Today community members, local clergy and San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality (SAME) will support gay and lesbian couples filling their scheduled appointments at the county clerks office to get marriage licenses. Couples will be showing up at the county administration building at 8am. While they press for immediate action from the county clerk, a group organized by SAME will support them with a “sit-in” in the clerk’s office until the licenses are issued. Official statements by Federal court Judge Vaughn Walker, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and California Attorney General Jerry Brown have indicated that licenses should be issued without delay.
Tyler Dylan-Hyde expressed it this way, “We believe that county officials and the Attorney General have the authority and obligation to allow marriage licenses to proceed based on both the Federal Court’s findings that Prop 8 is unconstitutional — and the Governor’s and Attorney General’s filings in the Prop 8 cases. We fully intend to exercise our fundamental right to marriage on Thursday.” On a more personal note, Sean Bohac, a member of SAME and a participant in the sit-in said, “I’m 37, I may be a little selfish about it, but I want this right while it is still meaningful to me. A federal judge clearly stated that prop 8 violates two provisions of the US Constitution, a constitution that plainly supports civil marriage as a fundamental right, and the opposition failed to prove that my marriage would harm anyone. So why do gays and lesbians need to wait?”
In April of 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that equal marriage rights were due to all, including same-sex couples. Then in November of the same year California’s Proposition 8 was passed by a slim majority, eliminating those equal rights. On August 4th 2010, Federal Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th amendment disallow the discrimination that Proposition 8 introduced. Earlier this week, on August 16th, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals imposed an additional stay on the striking of Proposition 8 from the California Constitution.
SAME is an open, democratically-run organization committed to fighting for LGBT rights, including the right to marry. It envisions a California where human rights are recognized for all people, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, race, ethnicity or nationality.
