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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.
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Waldo Lydecker's Journal said…
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.
May 15, 2008 at 10:45 PM
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!
May 16, 2008 at 12:45 AM
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