San Francisco Officials Marry Gay Couple

AP ^

[BurbankKarl]

February 12, 2004, 2:57 PM EST

SAN FRANCISCO -- In a political and legal challenge to California law, city authorities officiated at the marriage of a lesbian couple Thursday and said they will issue more gay marriage licenses.

The act of civil disobedience was coordinated by Mayor Gavin Newsom and top city officials and was intended to beat a conservative group to the punch.

The group, Campaign for California Families, had planned to go to court on Friday to get an injunction preventing the city from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.

[BurbankKarl]

This is the first one! A couple tried to get married in Beverly Hills today and is suing.

[grobdriver]

The group, Campaign for California Families, had planned to go to court on Friday to get an injunction preventing the city from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.

That's what they get for telegraphing their moves.

[sopanmu]

Me thinks Arnold is about to terminate them

[BurbankKarl]

Two Gay Couples Denied Marriage Licenses In Beverly Hills
National Lawyer Says She Will File Suit

POSTED: 11:10 AM PST February 12, 2004
UPDATED: 11:32 AM PST February 12, 2004

LOS ANGELES -- Two gay couples were denied marriage licenses Thursday in Beverly Hills, leading a local attorney to announce she will sue to challenge the ban on gay marriages in California.

Feb. 12 is recognized by gay-advocacy groups as National Freedom to Marry Day, and several groups encouraged gay couples nationwide to go to courthouses and apply for marriage licenses today.

The date was chosen because of its proximity to Lincoln's Birthday and Valentine's Day, which "links equality and love," said the Rev. Troy D. Perry, one of the people taking part in Thursday's action at the Beverly Hills Courthouse.

Perry, the founder of the Metropolitan Community Churches, is the first openly gay member of the Los Angeles Human Rights Commission and a past delegate to the White House Conference on Hate Crimes.

Perry said he and his partner Phillip Ray DeBlieck had a "Holy Union Ceremony" in the United States, and said they were legally married in Canada last July.

But Perry and DeBlieck -- along with lesbian rights activist Robin Tyler and her partner, Diane Olson, granddaughter of former California Democratic Gov. Culbert Levy Olson -- were denied marriage licenses Thursday in Beverly Hills.

Instead, officials gave them fliers detailing California's same-sex marriage ban.

"We're not going to the back of the bus. We're not not getting on the bus, we're not not sitting at the lunch counter, we're just not taking civil union, domestic partnership, we're just not taking it anymore," Tyler said.

Attorney Gloria Allred said she will sue to challenge the gay marriage ban, adding that she plans on pursuing the case all the way to the California Supreme Court.

"It's time to make a legal challenge," she said. "And so we will be filing the lawsuit. There is no precedent. There are no appellate cases in California on this issue, and so we think it's long overdue and we're going to fight that fight now."

Perry said he was disappointed by Thursday's action.

"The only difference in our relationship between everybody else's in California is our sex," he said. "It's who we are. We pay taxes for everybody else's kids to go to school, which we don't mind, but we want equal treatment."

Although California does not recognize same-sex marriages, a law enacted by former Gov. Gray Davis gives domestic partners most of the legal rights and responsibilities of married couples.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts lawmakers are meeting Thursday to discuss an amendment to the state constitution that would nullify the state high court's decision last week allowing gays and lesbians to wed.

[Zavien Doombringer]

[andy58-in-nh]

Paging Merle Haggard.....

Are we rollin' down hill, like a snowball headed for Hell?....

[Agnes Heep]

They can play whatever charades they like (such as pretending that a rectum is a sex organ), but they're not married unless the marriage is recognized by the State.

[onedoug]

This isn't really about marriage. The left's prime directive is to destroy American institutions.

[concerned about politics]

Not only are the sexually dysfunctional fascists going around the will of the people, but now they're even skipping over the laws. America is being FORCED by the sexually insane to obey their demented will. They're sick, and a major danger to society. The Doctors in the past were right. They belong in the mental institutions. Society should be protected

[BurbankKarl]

Attorney Gloria Allred said she will sue to challenge the gay marriage ban, adding that she plans on pursuing the case all the way to the California Supreme Court.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

President Bush has got to make an amendment banning gay marriage a central focus of the campaign. He's got to get out there with House and Senate candidates, Republican or Democrat, who oppose gay marriage and Congress has to get on this ASAP.

[2banana]

The act of civil disobedience was coordinated by Mayor Gavin Newsom and top city officials

When elected officials who swear to up hold the law mock it instead, why should any of us follow the law?

[george wythe]

In some countries, such as northern European nations, gay marriage is legal. Nevertheless, gay couples who are married outside the US are not recognized as married couples when they return to the US.

Since American states are free to disregard gay marriages in Sweden, while accepting hetero marriages in Sweden, why can't the states have the same policy toward Massachusetts?

If the states pick and choose which marriages are considered legal in their jurisdiction when it comes to foreign marriages, why are the states not free to do the same about marriages in other states?

[BurbankKarl]

We are doing good in California this week....first the death penalty is overturned...all those on death row will now get an appeal "with new testing procedures" applied to old evidence...

And now marriage has been tossed out the window.

[BibChr]

San Francisco Officials Marry Gay Couple

No, they don't, any more than I can put hair back on my head by renaming myself Shaggy.

Dan

[anniegetyourgun]

They are pressing hard to break down the door....

[concerned about politics]

California Supreme Court.

The most overturned court in the nation. Let's hope this one is overturned.
This is not good for America. We're a free people, not a communist dictatorship. Americans are losing their free will to conscience. We're being forced into a world of perversion and vileness, and being FORCED to accept it as normal.
It isn't right.

[wadeintothem]

I hate being a Californian sometimes... these people run roughshod over our referendums.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

A future liberal Supreme Court (or maybe this one, depending on Kennedy or O'Connor) could force this on the other states by way of the Full Faith and Credit Clause.

[BurbankKarl]

I can just hear Michael Savage...he will be in rare form today!