The fate of California’s Prop 8 lies in the hands of the state Supreme Court as of noon, Thursday, March 5th. After three hours of debate, both sides of the proposition brought to the court their arguments as to whether Prop 8 is an amendment or a revision to the state constitution. The Office of the Attorney General argued that Prop 8 removes inalienable rights without providing strong enough reason that same sex marriage causes such a threat that this right can be removed.
With $18,000 in donations, Equality California, Marriage Equality USA and other gay rights organizations provided a jumbotron in San Francisco’s Civic Center outside the California Supreme Court. Hundreds of people,both proponents and opponents of Prop 8, gathered to demonstrate. The two sides intermixed outside the grounds of the Supreme Court in peaceful demonstrations. Supporters of both sides appeared to be equally represented in the crowd. A Northern Californian church, with a strong immigrant-Eastern European congregation, bussed in proponents of Prop 8, sporting red shirts and immense signs stating “Traditional Marriage” and a check mark.
These vast signs dominated the landscape outside the courthouse, often blocking views of the jumbotron. As I viewed these signs, I thought to myself, “Traditional marriage, check mark? What side are they really on ?” The founders of JointheImpact.com spoke and mentioned how their same-sex marriage is traditional and listed the stereotypical characteristics of a traditional marriage they participate in everyday, i.e. both spouses coming home from work, watching TV, going to bed at 10pm and doing it all again the next day. Traditional marriage is what same-sex couples want for themselves. On a bright side of this dismal issue, proponents of Prop 8 were unable to clearly display their opinion on a billboard sized sign. The sign’s design was not thought through and was easily discounted.
The happenings inside the courtroom seemed rather dim for those of us looking for Prop 8 to be overturned. The justices asked pointed questions and appeared to be skeptical of the idea of revision versus amendment. The idea arose that by striking down Prop 8 because of its removal of the inalienable right to marry, by default the court would be striking down the inalienable right of Californians to change the Constitution. This argument is weakened by the idea that opponents of Prop 8 were not arguing the initiative process, per se, but arguing that in this instance, the state legislature needed to bring about the issue and send it to the voters. I have trouble seeing how striking down Prop 8 threatens the inalienable rights of Californians to continue the initiative process. The initiative process should never be used to take away inalienable rights, and thus, if the process needs to be changed, then this is the perfect time for it happen. This type of precedent needs to be set and there is no better time than now to do so.
The fate of Prop 8 actually looks bright for its proponents after today’s arguments. As disheartening as it is to say so, the justices, overall, did not seem to take well on the idea of amendment versus revision. A glimmer of hope lies in that the justices did seem to support the idea that those same sex marriages signed during the “Summer of Love” should remain valid. In the end, despite the direction the justices decide to take, proponents of Prop 8 and discrimination against same-sex marriage have an expiration date in our society. It will be a dreadfully long wait for those of us who believe in equality, but the dawn of equality is on the horizon. It does not look like it will be within the next ninety days, but I have faith that we will see it in a decade’s time.
The slide show below are pictures from San Francisco’s Civic Center, home of the California Supreme Court and today’s arguments on Prop 8. Since the Prop 8 demonstrations began last November, the images seem to all look fairly similar. Today’s events were the first I’ve seen an even mixture of both sides represented. The peaceful characteristic of these demonstrations is a commendable aspect and one that refreshes my faith in the American system of liberty and justice.
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