Prop 8 Upheld in Cali but Existing Marriages Still Legal

Perhaps your lover tied you up in full restraints and a ball gag this Memorial Day weekend and just released you this morning. If that’s the case, here’s the latest news not involving Jon and Kate:

On May 26, California Supreme Court voted to uphold Proposition 8, which makes gay marriage once again illegal. However, the 18,000 couples who were married between May and November 2008, when a law passed stating that Prop 8 is unconstitutional, are still legally married in the eyes of the California courts.

So if you are a gay or lesbian couple in California who got cold feet at the altar – you’re out of luck for now. He who hesitates is lost (hopefully only temporarily).

An article in the Christian Science Monitor reports Chief Justice Ronald George as writing that only the term “marriage” is withheld, and same-sex couples in a civil union will have the same rights as married heterosexual couples. Essentially, he’s implying the “spirit” of marriage will remain for gay couples – just not the terminology.

It feels like an empty victory, if it can be called any “victory” at all. Language is powerful and to offer gay and lesbian couples the same rights in a civil union as married  heterosexual couples enjoy smacks of unconstitutional segregation. Didn’t we (i.e., the United States) determine in the 60s that “separate but equal” isn’t really equal at all?

From an economic standpoint – which I’ve talked about before – at least the GLBT community receives the same financial benefits as straight married couples. But same-sex couples have made it abundantly clear that their argument is not about money, but about love and equality.

Meanwhile, with the latest ruling, the state of California loses any financial benefits of simply upholding Prop 8 and not recognizing any sort of legal union for same-sex couples. Maybe I was wrong and it’s not always about money – at least not entirely?

For reasons unfathomable to me in the liberal state of California, the decision seems to be more about preserving the so-called religious sanctity of the word (and concept of) marriage. Which brings us back to a very compelling argument about separation of church and state.

At this point, your happily married, mostly-heterosexual blogger – who really isn’t affected in either way by the whole argument other than as a human being and an American who believes in civil rights for all – just wants to throw up her arms in disgust and shout that either way you slice it: “Proposition 8 is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!”

I’m not alone in that sentiment, either. Following the ruling, protest rallies and marches ensued in 100 major cities across the country. One of the largest took place in New York, beginning at Sheridan Place and ending in Union Square. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn implored the 1000-person crowd to lobby the state senate for gay marriage to be legalized in New York.

Iowa, Vermont, and Maine recently voted to legalize gay marriages, joining Massachusetts, where same-sex marriages have been legal since 2004.

I understand this is an extremely serious matter and we can only hope that public opinion and the GLBT community will once again sway lawmakers into legalizing gay marriage again – in California and in the remaining states. I can practically feel the frustration of Californians after all they’ve been through in fighting for their rights. But to end this post on a lighthearted note, I thought I would share this witty – and I hope facetious! — blog post about why gay marriage *isn’t* fair to straight couples, especially brides-to-be!

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