What is marriage?
Good morning, Netizens...
(Elizabeth Chase from Los Angeles, and Kate Baldridge from Fresno, at a vigil being held on Monday, January 11, 2010 at the Plaza of the Phillip Burton Building in San Francisco, Ca., before United States District Court proceedings challenging Proposition 8. Photo: Liz Hafalia / San Francisco Chronicle)
Yesterday District Court Judge Vaughn Walker began hearing Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, the controversial case to overturn Proposition 8 on federal grounds. with pleas from two gay men and two lesbians to be treated like anyone else who wants to wed their sweetheart.
This all began in November 2008 when the voters in California which passed Proposition 8 into law, which defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman. According to the trial supporters this made the union(s) of gay and lesbian partnerships unequal under the law, and now a federal trial is underway and appears to be heading for the Supreme Court.
According to the United States Constitution, which reads in part:
Amendment
14 - Citizenship Rights
1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to
the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of
the State wherein they reside.
No State shall make or enforce
any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens
of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life,
liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Demonstrations
were held throughout the State yesterday, by those both opposed and
in support of Proposition 8.The conservative news media will jump on this like a possessed kangaroo, if they haven't already done so.
Other states are following the trial closely, and it seems likely that the Supreme Court will weigh on this contentious issue.
Dave