With all the buzz on Sotomayor and the U.S. Supreme Court, Gay couples – and anyone who knows a gay couple – must be reeling from today’s California Supreme Court  Prop 8 Decision. Here’s a good blog about today’s latest proposition 8 fiasco.

Prop 8 is clearly unconstitutional, one of the simplest cases ever, and I hope it is overturned, either at the ballot or in court, with swift vengeance.

Moral hatred aside, the constitutional issues are incredibly simple. Marriage is either a secular designation or a religious one. It CANNOT be both, or it violates separation of church and state, plain and simple. If marriage is secular, then the equal protection clause means everyone must be allowed to marry the partner of their choosing. The state cannot extend secular benefits to some couples and deny them to others. A simpler civil rights issue there has never been.

If, on the other hand, marriage is religious, then the state cannot
legally marry anybody (Hey, Church get the hell away from State! I
thought I told you you couldn’t play together). All the state can offer
are civil unions to all couples, and marriage is what you do with your
minister, rabbi, Imam, priest or preceptor, not with City Hall.

Gay marriage needs to be legalized as soon as possible. In addition to being a moral embarrassment, it’s a legal embarrassment.