Big Fat Story
Will 18,000 same-sex marriages survive?
Thousands will converge at the State Supreme Court in San Francisco today as seven justices hear oral arguments on whether to uphold Proposition 8. The question they’re attempting to settle: whether a ballot initiative can legally eliminate the state’s recognized rights for minorities (in this case gays and lesbians). Some lawyers argue that the measure was an illegal constitutional revision, rather than a more limited amendment, according to the Los Angeles Times. The decision will also determine whether the 18,000 same-sex marriages conducted before the initiative passed will remain valid. Most legal analysts expect that the court will win enough votes to uphold existing marriages but not enough to overturn Proposition 8, according to the LA Times.
Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP Photo
Rousing speeches in defense of gay rights.
This year’s awards show, airing three months after Prop 8 passed, featured two rousing personal protests against the initiative. Upon accepting his Best Actor Oscar for his role as a gay activist in Milk, Sean Penn, to no one’s surprise, utilized the moment to call out Californians who’d voted in favor of it. "It is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that way of support." But the night’s most stirring address came from Dustin Lance Black, who won Best Screenplay for Milk. Black recalled the pressure his Mormon mother felt not to accept his sexuality and her decision to do so anyway. The speech sparked a spontaneous roar of audience approval, a powerful endorsement for gay rights before an audience of 33.5 million.
California’s supreme-court justices are under intense pressure, since gay-marriage opponents have threatened to mount a campaigns to boot justices who vote to overturn the initiative. It wouldn’t be the first time. Every 12 years, Californians get the chance to reconfirm state judges, which they virtually always do—except when a judge makes an unpopular ruling in a high-profile case. Today could be such an occasion. In 1986, California voters refused to retain Chief Justice Rose Bird and two of her colleagues following a series of controversial decisions to overturn death sentences for criminals. This time around, two justices are up for retention in 2010, including Ronald George, who wrote the majority opinion in California’s original amendment legalizing gay marriage. If he rules against Proposition 8, expect a backlash—“That is the short course toward impeachment,” says one law professor. The other justice on the upcoming ballot is Ming Chin, a dissenter from the George opinion who expects to draw flack from gay-marriage supporters if Prop 8 is upheld. While they would never admit to considering their job security in a ruling, the ghosts of history’s fallen judges are surely on their minds.
Photo: Paul Sakuma / AP Photo
Prop 8 Goes To Court
It’s been four months since California voters approved the election’s most contentious ballot initiative, the anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8. The state constitutional amendment—which defines marriage as only between a man and a woman—sparked national outrage from gay-rights supporters, as well as some legal experts, who argue the measure was an illegal constitutional revision. Could the initiative—which has drawn the wrath of everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Melissa Ethridge to Sean Penn—go up in flames?
The culture wars aren't over yet.
Upon assuming the Republican National Committee chair, the gaffe-prone Steele promised a makeover of the party—he would reach out to minorities shunned by Republicans in the past, as well as moderates on the issue of gay marriage. But soon after promising this “off the hook” revamp, as he called it, Steele made it clear which side of Prop 8 he stands on when asked by a conservative radio talk-show host what he thought of civil unions for gay couples. "No, no, no,” Steele responded. “What would we do that for? What are you crazy? No. Why would we backslide on a core, founding value of this country. I mean, this isn't something that you just kind of like, 'Oh, well, today I feel, you know, loosey-goosey on marriage.'" So much for centrism.
Photo: Chris Gardner / AP Photo
She became the public face of the gay community’s outrage.
Perhaps no boldfaced name has been as vocally angry about Proposition 8 as musician and gay activist Melissa Etheridge, a California citizen who took the ballot initiative’s passage as a personal affront. Immediately after it passed, Etheridge declared—via Daily Beast editorial—that she would no longer pay state taxes as a newly disenfranchised citizen. A month later she condemned Barack Obama’s inclusion of evangelical pastor Rick Warren, a gay-marriage opponent, in his inauguration. And on The View in December, she evoked Thomas Jefferson’s warnings about the “tyranny of the majority” to stress that a “vote to take away rights is very un-American.” But according to Etheridge’s publicist, the fiery guitarist will be at the courthouse in spirit only today.
Photo: Reed Saxon / AP Photo
What better way to spread the word against an anti-gay initiative than with a musical? The cleverly titled Prop 8: The Musical did just that. The rollicking, star-studded retrospective that chronicles the defeat suffered by the gay-rights movement closes with a rousing number that offers hope for the future. (Its strongest argument: Gay marriage will save the economy!) Jack Black plays Jesus, Neil Patrick Harris sings, and John C. Reilly is a good-for-nothing anti-gay Bible thumper. Marc Shaiman, the creator of the musical and composer of Hairspray, was inspired to film the video after learning that the musical director of Sacramento’s California Musical Theater had been in favor of Prop 8.
TotalRecall9
The people have spoken. Marriage is between a man and a woman!!! Stop crying because you can't counterfeit your own money!
mintvagoo
I really hope this gets overturned, just to chap the evangelical wing-nuts. Who cares, if they want to get married--let them.
MarineLtCol
Is this the new fad amongst Democrats? If you don't like the outcome of how the population voted on an issue or a candidate, then you whine and bitch and moan? All the while demanding that conservatives "suck it up" and "deal with the fact that he won" when we voice opposition to the Obama administration? Proposition 8 passed as a referendum. The people of CA have spoken and they don't support gay marriage. "DEAL WITH IT".
Johnny-Boy
I am a married man who has always been heterosexual, and republican, that is, until the November '08 presidential election. I have done a lot of soul searching about this issue since it came to the front of public debate because of proposition 8 in California.
