Resources, analysis and news about marriage equality
…With the two warring camps over same-sex marriage talking about steps as extreme as challenging the tax-exempt status of churches or a potential recall of “activist judges,” Saturday’s Internet-generated protests, which some have called “Stonewall 2.0″ after the seminal gay rights uprising in 1969, were far from the last clash in the fight over same-sex marriage….
Read the full story by Mike Swift in the San Jose Mercury News.
…Today, the first of a series of six bills — proposed by Democratic lawmakers and endorsed by gay-rights groups — faces the Senate Judiciary Interim Committee. The leadoff legislation would allow someone to name an unmarried partner as a designee in the case of a wrongful death.
Together, the bills make up the so-called Common Ground Initiative, which also includes proposals for a statewide domestic-partner registry, health benefits for gay couples and partial repeal of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The initiative marks a bold move in a state where the Republican-dominated Legislature has fought gay student clubs, stopped gay couples from adopting children and barred any domestic unions that would give same-sex couples rights traditionally granted to married couples….
Read the full story by Rosemary Winters in the Salt Lake Tribune.
…The voters’ decision on Prop. 8 was a huge disappointment, as it would allow the will of the majority to discriminate against a minority. By a 52 to 48 percent margin, voters chose intolerance over equal protection under the law and inclusion. California’s electorate had a chance to set a national tone, but by a slim majority instead chose to marginalize gays and lesbians by denying them the right to marry….
The focus has now shifted to the high court, which should review its ruling from earlier this year. In that decision, the court found that guarantees of personal privacy and autonomy protect “the right of an individual to establish a legally recognized family with the person of one’s choice.”
It was the right decision then, and it remains the right one now.
The likelihood of a final California Supreme Court showdown over same-sex marriage increased dramatically Monday when Attorney General Jerry Brown and the pro-Proposition 8 campaign urged the justices to decide whether the voter-approved ballot measure is constitutional….
The court could decide at its weekly conference Wednesday whether to accept the suits for review and whether to issue a stay that would block enforcement of Prop. 8 until a ruling is made. A stay would restore authority for gay and lesbian couples to marry, although those marriages — like an estimated 18,000 same-sex weddings performed before the Nov. 4 election — would have an uncertain status until the court cleared up Prop. 8’s legality and scope.
Read the full story by Bob Egelko at the San Francisco Chronicle.
…As the proponents of same-sex marriage rights determine the proper response to Proposition 8, it is illuminating to compare Colorado’s rejection of “gay rights” with California’s repudiation of “gay marriage.”…
Writing for a 6-3 majority in Romer vs. Evans (1996), Justice Anthony M. Kennedy explained that it “is not within our constitutional tradition to enact laws of this sort. Central both to the idea of the rule of law and to our own Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection is the principle that government and each of its parts remain open on impartial terms to all who seek its assistance.” Laws such as Amendment 2 “raise the inevitable inference that the disadvantage imposed is born of animosity toward the class of persons affected,” Kennedy wrote, adding a reference to another 1973 ruling. “If the constitutional conception of ‘equal protection of the laws’ means anything, it must at the very least mean that a bare … desire to harm a politically unpopular group cannot constitute a legitimate governmental interest.”
Proposition 8 suffers these same constitutional flaws….
Read the entire essay by Prof. Brian E. Gray atthe Los Angeles Times.
Leaders of the campaign against Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California, raised nearly $40 million and ran a careful, disciplined campaign with messages tested by focus groups and with only a few people authorized to speak to the media.
They lost.
In the week since, California has seen an outpouring of demonstrations ranging from quiet vigils to noisy street protests against Proposition 8, including rallies outside churches and the Mormon temple in Westwood as well as boycotts of some businesses that contributed to the Yes on 8 campaign….
Read the full story by Jessica Garrison in the Los Angeles Times.
Join the Impact SF calls on all those who find Proposition 8 unacceptable to join us for a protest Saturday, November 15 at 10:30 at City Hall in conjunction with the National Day of Protest. Speakers will provide perspective and action plans for restoring the rights of all people to marry, as advocated by millions of Californians including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In coordination with protests at city halls all over the nation, the rally will chart the way forward for equal rights guaranteed to us by the United States Constitution. The diversity of the civil rights movement will be on display, showing the nation that this struggle includes all of us, not just those desiring same-sex weddings. We are reaching out to all, especially members of groups that have suffered oppression and discrimination….
Read the full press release at Protest8SF.
The California Supreme Court has asked state Attorney General Jerry Brown to reply by Monday to lawsuits challenging the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage — a sign that the justices are taking the cases seriously and will not dispose of them quickly….
The filing the court requested from Brown’s office will not address the ballot measure’s validity, but will focus instead on the initial questions of whether the justices should accept the suits for review — and, if so, whether they should suspend Prop. 8 while they decide the case, said the state’s lawyer, Christopher Krueger, a senior assistant attorney general. Suspending Prop. 8 would allow same-sex marriages to resume.
“I think it’s fair to infer that the court is looking at these (cases) very carefully,” Krueger said. Usually, he said, when plaintiffs ask the state’s high court to take up their case directly without first filing in a lower court, the justices dismiss the suit without asking the other side for a reply….
