Friday, May 16, 2008

First Comes Love, Second Comes Marriage? (Sarcastic Pun Intended)

A couple of days ago, the California Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that it is unconstitutional to exclude same-sex couples from the legal institution of "marriage," even if such couples are granted the right to enter into "domestic partnerships" or "civil unions" which provide most, or even all, of the same rights as "marriage."

The Court -- comprised of six out of seven Republican-appointed judges -- was not based on the U.S. Constitution, but rather on the California State Constitution's guarantee of the "right to marry" and its guarantee of "equal protection" under the law.

The Court took great pains to emphasize at the outset that its ruling had nothing to do with the political views of the judges with regard to gay marriage, but rather, was based solely on its legal analysis of past precedent interpreting the relevant provisions of the California State Constitution.

Given their ignorance of legal precedents in California law, you can bet your bottom dollar that those pontificating gasbags will be denouncing hysterically the ruling and try to negate it by any means necessary. And that includes the holy rollers from the evangelical right and those whom they roll in the political hay with.

Let's face it, folks. The world did not go straight to hell when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1967 that Virginia's law outlawing interracial marriage was unconstitutional. And California will not go straight to hell now that gay marriage was legalized. As a couplet from a 1950's Frank Sinatra tune succinctly states, "Love and marriage, love and marriage/drawn together like a horse and carriage."

All this led me to write an e-mail to the great feminist comic Robin Tyler, one of the plaintiffs in the civil case:

Dear Robin:

May I offer you my sincerest congradulations on winning the right to marry the one you love as a result of the California Supreme Court ruling that ruled the ban on gay and lesbian marriages unconstitutional.

Isn't it ironic that, given that six of the seven Supremes sitting in the state court were Republican appointees, it was those considered part of the GOP that helped put a stop to that sort of faith-based social engineering?

Now that the court declared you and your partner legally married, when will you finally kiss the bride? (Proverbally speaking, of course)


Sincerely,

John Arthur Lowe

Much to my surprise, Robin responded:

Thanks John.

I will finally get to kiss the bride when the court rejects the right wing's application to have the marriages stayed for 4 months.

If you are in L.A., we did a press conference this morning in front of the LA office of the CA Supreme Court, so you can tune in and see us filing a brief not to stay the marriages.

Meanwhile, thanks for your support. (I also was in the Industry. I was a comic for 30 years)

With Pride,

Robin



Gay marriage. It's there. It's now here in California. It's a fact of life. Get used to it. If you can't, then join a Geshalt group and get over yourselves.

Somewhere out there, Richard and Mildred Loving are in heaven, smiling down upon the rest of us and wondering what the fuss is all about.

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