Loving Couples

The California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is legal under state law yesterday.



If you click on the headline to this post, you can find a link to the pdf version of the court's ruling.



As a news junkie, and one who enjoys studying public records, this document is a joy to read.



It is a perfect case study for law school professors. Everybody remembers the joyful images of loving couples a few years back (one full national election cycle, to be precise) when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom declared same-sex marriage legal in our city.



There are those who claim that those images, and the reaction they set off among social conservatives, helped an otherwise incompetent President defeat the much-more qualified war hero, John Kerry.



Could history repeat itself this year? I hope not. Somehow, the supposed "public" outrage over same-sex couples getting married seems to be running out of steam in America. Maybe it's a person by person thing? You know, you know someone who knows someone. Or, perhaps you've tired of the sanctimonious preaching of hypocrites who shout loudly against homosexuals only to turn out to have, shall we say, sexual issues of their own.

Or maybe you've observed that when it comes to truly loving another person, sexual preference has nothing to do with it.

Of course, I am probably too idealistic, too naive. Even as I write these words, there are people whose saliva smells like rotten meat as they prepare propositions that will overturn the court's decision. Conventional wisdom is this window of opportunity for those whose partner happens to be of the same sex will close less than half a year after it has opened.

If so, that will be sad. But this story will not end until those opposing same-sex marriage give up. You can fight all you want, but you cannot hold back history. On a planet with such mammoth problems, the trivial focus of social conservatives never ceases to amaze me.

All they need is a bit of therapy, in order to resolve their own, obvious sexual identity confusion. No one else would bother to wage this silly battle. But, of course, like their pathetic poster boy, Sen. Larry Craig, they will be the last ones to seek help.

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