All California Gay Marriages VOIDED

This happened while I was away on vacation. I purposely did not follow any news while on vacation, and now I know why.

Intellectually, I'm trying to process this. For decades, society at large has had the opinion that those people (gays) were not capable of forming lasting relationships. And during this time, everything possible was done to keep homosexuality in the dark ages, to make it something to be loathed.

Indeed, until 1973, homosexuality was even viewed as a mental disease by the American Psychiatric Association. When we tried to have free association in gay bars, they were frequently raided. When we tried to meet in other places, we were frequently arrested.

And today, when we want to publicly validate our relationships with marriage, we are denied that. I suppose I should just shut up and be happy that they are no longer saying that we can't form lasting relationships.

Is this progress?

(San Francisco, California) The California Supreme Court Thursday ruled that San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom exceeded his authority when he allowed same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses earlier this year.

The court, a 5 - 2 decision, declared that the marriages of gays and lesbians that resulted, more than 4,000, are void.

In their ruling the justices made it clear that the issue in the case was confined to Newsom's actions and the direct results from them but did not involve the constitutional issue of gay marriage. That will decided by the high court at a later date, once the various suits wind their way through the lower courts.

"To avoid any misunderstanding, we emphasize that the substantive question of the constitutional validity of California’s statutory provisions limiting marriage to a union between a man and a woman is not before our court in this proceeding, and our decision in this case is not intended, and should not be interpreted, to reflect any view on that issue," the ruling said.

The ruling went on to say that if the state ban on gay marriage is eventually struck down, "same-sex couples then would be free to obtain valid marriage licenses and enter into valid marriages." [...]

Two Justices Joyce Kennard and Kathryn Mickle Werdegar dissented on the issue of the couples' status, saying the court should refrain from ruling on their marriages before it decides whether the marriage law is constitutional.

Until the constitutional issue is before the court, Kennard said, "it is premature and unwise to assert ... that the thousands of same-sex weddings performed in San Francisco were empty and meaningless ceremonies in the eyes of the law.'' (source)