"Been there. Done that. It didn't work.".....John C. Calhoun.
Posted on 02/14/2004 8:15:59 AM PST by MegaSilver
SAN FRANCISCO -- The hundreds of gay and lesbian weddings performed in San Francisco since Thursday will stand at least through the week-end after a Superior Court judge denied a motion to halt and nullify the same-sex marriages.
Following the ruling, which delayed further legal action until at least Tuesday, Mayor Gavin Newsom opened the floodgates, extending city clerk hours until 6 p.m. Friday evening -- with ceremonies likely conducted until midnight.
And as if adding an exclamation point, he also announced weekend hours for today, Sunday and the Monday holiday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., no appointment necessary.
With 500 same-sex marriages and counting as of Friday afternoon, the mayor said city officials would recruit 200 volun-teers to help city workers deal with the overwhelming response.
"The truth is that this is the beginning of a long road that we are committed to traveling together," Newsom said.
That road began with a legal technicality as Superior Court Judge James Warren ruled that groups filing the lawsuit did not provide city officials with the required 24-hour notice for such legal action.
The only way around the 24-hour notice is to prove extraordinary circumstances require an immediate ruling, which Warren said was not applicable in this case.
Opponents disagreed.
"This is a matter of huge proportions," said Robert Tyler, attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, one of two groups that filed lawsuits against the marriages Friday. "This is municipal anarchy here. This is a complete and blatant disregard for the law."
The Liberty Counsel, on behalf of the Campaign for California Families, filed a separate lawsuit calling for a restraining order to stop the city from issuing the licenses to gays and lesbians.
Two separate hearings are scheduled for Tuesday, one at 11 a.m. and one at 2 p.m., to address each of the lawsuits.
Rushing to slip through what might be a limited window of opportunity, same-sex couples arrived by the hundreds -- from as far away as New York, wearing corsages and white gowns or just jeans and sweatshirts, pushing baby strollers, posing for family photos and clutching each other's hands.
Some wanted to be part of history. And here they were, among the first gay and lesbian couples to be issued marriage licenses in the nation.
But mostly they came for the oldest reason there is: To make it official, even if it took standing in a three-hour-plus line to do so.
Drs. Lorie and Annemary Franks, both pediatricians from Hercules who have been together for 13 years, got married Friday afternoon under City Hall's ornate rotunda while their 9-year-old daughter looked on as one of the couple's witnesses.
"She heard about this on the news and was upset because she assumed we were already married," Lorie Franks explained. "She thought it meant her sister wasn't really her sister."
Jim Illig, a volunteer marriage commissioner who officiated the Franks' wedding, came to City Hall on Friday morning for a meeting and ended up marrying dozens of couples.
"I walked in, saw all these people, and thought, 'This is a moment of matrimonial triage. Quick, get on the robe and get in there,'" he said.
Chip Collins and Dan Shaber of Hammond, Ind., heard Thursday that San Francisco was issuing the marriage licenses. That evening, they jumped on an ATA Airlines flight in Chicago bound for San Francisco.
"We should have the same benefits, health and financial, as other couples," Collins said, adding he's not concerned the marriage license won't be legal in his home state.
"I don't believe that's constitutionally correct," he said. "I think things like this will help challenge the rules."
For many of the couples taking vows, it was unclear what the marriage license would mean in the eyes of the law.
Critics called Newsom's order to issue the same-sex marriage licenses a political stunt and the documents invalid.
"Mayor Newsom and (city) clerk (Nancy) Alfaro are no more able to issue same-sex marriage licenses than they are able to issue pilot's licenses," said Mathew Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel.
The application for public marriage licenses the couples filled out warned that "by entering into marriage you may lose some or all of the rights, protections and benefits you enjoy as a domestic partner." It further recommen-ded that same-gender couples seek legal advice.
Amy Bohorquez and Jennifer Ikemoto of Oakland, who registered as domestic partners in June, said the state would have to acknowledge either their domestic partnership or marriage.
