TrashDispatch: California Legalizes Gay Marriage!

Trash Dispatch: California Legalizes Gay Marriage!

In a 4-3 decision, the justices rule that people have a fundamental right to marry the person of their choice and that gender restrictions violate the state Constitution’s equal protection guarantees.

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court decided today that same-sex couples should be permitted to wed, ruling that gay unions must be given the “respect and dignity” of marriage.

In a 4-3 vote, the court became the first in the country to apply the constitutional protections reserved for race and gender to sexual orientation. The Massachusetts high court struck down bans on same-sex marriage in 2003, but under a different legal theory.

The court held that people have a fundamental right to marry the person of their choice and struck down marriage laws limiting matrimony to opposite-sex couples as a violation of the state constitution’s equal protection guarantees.

read latimes article | digg latimes story

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YahooNews: SAN FRANCISCO - California’s Supreme Court declared that gay couples in the nation’s biggest state can marry — a monumental but perhaps short-lived victory for the gay rights movement as religious and social conservatives are pressing to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November. However, Schwarzenegger, a “Conservative” Republican, said “will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this state Supreme Court ruling.” [link]

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AmericanBlog: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released the following statement today regarding the state Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage:

“I respect the Court’s decision and as Governor, I will uphold its ruling. Also, as I have said in the past, I will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this state Supreme Court ruling.” [link]

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TrashDispatch: NOTE that I added a “REPUBLICAN” tag to this post!!!