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Court overturns Prop. 8

2010 August 4 at 2:27 PM (2010, GLBTQI rights, Prop. 8)

This afternoon, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California overturned Prop. 8 on due process and equal protection grounds (PDF of the decision). At last, thank goodness, we have a step forward–but really, it’s a step that brings us right back to where we were in May 2008, when the state supreme court overturned the previous ballot initative-passed ban on same-sex marriage. It’s not so much an unequivocal step forward as it is a halt to the backsliding and the Court hauling the state out of the pit half of the population hurled it into. Still, to the couples who married in the brief summer of 2008, to the couples who wanted to get married after that cold night when Prop. 8 passed, and to everyone who cares about civil rights and equality for all, this ruling is wonderful. It’s a sign that the court can protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority and that even when bigotry holds sway, we can win. Eventually, we will win.

Back when CA Supreme Court was ruling on the procedural legality of Prop. 8, I wrote,

This decision will be a ruling once more on our humanity, on our dignity and our worth as equal human beings. Yes, the ruling is about marriage rights, but it’s apparent from looking at the ads and rhetoric of the anti-marriage equality side that the issue at hand is much broader. Are GLBTQI people indeed people, or are we monsters? By virtue of our nature, do we deserve to be shoved into the closet and hidden away so that we don’t corrupt the minds of (assumed to be straight) little children with our existence? Are our lives political footballs to be punted around for points until the election’s over and we’re told to just wait a little longer, our expectations are unreasonable and our demands unimportant? …

I love this city and I love this state, but if the government decides once again that I do not have the rights to equality that are inherent to me by virtue of my humanity, if it decides once again to codify my second-class status into law, not content to leave it unspoken, assumed, and societally enforced, what place will there be for me here? [May 2009]

The court has ruled, and it stripped all the “concern for the children” and “sanctity of marriage” horseshit away from Prop. 8 and exposed its truth, that it was a bigoted attempt to legally classify queer people as inferior to straight people. In the conclusion to his ruling, Judge Walker wrote,

Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that oppositesex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

This decision was a ruling on our humanity, on our dignity and our worth as equal human beings, and it affirmed that we are indeed people, who have the right to live and love in public. For once, we weren’t told that we had to wait a little longer–the importance of our demands was acknowledged and they were treated as a serious question of law.

I honestly didn’t think this day would come until the Supreme Court took up the case–and I wasn’t confident that they’d rule in support of equality. The composition of the Court is too close. I was still going to try, of course, and was briefly involved in an effort to put a repeal of Prop. 8 on the ballot for 2010, and would have supported it in 2012. This decision, though, circumvents all of the time, money, and labor that another ballot initiative would have required, and it’s an affirmation that the court system can work as it ought to. Thank god.

There’s a rally this evening at Castro, and a march from there to City Hall. I recall the last time I marched down Market Street for GLBTQI rights, a few nights after the 2008 election. What a relief and what a joy it’ll be to march in celebration tonight.