Read the full story by Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Gay and lesbian families nationwide have looked to New York state for a couple of years now with the expectation that marriage equality would be forthcoming there. With the Democrats taking a majority in the state senate this election, hopes were high that New York might become the fourth state to extend marriage equality to all of its residents.
But a power struggle within the ranks of Democrat lawmakers there has entwined the question of gays and lesbians being given the right to marry with the issue of who will assume the position of the state senate’s majority leader….
In the wake of the Democratic victory in New York, some Democrats are resisting the appointment of senate minority leader Malcolm A. Smith, a pro-marriage lawmaker, to the post Bruno will vacate.
Opponents of marriage equality are pushing for a new senate majority leader who would be antithetical to allowing gay and lesbian families to marry; they also say they would prefer a Latino Senate majority leader.
Opposing Smith’s appointment are state senators Rubén Díaz Sr. and Senator Pedro Espada Jr., reported The New York Times in a Nov. 11 article….
Díaz, who is also an evangelical pastor, has stated his opposition to marriage equality for gay and lesbian families; both Díaz and Kruger announced an intention to try to take the issue out of the hands of state lawmakers by turning the matter into a ballot initiative and putting marriage equality rights to a popular vote….
Read the full story by Kilian Melloy at The Edge.
Connecticut begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples today, a historic milestone that gays and lesbians will celebrate and social conservatives will grieve.
Many others are likely to respond with a shrug….
Read the full story by Daniela Altimari in The Hartford Courant.
…Leaders of Equality Utah said statements made by Mormon leaders in defense of their actions in California — that the church was not antigay and had no problem with legal protections for gay men and lesbians already on the books in California — were going to be taken as an endorsement to expand legal rights that gay and lesbian couples have never remotely had in Utah, where the church is based….
State Senator Scott McCoy, an openly gay Democrat who said he would sponsor the legislation with two openly lesbian members of the House of Representatives, said part of the goal was to find a positive outlet for the tensions that arose here as the fight raged over the California measure….
No attempt will be made, he and other Equality Utah members said, to overturn Utah’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, passed in 2004. The group will propose, however, striking out language in the amendment that prohibits legal protections for domestic unions.
The proposed laws would also expand protections for same-sex couples in health care and hospitalization decisions, housing and employment and in inheritance issues in probate court.
Here is a list of the 44 members of the California legislature who joined the amicus brief asking the State Supreme Court to strike down Proposition 8:
- Senate President Pro Tempore Don Perata
- Senate President Pro Tempore-elect Darrell Steinberg
- Speaker of the Assembly Karen Bass,
- Assembly Speaker Emeritus Fabian Nunez
- Senator Ron Calderon
- Senator Gilbert Cedillo
- Senator Ellen Corbett
- Senator Christine Kehoe
- Senator Sheila Kuehl
- Senator Alan S. Lowenthal
- Senator Carole Migden
- Senator Alex Padilla
- Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas
- Senator Gloria Romero
- Senator Patricia Wiggins
- Assemblymember Jim Beall, Jr.
- Assemblymember Patty Berg
- Assemblymember Julia Brownley
- Assemblymember Anna M. Caballero
- Assemblymember Charles Calderon
- Assemblymember Joe Coto
- Assemblymember Kevin de Leon
- Assemblymember MarkDeSaulnier
- Assemblymember Mike Eng
- Assemblymember Noreen Evans
- Assemblymember Mike Feuer
- Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes
- Assemblymember Loni Hancock
- Assemblymember Mary Hayashi
- Assemblymember Edward P. Hernandez
- Assemblymember Jared Huffman
- Assemblymember Dave Jones
- Assemblymember Betty Karnette
- Assemblymember Paul Krekorian
- Assemblymember John Laird
- Assemblymember Mark Leno
- Assemblymember Lloyd E. Levine
- Assemblymember Sally J. Lieber
- Assemblymember Fiona Ma
- Assemblymember Anthony J. Portantino
- Assemblymember Lori Saldana
- Assemblymember Jose Solorio
- Assemblymember Sandre R. Swanson
- Assemblymember Lois Wolk
The California Supreme Court could rule as early as this week on a lawsuit that seeks to invalidate Proposition 8, court spokeswoman Lynn Holton said today….
The following documents filed in the challenge to Proposition 8 are available on the website of the California Supreme Court.
S168047: KAREN L. STRAUSS, et al., Petitioners v. MARK B. HORTON, et al.
S168066: ROBIN TYLER, et al., Petitioners v. STATE OF CALIFORNIA, et al.
S168078: CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO et al. Petitioners v. MARK B. HORTON, et al.
California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said late Monday that more than 40 of her colleagues have signed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting a petition to overturn Proposition 8 in the state Supreme Court.
The petition filed last week by gay marriage advocates argues that a simple majority of voters can’t make such a major change to the state Constitution. Among the signers: Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, who called the initiative “a radical and dangerous precedent to set.,” and incoming Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.
Read more at the Sacramento Bee.
Read the amicus brief.
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