In a 6-to-1 ruling California’s Supreme Court upheld the voter-approved Prop 8 – the ban on same-sex marriage – this morning.
The only consolation is that the court didn’t void marriage licences of the estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who hurriedly said their vows before the ban went into effect. Those couples are still considered married.
The court majority justified its decision by saying it sided with Californians’ right to change their constitution through the ballot box.
Justice Carlos Moreno, the lone dissenting vote, cited equality as the core issue.
“Promising equal treatment to some is fundamentally different from promising equal treatment for all,” Moreno said.
“Promising treatment that is almost equal is fundamentally different from ensuring truly equal treatment.”
Today my thoughts turn to gay couples I know, people who make our communities a better place through their incredible contributions – taxes, time, talent, energy, enthusiasm, ideas, friendship, goodwill and good works.
These people are not a lesser class of citizen, but that’s exactly how Prop 8 treats them, and that’s exactly how the California Supreme Court treated them when it upheld the ban upon same-sex marriages.
In my heart of hearts I believe that those who voted for Prop 8 swallowed a punitive, fear-filled, propaganda-packed bill of crap. I believe those voters didn’t realize the depths of damage and heartache the proposition’s passage would wreak upon innocent people. I believe that many Prop 8 backers turned their personal, moral disapproval into government-sanctioned punishment.
I offer my deepest condolences to those gay couples who didn’t find the love of their lives soon enough to plan a wedding and quickly marry during that constricted June-through-early November legal window. You missed your golden opportunity to experience marital equality in the state of California.
I also offer my condolences to those gay couples who found the love of their lives after November. Too late. No legal weddings for you.
And condolences to us all for living in a nation, in this time when discrimination varies wildly from state to state, where Americans preach to the world about human rights and equality, but here at home we fall woefully short when it comes to standing up for love – love for all.
Click here for AP video report.
Doni Greenberg is a journalist and co-publisher of Food for Thought: A News Cafe. She lives in Igo, Calif.
