriage. And you won't see Chelsea Clinton doing gay bar crawls in support, either. The Clintons will drop the gay tribe like a hot brick.
Brian Miller said…
Don't count out the Libertarian effort, Waldo.

We worked with the Greens when I lived in California and had a number of successful rallies that got NO media coverage -- including from the gay press (and that detail really pissed me off).

One rally, made up mostly of allies, got over 1,000 people in Mountain View -- Google's hometown -- spontaneously.

There's a lot of grassroots support for marriage equality in California across political lines -- including Libertarians, Greens, independents, pissed off Democrats, and moderate Republicans (including the Reagan-appointed judges who made this decision happen).

I think the far right will find California a much tougher fight than they think -- there's a motivated, connected grassroots that will give them an unprecedented run for their money, and which has a lot of sympathetic ears in high places from major employers to educational institutions.

I also am not convinced the additional turnout will throw support, by default, to any of the old-party campaigns. If anything, it could erode McCain's support and Obama's support among pissed-off gay voters who have had enough.

If the LP runs George Phillies or another centrist, it could result in spoiling a close CA vote for either the Democrats or the Republicans, depending on who shows up and why.

This is a very exciting race!

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