As goes California, so goes the nation
Or so I desperately hope.
I can't even describe how happy I am about the results of the California Supreme Court case re: marriage equality. The 2004 San Francisco revolt remains one of the pieces of civil disobedience closest to my heart, and to see the point of it confirmed, if not the weddings themselves (they'll have to re-marry; my goodness but this will be a busy June for California caterers), just makes me feel good.
Sixty years ago, in 1948, California was the first state in the union to have their their anti-miscegenation laws struck down by their Supreme Court in Perez v. Sharp. Okay, not exactly the first-- there were a batch shortly after the civil war, the last being Ohio-- but California marked the beginning of the end for discrimination in marriage by race, ending nineteen years later with Loving v. Virginia (Mildred Loving just died two weeks ago, rest her soul).
As goes California, so goes the nation. This is a state with a population larger than Canada (a country which, incidentally, now has marriage equality from sea to shining sea). This is a state that influences the rest of us greatly, for good or for ill. Ladies and gentlemen, the train has left the station.
I know that there is going to be an attempt to put discrimination into the state constitution in November, but I believe it will fail. This is a different country than it was four years ago. This is a country where gay relationships have been the equal of straight relationships in Massachussetts for four years, and the world has not collapsed. This is a country that has watched and has learned to fear just a little less.
"There can be no question but that, in recent decades, there has been a fundamental and dramatic transformation in this state's understanding and legal treatment of gay individuals and gay couples. California has repudiated past practices and policies that were based on a once common viewpoint that denigrated the general character and morals of gay individuals, and at one time even characterized homosexuality as a mental illness rather than as simply one of the numerous variables of our common and diverse humanity. This state's current policies and conduct regarding homosexuality recognize that gay individuals are entitled to the same legal rights and the same respect and dignity afforded all other individuals and are protected from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation, and, more specifically, recognize that gay individuals are fully capable of entering into the kind of loving and enduring committed relationships that may serve as the foundation of a family and of responsibly caring for and raising children."
Beautiful.
I can't even describe how happy I am about the results of the California Supreme Court case re: marriage equality. The 2004 San Francisco revolt remains one of the pieces of civil disobedience closest to my heart, and to see the point of it confirmed, if not the weddings themselves (they'll have to re-marry; my goodness but this will be a busy June for California caterers), just makes me feel good.
Sixty years ago, in 1948, California was the first state in the union to have their their anti-miscegenation laws struck down by their Supreme Court in Perez v. Sharp. Okay, not exactly the first-- there were a batch shortly after the civil war, the last being Ohio-- but California marked the beginning of the end for discrimination in marriage by race, ending nineteen years later with Loving v. Virginia (Mildred Loving just died two weeks ago, rest her soul).
As goes California, so goes the nation. This is a state with a population larger than Canada (a country which, incidentally, now has marriage equality from sea to shining sea). This is a state that influences the rest of us greatly, for good or for ill. Ladies and gentlemen, the train has left the station.
I know that there is going to be an attempt to put discrimination into the state constitution in November, but I believe it will fail. This is a different country than it was four years ago. This is a country where gay relationships have been the equal of straight relationships in Massachussetts for four years, and the world has not collapsed. This is a country that has watched and has learned to fear just a little less.
"There can be no question but that, in recent decades, there has been a fundamental and dramatic transformation in this state's understanding and legal treatment of gay individuals and gay couples. California has repudiated past practices and policies that were based on a once common viewpoint that denigrated the general character and morals of gay individuals, and at one time even characterized homosexuality as a mental illness rather than as simply one of the numerous variables of our common and diverse humanity. This state's current policies and conduct regarding homosexuality recognize that gay individuals are entitled to the same legal rights and the same respect and dignity afforded all other individuals and are protected from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation, and, more specifically, recognize that gay individuals are fully capable of entering into the kind of loving and enduring committed relationships that may serve as the foundation of a family and of responsibly caring for and raising children."
Beautiful.