On May 15, 2008 in a powerfully-worded decision, the CA Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples should be permitted to marry. From the decision:
[I]n contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual’s sexual orientation — like a person’s race or gender — does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights. We therefore conclude that in view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples.
The LA Times recently published my letter to the editor expressing support for the decision:
Re "Marriage ruling is a religious quandary," Opinion, May 20
As an ordained Presbyterian minister and moderator of the 213th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), I applaud the recent decision by the California Supreme Court to allow same-sex marriage.
The Bible teaches us that we are all equal in God's sight. Indeed, Jesus reached out to those who were sexual minorities in his culture. The state Supreme Court decision affirms society's commitment to equal protection under the law and is consistent with the values of my Christian faith.
Jack Rogers
Pasadena
Here's the link.
This is a great day for California, a great day for the United States, and a great day for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This gives us the chance to leave behind old divisions and move forward together. As Anna Quindlen writes in Newsweek:
Someday soon the fracas surrounding all this will seem like a historical artifact, like the notion that women were once prohibited from voting and a black individual from marrying a white one. Our children will attend the marriages of their friends, will chatter about whether they will last, will whisper to one another, "Love him, don't like him so much." The California Supreme Court called gay marriage a "basic civil right." In hindsight, it will merely be called ordinary life.
Link to the full text of the CA Supreme Court Decision.
Faith in America statement.
Human Rights Campaign statement.
More Light Presbyterians statement.
New Field Poll shows growing support for same-sex marriage in California.