While I can understand the position and concerns of the traditional "right" thinking folks, I have to say that I personally believe that our America is supposed to stand for EQUAL RIGHTS, not to mention the words of our founding fathers; "LIFE LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPIENESS"
To prohibit homosexuals from enjoying the same rights as everyone else just goes against the grain of what we are supposed to be all about.
Either this nation is a nation of equal rights or it is not. I think it's time to finally put our money where our mouths are, so to speak.
Whether we ALL like it or not, the gay community is not a small minority, a minority yes, small no. and to maintain a stance that is in direct conflict with the equality that we, as Americans, shout from the hilltop to the rest of the world.
My Father use to tell me that doing the right thing DOES NOT mean doing the easy thing, or just the things we like. It means doing what is right, regardless of how you personally feel about it.
I believe that little pearl of wisdom applies here.
Martyz42
Marriage is a word, civil union is two words but the difference is in the word "HOLY" Take that type of BS out of the thinking of Americans & everything else falls into place. This is not about who can & who can get married, this is not about who can & can not get an abortion, this is about "RELIGION" & ALL THE B.S. IT HAS WITH IT... Take the whole holy, religious, god stuff & put it where it belongs (trash can) & al else will be fine....
Rdschenkel
As to civil liberties, homosexuals enjoy equal protection if treated the same under the law. Equal opportunity to benefits satisfies this, calling it "marriage" goes above and beyond.
A civil union also satisfies this, but the majority of voters may feel that marriage applies to the man-woman procreative relationship traditionally.
lizburke1
Why can heteros marry multiple times, divorce at at 50% rate yet the tragic Right still consider marriage a sacred union. I wonder how many of those screaming to "save" marriage" have been married and divorced. Utter nonsense. Gay, straight, we are all supposed to be equal in this country, or is that something we just tell the rest of the world to make us feel better. Human Man created marriage, God had nothing to do with it. And if it is so Godly, then please stop making a mockery of it and stop the divorces. Hypocrites to the end. Look, if a gay couple wants to get married, tell me EXACTLY how that will effect your life for the worst. Cause I'd rather have a gay couple married for a lifetime than a straight person marrying again for the 5th time. I actually have such a friend, she just married her 3rd husband again and she is under 40. How is that sacred?
CarolynB
...a dissenter from the George opinion who expects to draw flack from gay marriage supporters...
It's "flak," people! As in "anti-aircraft weapons fire", not "flack" as in "PR person."
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n--Y--MrRepublicanImUrHuckleberry
"The principle of equality is a bedrock foundation of respect for basic human rights," said Scott Long, director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights program at Human Rights Watch. "California should respect the values enshrined in its constitution and in international human rights law and continue to ensure that all Californians are entitled to equal protection of the laws." The amicus brief was filed by Human Rights Watch and its California North and California South Committees - networks of volunteer human rights advocates who support and further the organization's work in California.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/01/18/california-no-exceptions-equality
boatscain2003
The trouble I find most with the Prop 8 issue is the overwhelming Republican opposition. They scream for government to stay the hell out of anything that has to do money because freedom is what makes this country great, but bring it to the civil liberties table and we're all back to the law books. I saw the ridiculous commercials the supporters of Prop 8 paid for and they were meant to divide a population with the onset of fear through lies. The one I found particularly ridiculous was the one where this couple showed a children's book and explained how gay marriage was taught in schools where gay marriage was legal. I don't remember being taught anything about marriage in school, period. In my personal opinion marriage is a black and repugnant sore on human living, but who am I to deprive anyone of it? No one, and neither are the numbskulls who supported Prop 8.
And to MrRepublican, it is your right to call me (a straight man) an idiot, your right to be one, and hopefully soon, gay people's right to get married. If you're in the party of smaller government with fewer regulations, you should be on the side of civil liberties. You can't have it both ways, otherwise it's hypocrisy.
dm10003
conservatives, republicans, and especially the religious basically want to punish gays.
any way they can.
with any pretzel logic they can grasp or invent.
are they afraid that gays will marry and create hate and sick families?
or are they afraid that gays will marry and create love and happy families?
are they trying to please or impress their bigoted parents or peers?
or are they afraid of their bigoted peers rejection?
VinceP1974
Leftists are the supreme Drama Queens. Someone disagrees with them and it's "hate".
They rant and rail and demonize whole portions of the population , they engage in the spreading of absurd lies and slanderous characterizations of people they oppose... they never rebuke an ally of thiers for their extreme rhetoric and yet Conservatives are the haters.
Suuuuure. I know you folks on the Left think very highly of your intelligence but collectively you all suck in trying to explain other people and their motivations.
Marriage is a relationship of one man to one or more women.. in all human societies.
Gay people have the same right to marry someone of the opposite gender as anyone else.
You dont get to redefine marriage.. no one gets to. Marriage is what it is.
I read that in California there have been civil unions that are identical in their provision of marriage's legal bounties.
What is wrong with that? You have to keep pushing more and more.
Maybe you thought no one push backed every time you pushed in the past.
Well I recommend against pushing more. You have no idea how agitated people are. Watching the Leftists in the White House destroy the country and Constitution. Feeling disenfranchised, terrified for their family's future.
And you folks are going to resurrect an issue they have voted on twice?
You think you're helping your cause but really you're not.
So go ahead and do your gay agitation.
Dont forget what happened last time there was a Democrat Executive and Congress and the gay thing was pushed one year before the Midterm election.
So go ahead..
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