Sacramento, CA — The California Supreme Court has announced that on Tuesday, May 26 it will issue its ruling on whether or not to uphold the anti-gay Proposition 8. At issue is not only whether 18,000 same sex-marriages would be annulled, but whether or not a whole subsection of the population will be thrust back into legal inequality.
Since March, gay activists around the country have been planning actions for the night the California Court announces its decision. If the court upholds Proposition 8 in whole or part, activists vow energetic and angry protests in more than 50 cities. If the Court throws out Proposition 8, the activists plan celebrations with the aim of spreading the momentum of a California victory elsewhere in the nation.
The actions are being coordinated nationally through the www.DayOfDecision.org website co-founded by Chicago gay activist Andy Thayer and pioneer national lesbian activist Robin Tyler of Los Angeles who, with her wife Diane Olson, was the first lesbian couple to file in the historic CA Marriage Equality Case, and are petitioners (plaintiffs) in the case brought before the CA Supreme Court to overturn Prop 8.
The court is expected to announce one of three likely decisions on Tuesday at approximately 10 AM Pacific Time:
1) Upholding the anti-gay Proposition 8 in full, including invalidating the 18,000+ same-sex marriages that were solemnized before the proposition's passage last November 4th;
2) Upholding Proposition 8's ban on all future same sex marriages, but allowing the 18,000 already conducted to stand; or,
3) Invalidating in its entirety Proposition 8's discriminatory ban on same sex marriage.
Lesbian and gay activists would consider the upholding of Proposition 8 in whole or part (#1 and #2 above) to be a serious defeat to be met with angry protests. On the other hand, a complete invalidation of Proposition 8 would lend an immense boost to the already powerful momentum for equality provided by the recent wins for same sex marriage in Iowa and Vermont.
—Staff
