HitchDied

The Definitive Expression of Love and Commitment

| 9 Comments

“A private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite sex couples is not a proper basis for legislation.”

Word.  Yay for this intermediate victory for marriage equality!  I skimmed over the decision, and a few things stuck out:

1. Sounds like the defendants of Prop. 8 were very poorly organized: not knowing what to argue, having witnesses withdraw for dubious reasons, putting up expert witnesses who couldn’t pass as experts, etc.  Judge Walker doesn’t really hide his disdain for them, painting a picture of folks who were great at manipulating voters and terrible at swaying great legal minds of reason.  That… might not fly so well in the 9th Circuit.  I mean, sure, they’re a bunch of lefty weirdos, so they probably support marriage equality.  But they are a bunch of lefty weirdos!  They probably don’t like having democracy besmirched like that.  You know?  Maybe (hopefully?) I’m over-thinking this.

[Edited to add:  You know what makes me angry, though?  Equality opponents framing the decision as a deprivation of Californian's "core civil right to vote for marriage." Because "voting for marriage" is not a civil right.  Voting is a civil right, but even the right to vote is and has always been subject to greater limitation than the right to marry.  For example, convicted felons can be deprived their voting rights permanently (although I think in California the restriction only applies to incarcerated felons), but you could not permanently deprive felons the right to marry (unless they're gay).]

2.  I like Judge Walker’s approach of comparing allowing same-sex marriage to other changes in marriage from the last centuryish.  I also like that when I started explaining the decision to Collin, we had this conversation:

Robin: So he says, look dudes, allowing interracial marriages didn’t destroy the institution, ending coverture didn’t destroy the institution, this won’t either.

Collin: What’s coverture?

Robin: It’s the old system whereby getting married erased the woman as a legal entity, and she became part of her husband’s legal entity instead.

Collin:  I want that! I want to cover you!

Robin: Tough luck, buttercup!

Collin: I want your social security number! I want your birth certificate! I want to mush them into mine!

Robin: Well I want to stay a person.

Collin: You’re a lady, I know all you really want is to get married.

3.  There is no three.  Other than to say, once again, yay!

9 Comments

  1. “I want your social security number! I want your birth certificate! I want to mush them into mine!”

    awww….love is mush-y

  2. I have so many happy things to say about this decision! The team of lawyers responsible for putting together this pro bono case is amazing (of course, I’m completely biased about the quality of the attorneys; you can probably guess why).

    • ms. sarah, if you or someone you know is responsible for this, i want to give you/this person a big hug and smooch for the hard work and big step towards social change.

  3. Ha! I hope you hit him upside the head. But seriously, thanks for blogging about this! What kills me is the argument that GLBT folks are “unhealthy” for children, because straight people are clearly doing a bang up job raising children. Just read the news. (Note: Of course, many straight people _are_ doing a fantastic job of raising kids, but it is still a lousy lousy argument.)

  4. Oh, Collin….

    And this is fantastic. I’m all blissed out on this wedding high and this news just made it ten times better!

  5. Yeah. I read a comment about the decision somewhere (SIDEBAR: NEVER READ COMMENTS ON THE INTERNET, EVER) that was like, wake up, this isn’t about gays, this is about your vote being taken from you by “liberal Marxist” judges. Then I think I threw my laptop across the room, and I never went on the internet again (UNRELATED: HOW AM I EVEN POSTING THIS ON YOUR BLOG?).

    But. BUT.

    Yayyyyy is right!

    Tangent: Collin’s comment about covering you made me think of Bruce Springsteen’s “Cover Me,” and now that song has been in my head for the better part of an hour.

  6. I just don’t understand why everyone isn’t given the same rights…I’ve yet to have anyone explain it to me. Why is this even an issue (though I know it is)? Let everyone marry and have families as they choose…what’s wrong with that?

    I’m a proud church girl, but this issue is one that makes me hang my head. It’s much too large of an issue in the religious community.

  7. Yay! Yay! Yay!

    And you and Collin are hilarious.

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