SAN FRANCISCO — The state Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, but also decided that the estimated 18,000 gay couples who tied the knot before the law took effect will stay wed.
The justices rejected an argument from gay-rights activists that the ban revised the California constitution's equal protection clause to such a dramatic degree that it first needed the Legislature's approval.
The announcement of the decision caused outcry among a sea of demonstrators who gathered in front of the San Francisco courthouse awaiting the ruling.
Proposition 8 superseded the state Supreme Court's May 2008 ruling that legalized same-sex unions by changing the state constitution to outlaw them. In that 4-3 decision, the court majority invalidated California's marriage statutes, holding that denying same-sex couples the right to wed amounted to state-sanctioned discrimination.
Since that March hearing, three other states — Iowa, Maine and Vermont — have joined Massachusetts and Connecticut in making same-sex marriage legal. The trend had given gay-rights advocates hope that the court might elect to make California the sixth state to extend marriage to gays and lesbians.
Gay-rights advocates scheduled marches throughout California and in several other states for Tuesday evening to protest the latest ruling.
Activists in the San Francisco Bay area, including several clergy members, said they planned to block the street outside the courthouse and to be arrested in a mass show of civil disobedience if the justices did not invalidate Prop 8.
"Words are not enough right now. We believe it's time to put our bodies on the line to show that separate is not equal," said Kip Williams, an activist with One Struggle, One Fight, a group that was launched in response to Proposition 8's passage.
About 400 same-sex marriage supporters attended an interfaith prayer service held Monday night at San Francisco's Episcopal Grace Cathedral.
The Rev. Roland Stringfellow, with the Pacific School of Religion, said the service was meant to show how many communities of faith stand with gay couples on this issue. Among those to offer prayers were a Sikh mother, a Buddhist nun, a Jewish rabbi and Episcopal Bishop Marc Andrus.
Proposition 8's supporters, meanwhile, have not planned any organized events to accompany the decision.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30936298/
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Twitter is basically going nuts right now. As one of the best Twitter updates said, "California will now be known as the state that let the limiting power of a majority secure the inequality of a minority."
What a disappointing decision. Today was California's chance to correct their course and do what's right. Instead, the California Supreme Court totally blew it. The most offensive part? It was a 6-1 decision. Not even close.
