Word: gays
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Same-sex couples celebrated from San Diego to Sacramento on May 15, when the California Supreme Court announced its 4-3 decision to recognize same-sex marriage. As gay and lesbian couples hugged each other in the streets, the Court met with an outpouring of undeserved criticism from conservative and religious organizations. Despite this sentiment, California’s decision is a just one, upholding constitutional rights and creating equality throughout the state. The California Supreme Court cited both the constitutional right to marry and the right to equal protection under the law as reasons for expanding the definition...
...Although gay marriage has been legal in Massachusetts for over four years, members of the Harvard community still rejoiced at Friday’s announcement that California’s Supreme Court had made a similar decision and said they were cognizant of its profound implications. Harvard Law professor Laurence H. Tribe ’62, who teaches constitutional law, said of the ruling, “It’s certainly going to shake things up, now that Massachusetts isn’t out on such a limb.” But Tribe, who is also a former clerk...
That we have reached a point where the Supreme Court of California is willing to accept the institution of gay marriage is a sign of the incredible progress that the gay rights movement has made. While this decision will help promote an outcome that I strongly support, the court’s move is founded on the wrong reasons and reflects an overreach of judicial power that rests on a shaky argument...
...discriminatory. But discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is not prohibited under the constitution. Second, the existing law did not prevent anyone from getting married—at least, from getting married according to the state’s definition of marriage, a definition upheld by Proposition 22. Gay people were given the freedom to marry people of the opposite sex—an admittedly unsatisfying right—whereas straight people were not entitled to marry people of the same sex. The mere fact that a measure has different (albeit disproportionate) effects on a particular class does...
...argue that domestic partnerships carry the same substantive legal rights as marriages do is not to argue that the gay rights movement should stop working to bring about legal recognition of gay marriage. Not only will the legal recognition of gay marriage make thousands of gay couples happy, but the acceptance of gay marriage in California could serve as a precedent for its acceptance in other states that do not already have provisions for domestic partnerships, thus helping expand the real legal rights of gay couples nationwide...