Great news from California!
The California state Supreme Court ruled today that domestic partnership is
not equal to marriage...that by giving them different names, it tends to indicate
a lower status to gay relationships. Chief Justice Ronald George wrote:
"...particularly in light of the historic disparagement of and discrimination
against gay persons, there is a very significant risk that retaining a distinction
in nomenclature with regard to this most fundamental of relationships whereby
the term "marriage" is denied only to same-sex couples inevitably
will cause the new parallel institution that has been made available to those
couples to be viewed as of a lesser stature than marriage and, in effect,
as a mark of second class citizenship."
This ruling could open the door for same-sex marriage in California as soon
as 30 days from now. Realistically however, this is just the newest (but encouraging)
step in the struggle for marriage equality. The right-wing opposition is putting
on a push to get a marriage-as-one-man-and-one-woman amendment on the November
ballot. Just like Florida. This is going to be a high stakes election.
11:41:05 PM 
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