Gay marriage ban hangs in the balance

Gay marriage ban hangs in the balance

Rights groups warn of angry protests if California legal ruling goes against them

By Guy Adams in Los Angeles

Monday, 25 May 2009

Five years, thousands of weddings, dozens of lawsuits, and one tense referendum after gay couples were first allowed to tie the knot in California, the state's Supreme Court is poised to once more decide their future.

A panel of seven judges will announce tomorrow whether Proposition Eight, a same-sex marriage ban approved by a narrow majority of voters in November, should now be tossed out because of claims that it was put to the ballot improperly. The court, which has been considering the matter since March, will also reveal the fate of 18,000 couples who married in a five-month period last year when same-sex weddings were allowed. They have been in legal limbo since.

Most experts expect existing marriages to be upheld, but say the court is unlikely to contravene the democratically expressed wish of a slim majority of Californians by overturning Proposition Eight, which was approved by 52 per cent of voters.

Whatever the verdict, a string of demonstrations is already scheduled tomorrow. If the ban is upheld, organisers of at least one event, at San Francisco's City Hall, say large numbers of attendees plan to be "arrested in civil disobedience".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/gay-marriage-ban-hangs-in-the-balance-1690419.html

as they used to say

I'm serious. I'm sitting here, and I'm not fired up. I've always been impressed with San Francisco's mobilization and demonstration power. But I can't honestly think what I would like them to do if the ruling is against us. Trash the state building? Done that. Trash the LDS building at 1900 Pacific? Probably not. Go after Mission Dolores and finish the job? Bad press. Close the city down? Pissing off our friends. Really, the most frustrating thing about losing to these assholes is that there really isn't much we can do to make them personally pay for their actions. And they know that.

that's a favorite "concern" at DU. St Mary's is preferable to Dolores. Already it looks like the inside of an agitator washing machine, No big loss

If you "close down the city" what are you actually doing? None of the people, the sane ones anyway, in SF drive. Certainly not the demographics which betrayed us. Perhaps you might inconvenience some Republican in from the avenues, but more likely some seriously liberal folks from Mill Valley or Tiburon.

Which Catholic congregation was most likely to have voted against us? Our Lady Of Maytag? Or Mission Dolores? IN sheer numbers perhaps Maytag would win, but in percentages Dolores is the more likely culprit. I've attended services in both, BTW. The sure bet would be the Mormon church at 1900 Pacific, but I'm not sure too many folks even know where that is. The fun thing, though, is that the LDS are probably paying for some serious security tomorrow, at least at the LA temple.

As for the relative value of the two churches, Maytag may be ugly but it's new, Dolores could be considered to be a monument to the long history of bad deeds of the Catholic Church.

I could be convinced Dolores would be a devastating blow, irreplaceable. It would be nice to offend all the reasonable people who are willing to live with our status. Many right here on DU.

Newsom has been supportive and I'd hate to screw the city over when the population is generally sympathetic to our cause.

On the other hand, if the Court upholds Prop 8 I expect total silence from the White House - and it may be time to force Obama's hand to address basic issues of our rights.

Can't we just trash the Peninsula or something? Sack San Mateo? Just throwing out ideas here :)

were in California tomorrow I'd be one of those who were arrested for civil disobedience.

While it IS true that the bigots aren't going to change their stripes, you can still reach those who are on the fence and sway them to your cause. One way to do that is to stand up for what you believe in and be very clear about how unfair your lack of equality is. I hope the media is paying attention.

I also hope that when the inevitable repeal effort starts up, that they have better leadership than they did for prop 8.

Q3JR4
Fight the man.

Give me a call anti-prop8ers. I have LOTS of organizational experience and I'm more than willing to be bad for the cause...

http://www.actupny.org/reports/Shepard.html

Granted, we don't live under Ruliani's fascism as much as we used to (thanks for the RNC protest pens, Bloomberg), but I am concerned that there will be a huge backlash if the Supreme Court decides to invalidate the 1800 same-gender marriages.

:kick:

I think the GLBT community has won the war, even though it's no time to lay down arms and give up, because there are plenty of battles ahead.

Iowa and Maine were sort of like Gettysburg - you still might have Chickamauga and Cold Harbor ahead of you, but eventually you end up at Appomatox, with Gay Marriage opponents crying wee wee wee all the way back to Dixie.