| Courtesy of Leanne Waldal |
| Watson (on the right) and her wife, Leanne Waldal, are one of the 18,000 same-sex couples who remain legally married after today's court decision. |
At this point it seems like a given that California voters will consider the issue of same-sex marriage in the near future. The strategic question being asked by leaders in the gay community is whether an initiative undoing Prop. 8 would have a better chance of passing next year or in three years.
Equality California posted an interesting memo on its Web site today listing the pros and cons of going to the ballot next year versus waiting until 2012:
| One problematic book. |
The press release compares letting gay people stay married after today's ruling to letting slaves stay owned in America after slavery was abolished. Yep. They've actually brought our country's greatest civil rights victory into an argument about taking civil rights away from another minority group.
"A constitutional amendment like this one means that going forward, that which happened in the past is no longer recognized," the release stated. "When the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, slavery was abolished. Slave holders could not claim grandfather rights to own another person."
We've been live-tweeting the Prop. 8 happenings over at @SF_Weekly for the past few hours but have also been keeping a close eye on the response from our fellow twits. Here's a sampling of the mixed (but predictable) sentiments:
@roxaloxa: California fails, sad day.
@JayRodriguez: Right now Iowans are looking at Californians and saying, "Fucking rednecks."
@ginatrapani: California upholds Prop 8; my legal marriage (1 of 18,000) stands. *facepalm*
@dmuth: F*ck you, California. Thanks for trampling on human rights
@mindshifter: Prop 8 upheld. Religion poisons everything.
@littlekfru: I-O-W-A. IOWA can legalize gay marriage but California can't keep their law on the books? WTF is up with that. Complete fail. #fail #prop8
@jillybiehn: C'mon, Cali, gay people have just as much right to lose half their stuff as everyone else.
@KenNiko: Welcome to America, 1949... oh, wait... I mean 2009.
@TaylorBarr: I am saddened by the court's prop8 ruling in California it is depressing that so much intolerance still exists in this world
@AGM13: Prop 8 upheld. Popular vote rules! Marriage = man and woman.
@mattmorris: Still married. Angry, though, that my marriage certificate just became a collector's item. #prop8
@ Jean_Wennlund: I hope there are riots.
@Saliana Generally I agree, but not all churches are against people's rights. Mine marches in prop8 protests and has openly gay ministers.
itslikemalloryy: Why is everyone criticizing California Supreme? that president that you voted for, yeah, he's against gay marriage too. go get him.
@thatgirlallison: California sucks! i'm ashamed to have been born there!
@ginatrapani: Framing my limited edition marriage certificate. WTF Supreme Court?
@vtmnwtr: :( :( :( :( :( prop8
The Supreme Court voted 6-1 to uphold Prop. 8, the November ballot initiative banning same-sex marriages. That's not exactly a surprise, considering the flavor of the questions from the justices during oral arguments a couple of months ago. It was more unclear what the justices would do about the 18,000 gay marriages that took place last year before Prop. 8 was passed. Today the justices decided that the initiative wasn't retroactive and those couples will remain married.
SF Weekly reporter Peter Jamison was down at the state Supreme Court earlier and said the crowd booed when the ruling came down and briefly chanted "Shame on you!" Peter also saw people already gathering signatures for a ballot initiative to undo Prop. 8.
Meanwhile, our online news editor Joe Eskenazi says things are quiet down in the Castro for now. News crews even complained to him, "It's so dead down here."
We'll keep adding updates during the day about the aftermath of the decision on this blog and also on Twitter.
