From Obama's statement earlier after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional: “The laws of our land are catching up to the fundamental truth that millions of Americans hold in our hearts: when all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free.”
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The Rev. Sarah Halverson, who is officiating a marriage ceremony at this evening's 6:30 OC LGBT community rally at the Old Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana: “God is rejoicing in this victory for love! Let the wedding bells ring!”
The reaction from the congresswoman's sister, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove): “The two Supreme Court rulings today on same-sex marriage are a significant step forward in allowing all couples who wish to marry, the right to do so. Because of this ruling, Proposition 8 is null and void, returning marriage equality to the great state of California. I am proud of the court's decision to uphold what the majority of Californians have long believed to be right. While there is still a ways to go toward allowing all couples throughout the United States the right to marry whom they love, the Court's decision today to strike down section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) makes it clear that same sex couples will not be treated like second class citizens. We will not stop until all Americans are treated equally under the law.”
And now for something completely different from Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition founder and chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon and his daughter and TVC president Andrea Lafferty: “Some days our civilization erodes slightly in feet and inches, other days it drops a mile at a time. Today is one of those days when our culture's decline is widely felt. The climate in America has changed because America has become a blur. Our government is a scandal-ridden, ominous force operating outside the U.S. Constitution. There is no long any 'Unum' to which the many can rally. Justice Scalia's great dissent on DOMA today needs to be preserved for that day in the future when the real impact of this decision is felt, that day when perhaps another generation assesses who spoke up and what was done when a great darkness began to overtake our country. On Proposition 8–where the 7 million voters of California who voted to protect marriage now have a great deal of work to do–37 other states now have ironclad protections when it comes to defending the institution of marriage at the state level. We welcome the public debate, and look forward to the day when the right of all children to a mother and a father are respected.”
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Here's Zoe Nicholson, a longtime equality activist in Orange County: “We know who we are. … We know that civil rights denied to a minority is immoral. We know that the right to marry and all of its benefits is a fundamental human right. Today the court spoke directly to people who mistakenly believe that civil rights only belong to those who define a family as 1 man + 1 woman with kids.”
And here's Andreas Meyer, president of Equality California and one of the founders of Orange County's Lavender Bar Association: “The Supreme Court recognized that loving, same-sex couples deserve to be treated equally and that our relationships and families are just as significant as anyone else's.”
Constitutional law expert and UC Irvine School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, to the New York Times: “There were so many things that the Supreme Court could have done, but I think the court did what most predicted: strike down Section 3 of DOMA on relatively narrow grounds and dismiss the challenge to Proposition 8 on standing grounds.”
Up next is a former Weekly cover boy …
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Speaking of Minnesota, hold down your breakfast because it's Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota): “No man, not even a Supreme Court, can undo what a holy God has instituted. For thousands of years of recorded human history, no society has defended the legal standard of marriage as anything other than between man and woman. [The court action] will undermine the best interest of children and the best interests of the United States.”
Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster is here to cleanse us: “Today is a monumental day that will change, for the better, the lives of friends and families throughout our great state and makes our nation stronger.”
Yes, we're not out of the clear yet, reminds Linda May, one of the founding members of Orange Count Equality Coalition: “Just because we can now get married, doesn't mean one spouse named Mark or Bill or Dave will feel safe in putting a picture of his husband on his desk at work.”
John O'Connor, executive director of Equality California, is upbeat: “We have said from the beginning that the proponents of Prop 8 couldn't demonstrate a single way they would be harmed by loving same-sex couples marrying in California. The court agreed. Marriage will be restored imminently and we look forward to decisive leadership from our elected officials in the restoration of marriage for all people in every community across the state. Today is a day for celebration.”
Tory Pallman, an information technology project manager for Disney, told the New York Times she took her daughter to a San Francisco rally this morning so she could experience history firsthand: “She was born just after Prop 8 passed, so it's been a bummer for her parents. It's pretty exciting. We can't put my wife on our insurance, we don't have parental protection across all 50 states the way married couples do. Obviously in California we are really lucky with domestic partnerships, we are really well protected, but it's not really the same. She's going to grow up in a world where it's the same.”
You wouldn't have spotted Brian Brown at that 'Frisco rally; the leader of the National Organization for Marriage had predicted Tuesday that his side would win both cases before the Supreme Court, and he whined to the New York Times' Sheryl Stolberg: “Obviously it's a loss to say that the federal government has no right to define marriage as it's always understood it is just legal chicanery. It's untrue. It's a bad decision.”
Boo fucking hoo …
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.