"We have no idea what that means -- nobody in this line seems to," Bohorquez said. "We'll figure it out. But the state will have to recognize one or the other."
The couple wanted to marry in San Francisco after seeing Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, lesbian activists and partners for 51 years, be the first to tie the knot Thursday morning.
On the steps of City Hall, a group of about 30 Muslim protesters gathered quietly in the afternoon but stayed less than half an hour.
The group, from Al-Sabeel Masjid Noor Al Islam, a San Francisco mosque, said they had "an obligation to oppose such horrible crimes against Allah."
"All we ask is for people to think and for Gavin Newsom not to rush," said Mohammed Allababidi, a secretary at the mosque. "We don't want the end of civilization. We don't want the flourishing of diseases."
For the hundreds of people inside City Hall the protest outside was barely noticeable. Every few moments, a cheer would go up from the crowd, while as many as five couples at a time married under the rotunda.
Brad Henning of San Francisco stepped to the front of the line with his longtime partner, Gustavo Llamas, as he was told about the protesters. "They can't change our excitement," he smiled, holding two roses.
And then, moments later, that sentiment was clear as he said the words, "I do."
Yeah. And Hitler made the Germans look incredibly stupid after he invaded Russia. Wasn't much fun for those in "scorched earth" territory, though.
Good G-d, this whole "gay marriage" thing is wretched. I just can't think of words. Sorry, MegaSilver, if I sound bitter toward you, I'm not. Your post makes a good point.
(steely)
Good point. But in the case of WWII, as in the case of Newsom, it was bound to blow up sooner or later.
Better that it blew sooner, while there's still stuff left worth saving.
Good G-d, this whole "gay marriage" thing is wretched. I just can't think of words. Sorry, MegaSilver, if I sound bitter toward you, I'm not. Your post makes a good point.
Well, sometimes, you've got to trudge through the mud to get to the gold field.
A-men.
Have them tell that to the IRS on their Form 1040 on April 15 and let's see how far it gets them.
"Been there. Done that. It didn't work.".....John C. Calhoun.
" I wonder if they will also extend and uphold that principle for, say, people who disagree with city parking laws?"
Ah, good point.
One of the State "punitive actions" (other than our family and it's Dollars going nowhere near the "Bay Area" in the last three years) suggested around this house is to have the CA DMV withhold the Parking Ticket Revenue collected at the time of Vehicle Registration Renewal.
But, that would require a Governor that wants to pick a fight and make a point.
I'm a gay guy living with my partners Benny, Daisy, Bruno and Thomas. We all enjoy each other enormously and repeatedly, and want to make it legal. By the way, Daisy and Bruno are goats. Thomas is a turkey. We rescued him from somebody's Thanksgiving dinner. We think he's a boy turkey but we're don't know how to tell, except he gets all excited when he sees another boy turkey. We had a gerbil once but it got lost and Benny acted really strange for five or six days.
I need your advice on proper etiquette. I work for the San Francisco municipal government and want all my partners to share in marital benefits. But when we get married, who stands where? Does the groom -- that would be Benny and Bruno -- wait up front for the bride -- that would be me and Daisy and Thomas -- while we march down the aisle? And do they stand on the left for the ceremony? Is it proper for Daisy to wear a white gown? (She has fooled around.)
The American approach seems to be "The squeaky wheel gets the grease". Perhaps we should try the Japanese approach sometimes "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down".
Or people who disagree with the San Francisco city payroll tax, or the local property taxes. ;-)
Why should the courts bother to stop fake marriage ceremonies that are just political street theater? That would only make these people "victims".
The law will "matter" when these people try to actually exercise a legal right reserved for marriage.
When they claim a marriage tax deduction on their Federal income taxes on April 15, it will be denied.
When the first couple breaks up and one partner demands a 50% share of the other partner's income since the "marriage", the claim will be denied and the partner with the higher income will be the first to point out that the "marriages" had no legal validity whatsoever.
The law has no more need to "stop" these fake marriages anymore than the law has a need to "stop" the fake marriage on the "My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance" TV show.
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