It took a gay Republican judge with libertarian leanings to issue
from the bench, in a US District courthouse in San Francisco, one of
the warmest testimonials to the married state since Erasmus. Last
Wednesday Vaughan R. Walker struck down California's ban on gay
marriage, prompting ecstatic rejoicing among a mostly gay crowd
outside the courthouse. His ruling was the first in the country to
strike down a marriage ban on federal constitutional grounds.
Walker ruled that a California referendum known as Proposition 8,
mostly paid for by the Mormons, passed in 2008 and declaring marriage
in the state was legal only when transacted between men and women,
violates the Equal Protection Clause of the US Constitution because
it discriminates against gay men and lesbians by denying them a right
to marry the person of their choice, whereas heterosexual men and
women may do so freely.
A final judicial verdict is years away, because appeals will now wend
their way slowly through the system until they reach the US Supreme
Court, six of whose nine current members are Catholics.
[...]
Same-sex marriage was hailed in Judge Walker's courtroom as a social
stabilizer, an essentially conservative force. It seems, there are
more than than 107,000 same-sex couples living in California and in
Judge Walker's approving resume of testimony, "are similar to married
couples. According to Census 2000, they live throughout the state,
are racially and ethnically diverse, have partners who depend upon
one another financially, and actively participate in California's
economy. Census data also show that 18 per cent of same-sex couples
in California are raising children." Mind you, California has 37
million people in it, so 200,000 or so people in same-sex stable
relations is a pretty small drop in the turkey baster.
<http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn08062010.html>Link