USATODAY.com – Judge faults Calif. gay-marriage ban
The San Francisco County Superior Court judge came to the same logical conclusion that I have come to. California does have a 1977 law stating that marriage is a civil contract between a man and a woman. The homophobes put forth a voter-approved initiative in 2000 to clarify that “Only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California”, so that they wouldn’t have to support out-of-state gay marriages either. And while California does have a domestic partership law, Judge Richard Kramer wisely recognized, as I have…
The state maintained that tradition dictates that marriage should be limited to opposite-sex couples. Attorney General Bill Lockyer also cited the state’s domestic-partners law as evidence that California does not discriminate against gays.
But Kramer rejected that argument, citing Brown v. Board of Education — the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down segregated schools.
“The idea that marriage-like rights without marriage is adequate smacks of a concept long rejected by the courts — separate but equal,” the judge wrote.
Tradition?!? Geez, if tradition were a valid basis for legislation, we’d still have slaves picking cotton, whites-only water fountains, witch burnings, blacks in the back of the bus, and medicine men selling tinctures of opium and cannabis from the back of a cart (hmm, maybe some traditions should be maintained…)
Of course, the FEBACs™ (Fundametalist Evangelical Born-Again Christians), homophobes, and rabid wingnuts are frothing at the mouth about this:
“For a single judge to rule there is no conceivable purpose for preserving marriage as one man and one woman is mind-boggling,” said Liberty Counsel President Mathew Staver. “This decision will be gasoline on the fire of the pro-marriage movement in California as well as the rest of the country.”
Preserving marriage… from what? Still no one can answer me the simple question: how does a married homosexual couple threaten married heterosexual couples in any way? How weak is your marriage if Adam & Steve or Heather’s Two Mommies are going to cause the end of it?
Gotta love his new frame, though, Pro-Marriage. That’s funny, because that’s what the gay couples are, too. They’re Pro-Marriage! They’re fighting years of intolerance, discriminatory laws, and a homophobic majority just to get married. What did you have to overcome to get married, Mr. Staver, cold feet and reservations at the church?
Gasoline on the fire, eh? Good. Let’s get it all out on the table. Let’s force every single state legislature to address this issue. Let’s divide up the country again. Red & Blue states weren’t enough, let’s now have Camo & Rainbow states!
(Time for another bumper sticker: GAY MARRIAGE NOW! No Special Rights for Heterosexuals!)
