First a Victory, Now a War

Same-sex marriage supporters and detractors react to Proposition 8 ruling, what happens next

Comments (0) By MEGAN BRESCINI Thursday, Aug 12 2010

“We will certainly appeal this disappointing decision,”said ADF senior counsel Brian Raum in a statement released after the ruling. “Its impact could be devastating to marriage and the democratic process. It’s not radical for more than 7 million Californians to protect marriage as they’ve always known it. What would be radical would be to allow a handful of activists to gut the core of the American democratic system and, in addition, force the entire country to accept a system that intentionally denies children the mom and the dad they deserve.”

While the actions taken by both sides have been largely legal, at least one person is concerned about an all-too-real hostile retaliation.

Mary Bell

From the Long Beach love-fest

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As Geoff Maddox, founder of the website Hate Crime Awareness.org, said at the rally, “When Prop. 8 went on the ballot, people got upset. . . . As exciting as it is, and as great as it makes you feel, it’s also extremely important to be vigilant.”

Marc Solomon, marriage director of Equality California, has hope that Walker’s ruling only encourages the LGBT community. “My greatest hope out of what happened [with the ruling] is that it creates momentum for us,” he said. “It shows us that the work we are all doing collectively brought about this win and it energizes us to tell more stories, to do more of the work, to activate us.”

Intern Kevin Short contributed to this article.

mbrescini@ocweekly.com

This article appeared in print as "Eyes On the Prize: Same-sex marriage supporters celebrate a victory, prepare for the war."