I'm still in the Washington, D.C. area but I wanted to report the good news about the South Africa parliament giving final approval by a vote of 230 to 41 the civil union ("gay marriage") bill I blogged about last week. South Africa becomes the fifth country in the world (after The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada) to allow same-sex couples to enter into the identical state-recognized legal relationships as heterosexual couples.
In other marriage news, the City and County of San Francisco has decided to appeal the negative appellate decision from last month to the California State Supreme Court. Sadly, the name of the case will no longer be Woo v. Lockyer, and not only because the Attorney General of the state of California is changing from Bill Lockyer to Jerry Brown. (Lockyer was elected to the position of State Treasurer last Tuesday. Current Mayor of Oakland and former Governor of Caifornia Jerry Brown was elected Attorney General one week ago.) The reason is that lead plaintiff couple Lancy Woo and Christy Chung have announced that they have separated. They were together for 18 years and have a 7-year old daughter.
Sadly, this is the second high profile long term lesbian relationship which has been a casualty in the fight for marriage equality in the United States. The lead plaintiff couple (Hillary and Julie Goodridge) in the successful Massachusetts marriage case Goodridge vs Department of Public Health announced this summer they had separated (and would divorce) after nearly 2 years of marriage and nearl 21 years of living together. They have a 10 year old daughter, Annie.
It's not easy being a gay and lesbian activist in the spotlight, maybe that's why after 20 years, Keith Boykin is giving it up also.
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