California judge calls off ban on same sex couple marriage

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker brought down on Wednesday the California state’s ban on same sex marriage and ruled that Proposition 8 is contravenes with the United States Constitution.

This was a major victory for the supporters of gay rights in a case where both sides are sure that they will end up in fount of the United States Supreme Court. The San Francisco judge issued a 136 page long opinion which is the first step of a long and exhaustible war over California’s Proposition 8, which is defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The subject of the trial was establishing whether California’s ban on same sex marriage violates the constitutional right of the gay couples regarding equal protection and due process. This highly controversial case is watched both by supporters and opponents of same sex marriage and all of them think that this will end up in the U.S. Supreme Court, where it probably set a landmark decision ruling if people in the United States are allowed to marry people of the same sex. The same sex marriages are now legal in five American states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa and New Hampshire and in the District of Columbia. Judge Vaughn Walker says that Proposition 8 forces gay men and lesbians to remain single denying them a marriage license and emphasizes in the California Constitution the idea that straight couples are superior to gay couples.

Judge Vaughn Walker also gives the example of marriage race restrictions, which were common in most states a while ago but now seem shameful and weird and says that this is exactly the same situation, but race is replaced by gender. This is unconstitutional because marriage under law is a union of equals. Separately walker also granted supporters of Proposition 8 a temporary stay, which means that his decision will not take effect immediately. The reason for it is that people argued that the same sex marriages would be performed soon after his favorable decision and this might complicate the case. The supporters of same sex marriage already started celebrating their victory in the Castro district of San Francisco with speeches, songs and marches in front of the city hall waving rainbow flags and United States flags. They also started celebrating the judge’s decision in other cities across California, including Los Angeles and San Diego, carrying signs saying “We all deserve the freedom to marry”, and “Separate is Unequal”. They all say that since now they have been treated unequal and they have the right to have their constitutional rights protected. Perry and Sandy Stier, along with Jeffrey Zarrillo and Paul Katami, are the two couples that started the case, and they will go, if appealed, to the 9th United States Circuit Court of Appeals and probably to the U.S. Supreme Court. The opponents of the same sex marriage hope that the higher courts will rule against the judge’s decision. In May Gallup conducted a national survey which showed that 53 percent of the Americans are against recognizing same sex marriages, 44 percent of the respondents say that they should. Proposition 8 came as a cumulus of rulings, court cases, debates and protests over the long controversial debate over same sex marriage and passed with 52 percent in November 2008 in California.