Current mood:	schmaltzy
Entry tags:	courts, lgbt

I love to cry at weddings: good news from CA Supremes
Via a story at Talk Left from my long time fave Big Tent Democrat:

Quoting the NYT (subscriber only) story:

The California Supreme Court has overturned a ban on gay marriage, paving the way for California to become the second state where gay and lesbian residents can marry. The justices released the 4-3 decision Thursday, saying that domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage in an opinion written by Chief Justice Ron George.

Yeehaw! I've no doubt that there will be a lame-ass initiative on the ballot to overturn the court's decision with a big scary "oh noes, teh gay!" saturation ad campaign, but I hope it won't work. For one thing, Californians are so fed up with our broken initiative system that many just vote "No" reflexively because they're tired of figuring out what the heck the sponsors are really trying to accomplish. (Srsly, I'll never get back the hours and hours I've spent researching props at election time.) I'm also not so sure that religious conservatives here are quite as fixated on this issue as they may be some other places. Could be wrong on that.

Churches have every right to determine who they will and will not marry, but marriage is recognized as a civil matter. Maybe if we went the way of European countries where a visit to the registry office for the legal marriage precedes and is separate from any form of religious ceremony, it would be easier to make a distinction between the two things.