Victory!

[gridlore]

Court invalidates California's ban on same-sex marriage

Gay and lesbian couples in California have a constitutional right to marry, a San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled Monday.

The ruling by Judge Richard Kramer is just the first step in a case that is headed for the state Supreme Court, probably sometime next year. But it marks the first time that a California judge has declared unconstitutional the state law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

"I never thought I would see it in my lifetime," a jubilant Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said outside the courthouse. "It's an amazing day for justice, an amazing day for lesbian and gay families."

The ruling comes more than a year after about 4,000 same-sex couples exchanged marriage vows at San Francisco City Hall after Mayor Gavin Newsom ordered that the city clerk issue them marriage licenses. The state Supreme Court declared the marriages invalid last August and ruled that Newsom had exceeded his authority in giving the marriages the go-ahead.

The war isn't over yet, but this is an important win.

Comments

[aerothorn.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of annoyed how everyone always says "lesbian and gay" rights these days. As far as I know, gay used to just be another word for homosexual, and lesbian simply meant specifically a homosexual woman. It's come to be sort of like actresses and actors in that sense, how actor is anyone who acts yet people have come to use it as only male actors and call female actors 'actresses'.