Wow, sanity and justice prevail. Let’s hope it continues.
Great coverage on today’s Prop 8 ruling from the Los Angeles Times here.
Here is a statement released today from Linda Thomas, Wingspan’s director of programs:
The ruling to overturn Proposition 8 by a federal judge in California is encouraging for same sex marriage supporters. This decision gives the LGBT community a welcomed and renewed optimism in our quest for equality. Although the immediate effects of the ruling remain unknown and experts agree that this will be a case that will eventually be taken to the Supreme Court, we rejoice in knowing that justice and liberty prevail at this moment in history.
This article appears in Aug 5-11, 2010.
The New Yorker’s response:
Margaret Talbot posts ” Judge Vaughn Walker’s Opinion” over at The New Yorker:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/news…
NB:
“The will of the voters “demands our respect,” Walker wrote, but when it is challenged, it has to
find at least some support in evidence.… Conjecture, speculation, and fears are not enough. Still less will the moral disapprobation of a group or class of citizens suffice, no matter how large the majority that share that view.
Judge Walker’s ruling is only the beginning; Prop. 8’s defenders will appeal, and the case will likely make it the Supreme Court. But one thing this case will carry with it all the way up is an evidentiary record that is a lot stronger on one side than on the other. (Among other things, Judge Walker called the testimony of the writer David Blankenhorn, one of the two witnesses defending Prop. 8, “unreliable and entitled to essentially no weight.”) If I were on the anti-gay marriage side, I’d start wondering if I had the facts to shore up my moral disapproval.”