First Anniversary of CA Gay Marriage Decision

Kate Kendell, Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, one of the lead counsels for the plaintiffs in the In Re Marriage Cases lawsuit has issued a statement on the 1-year anniversary of the May 15, 2008 decision entitled "Fasten Your Seatbelts":

Today is the one year anniversary of the California Supreme Court’s groundbreaking ruling striking down the exclusion of same-sex couples from the right to marry. On the morning of May 15, 2008 I stood on the Supreme Court steps—with hundreds of others—and cheered, the Court’s ruling clasped in my hand. The sun was bright, filling San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza with warmth rivaled only by the elation spreading across the faces of the joyous crowd. I was surrounded by plaintiff couples from our marriage case and our colleagues from Lambda Legal, the ACLU, Equality California, and Our Family Coalition. But what I will always remember—more than anything else—was the profound belief that life had changed forever for every LGBT person in the nation.

We are all familiar with the events that followed: the right-wing groups gathered enough signatures to qualify Prop 8 on the ballot, our long and arduous battle against their campaign of deceit and lies, and the devastating moment when—for the first time in California’s history—voters used the initiative process to strip a fundamental right from a minority group

In the wake of that loss, the promise of lasting change, which I felt one year ago, dimmed almost to nothing. Yet now, a year and a huge setback later, our nation has undergone a sea-change in public attitudes and opinion. In the days following the passage of Prop 8, our community and allies banded together and held rallies and vigils attended by thousands; that energy has found life in new organizations and tireless new leadership. In the past few weeks we have seen a major shift as first Iowa, then Vermont, and then Maine embraced full equality and fairness. Just yesterday, Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire said that he would sign the marriage bill passed by the legislature in that state, making New Hampshire the sixth state to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples. New York and New Jersey loom on the horizon and public opinion is shifting massively in our direction.

The past year has been a glorious and crushing roller coaster—it has been a movement. A civil and human rights movement. While we do not know how the California Supreme Court will rule in our current lawsuit challenging the validity of Prop 8, we are fervently hopeful that the Court will once again embrace justice and equality for all. It is time for the insult that is Prop 8 to be struck down. California is now out of sync with the irresistible tide of awareness that it is not merely legally, but morally and socially, intolerable to relegate same-sex couples to anything less than full marriage equality.

Regardless of how the Court rules, we must all renew our commitment to finish this work—for all of us. Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

The California Supreme Court will be ruling on the constitutionality of Proposition 8 very soon. On every Wednesday and Friday at 10am (until June 3rd), the Court will announce whether the ruling will come out the following business day.

To stay informed of the decision, you can go to Overturn8.nclrights.org