SAN FRANCISCO -- The California Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld same sex marriages that were already performed but upheld voters' rights to ban gay marriage through the state constitution.
An estimated 18,000 gay couples tied the knot before the law took effect. The ruling suggests that gay couples can be afforded equivalent rights to heterosexual married couples but perhaps under a different name.
Gay rights demonstrators flooded the courthouse before the decision and immediately started protesting the ruling. Holding signs and many waving rainbow flags, they chanted "shame on you." Many people also held hands in a chain around an intersection in an act of protest.
"It's not about whether we get to stay married. Our fight is far from over," said Jeannie Rizzo, 62, who was one of the lead plaintiffs along with her wife, Polly Cooper. "I have about 20 years left on this earth, and I'm going to continue to fight for equality every day."
Rizzo and Cooper had argued that the Legislature should have approved the change to the California constitution because of the vote's impact on the equal protection clause.
But Chief Justice Ron George, writing the 6-1 decision, said the people have a right, through the ballot box, to change their constitution.
"In a sense, petitioners' and the attorney general's complaint is that it is just too easy to amend the California constitution through the initiative process. But it is not a proper function of this court to curtail that process; we are constitutionally bound to uphold it," the ruling said.
The court is the same one that last May ruled it unconstitutional to deny gay couples the right to marry. That led to the constitutional amendment offered on the ballot last November.
"After comparing this initiative measure to the many other constitutional changes that have been reviewed and evaluated in numerous prior decisions of this court, we conclude Proposition 8 constitutes a constitutional amendment rather than a constitutional revision," the ruling said.
Gay rights activists say they plan to return to voters as early as next year with a bid to repeal Proposition 8.
Click here to read the opinion.
Despite today's flawed court ruling, momentum for the freedom to marry continues across the nation. Since April, three more states-Iowa through court decision and Vermont and Maine through legislative action-have the freedom to marry, joining Massachusetts and Connecticut.
All eyes are now on New York, New Hampshire, and New Jersey, whose governors have pledged to sign the pending freedom to marry bills once they reach their desks. New York's Assembly passed the marriage bill in May, and political leaders from across the state, including New York City's Independent/Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, have called on the State Senate to follow suit in the next few weeks. New Hampshire's Senate already approved the bill, but the House is still studying it in committee.
As the groundwork for a new ballot initiative to restore the freedom to marry in California and overturn Proposition 8 begins, rallies and opportunities for people to voice their disapproval of this decision and get involved with efforts to overturn this discrimination will take place across the state of California and the entire country over the next week.
An estimated 18,000 gay couples tied the knot before the law took effect. The ruling suggests that gay couples can be afforded equivalent rights to heterosexual married couples but perhaps under a different name.
Gay rights demonstrators flooded the courthouse before the decision and immediately started protesting the ruling. Holding signs and many waving rainbow flags, they chanted "shame on you." Many people also held hands in a chain around an intersection in an act of protest.
"It's not about whether we get to stay married. Our fight is far from over," said Jeannie Rizzo, 62, who was one of the lead plaintiffs along with her wife, Polly Cooper. "I have about 20 years left on this earth, and I'm going to continue to fight for equality every day."
Rizzo and Cooper had argued that the Legislature should have approved the change to the California constitution because of the vote's impact on the equal protection clause.
But Chief Justice Ron George, writing the 6-1 decision, said the people have a right, through the ballot box, to change their constitution.
"In a sense, petitioners' and the attorney general's complaint is that it is just too easy to amend the California constitution through the initiative process. But it is not a proper function of this court to curtail that process; we are constitutionally bound to uphold it," the ruling said.
The court is the same one that last May ruled it unconstitutional to deny gay couples the right to marry. That led to the constitutional amendment offered on the ballot last November.
"After comparing this initiative measure to the many other constitutional changes that have been reviewed and evaluated in numerous prior decisions of this court, we conclude Proposition 8 constitutes a constitutional amendment rather than a constitutional revision," the ruling said.
Gay rights activists say they plan to return to voters as early as next year with a bid to repeal Proposition 8.
Click here to read the opinion.
Despite today's flawed court ruling, momentum for the freedom to marry continues across the nation. Since April, three more states-Iowa through court decision and Vermont and Maine through legislative action-have the freedom to marry, joining Massachusetts and Connecticut.
All eyes are now on New York, New Hampshire, and New Jersey, whose governors have pledged to sign the pending freedom to marry bills once they reach their desks. New York's Assembly passed the marriage bill in May, and political leaders from across the state, including New York City's Independent/Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, have called on the State Senate to follow suit in the next few weeks. New Hampshire's Senate already approved the bill, but the House is still studying it in committee.
As the groundwork for a new ballot initiative to restore the freedom to marry in California and overturn Proposition 8 begins, rallies and opportunities for people to voice their disapproval of this decision and get involved with efforts to overturn this discrimination will take place across the state of California and the entire country over the next week.
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