Are you tired as I am, of the mob rule proponents? You know, the ones who say "majority rules!" It's pretty clear that they are lacking some fundamental understanding of our Constitutional democracy. The courts and the Constitution are essential to protect the rights of the minority from mob tyranny. This is why the minority consents to be governed.
There is a US State Department site that explains this concept, for those who have a problem grasping it, from a document called Principles of Democracy.
Majority rule is a means for organizing government and deciding public issues; it is not another road to oppression. Just as no self-appointed group has the right to oppress others, so no majority, even in a democracy, should take away the basic rights and freedoms of a minority group or individual.
The California Supreme Court has made a decision that these Principles of Democracy do not apply in our state. They have upheld the tyranny of the majority and crushed the rights of the minority. They have failed in their constitutional role to protect us. And this was spelled out explicitly in Justice Moreno's withering dissent.
So, they have set a dangerous precedent that ANYONE'S rights are subject to modification by majority vote-- ANYONE. That means left-handed people, redheads, Mormons, the disabled, and any other definable group can have their rights legitimately eliminated by the mob.
BUT: A smart Kossack called Seneca Doane points out that Prop8 supporters did not win what they think they did. Because the court did say clearly that all this applies to is the term "marriage". The actual rights-and-privileges of marriage are still to be available to gay and lesbian folk, just not the name--that is an explicit statement that "whatever it is called" is a marriage in ALL but name. If the H8ers wanted to eliminate all the benefits of marriage from gays, then Prop8 would have been a revision, and unqualified. To qualify as an amendment, the effect of Prop8 must be limited to the name "marriage".
Think about it. All they took away was the name, not the thing itself. This means that there must be state forms that include the DP'd folks: "Single or Married/unioned". This means that kids will learn that there are marriages and DPs in school, and yes, teacher may invite them to her wedding (because they didn't take the name wedding, just the name "marriage"). This means that under law, GLBT "whatever you call its" WILL be treated the same as "marriage" .
A Commenter on Andrew Sulivan's site endorses this view.
It appears that this is a blockbuster pro-gay-rights decision, restricting the effect of Prop 8 to the effect of removing the designation of gay civil unions as "marriage," but upholding all equal rights previously declared by the Court; and, suggesting that if the opponents of gay rights were to try to restrict equal union rights for gays by constitutional change, such change would be... procedurally much more difficult to accomplish.
Being able to lay claim to the word "marriage" is important, but in all other respects this appears to be a spectacular decision in favor of gay rights.
The decision leaves intact the holding of the Marriage Cases that gays have the fundamental "right to marry" under the California constitution, now and in the future; but unless and until the California constitution is again amended to the contrary, such unions cannot be called marriage.
....Under this approach by the Court, opponents of gay civil union rights would have to word any future proposed amendments in such a way as to expressly ban gay civil union rights, and as a result, their ability to secure a sufficient number of petition signatures to get the amendment on the ballot, and then a majority of votes at the polls, will be all the more difficult.
This is a very, very good day for the cause of gay marriage rights.
Prop8 is still wrong, of course, and the court did fail. We must over turn it. But I wonder how long it takes The Forces of H8 to figure out that they didn't really succeed doing what they thought they were doing. We're still here. We now have a clear statement of rights. They can't make us invisible, or treat us differently. And 18,000 gay couples are still married. It's only a matter of time before everyone is.
As the expression goes, the arc of history may be long, but it bends towards justice.
Let's be the first state to do it by popular vote. REPEAL 8 in 2010.
Tell your story at Gay Married Californian