I'm gonna get married

It was a sad day Tuesday for civil rights in California, as the state Supreme Court offered its schizophrenic decision on last November's Prop. H8:

The California Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to uphold Proposition 8 and existing same-sex marriages left in place all rights for California's gays and lesbians except access to the label "marriage," but it provided little protection from future ballot measures that could cost gays and other minorities more rights, lawyers and scholars said Tuesday.

In a 6-1 ruling, the court said the November ballot measure that restored a ban on same-sex marriage was a limited constitutional amendment, not a wholesale revision that would have required a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to be placed before voters.

One gay friend of mine cynically suggested that the reason the court let the marriages stand was to avoid having to refund the license fees ($70 x 18,000 = $1.26M). I dunno, I'm not sure they're that smart. But grandfathering in actual discrimination seems OK to this court.

Tonight the irony-challenged ProtectMarriage.com folks sent out this awful email:

Second, the Court’s decision to continue recognizing those same-sex couples who obtained marriage licenses prior to the passage of Prop 8 should be kept in perspective. Remember that a large number of the marriage licenses issued to same-sex couples were for out-of-state residents travelling to California --- which will not be recognized anyway in the vast majority of their home states. Moreover, if California goes as Massachusetts did after legalizing gay marriage, a substantial portion of the still-recognized gay marriages will be dissolved by divorce within a few years. In the end, only a tiny number of gay marriages will continue to be recognized. What really matters is that the vast majority of what was at stake in this case --- the right of the voters to amend the state constitution to restore traditional marriage going forward --- ultimately proved to be a complete victory for us!

While raising the "Gay's are more promiscuous and thus marriages are bound to fail" straw man, and ignoring the real divorce rates with hetero marriages, they count on D-I V-O-R-C-E to further their agenda.

That's some family values we can count on.

Bastards.

Where you can live in the love of the common people, Be the pride in the heart of a family man

(Paul Young-Love of the Common People (Waylon Jennings)

Gov. Jon Corzine (D-New Joisey) had been thought to be on the short list for Pres.-elect Obama's cabinet as Treasury Secretary. Obviously that didn't happen, but Corzine is still pretty popular in Democratic circles. His Chief of Staff, Lisa Jackson, is on the Obama transition team.

Corzine just did a good thing, which should make him even more popular with liberals:

Gov. Jon Corzine said today New Jersey's civil unions law "hasn't done enough to narrow the gap" and same-sex marriage should be established in New Jersey "sooner rather than later."

He urged the Legislature to "seriously review" a report released today by the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission that said civil unions have failed to grant full rights to same-sex couples and urged the state to quickly enact same-sex marriage. The report likened denying same-sex couples the right to marry to racial segregation laws imposed against African-Americans.

"Indeed, the commission found the opposite - that civil unions may have widened that gap and fostered inequity by creating a separate class of relationships," Corzine said in a statement. "While this administration is focused squarely on the economic crisis for the forseeable future, it's clear that this issue of civil rights must be addressed sooner rather than later."

But while Corzine pledged to sign a gay marriage bill if it reaches his desk, it's unclear whether the Legislature will take up the issue, with Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex) saying equality must come in "incremental steps."

Excellent. Corzine's statement. Codey's "incremental steps", not so much.