California Supreme Court rules that gays have freedom to marry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shit!!!!!!! I just woke up but am still dreaming...Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've watched over the court cases in NY, WA, and NJ Supreme court. NY, WA ruled against. NJ ruled for...but had the catch, the legislature could call it whatever they want. Enter civil unions, separate and unequal.

Text of the court opinion. Link found on New York Times article about the case.

I watched the entire oral arguments on CSPAN. They asked tough questions of both sides. The other side was forced to answer "what is the difference between the 'traditions' of husbands owning their wives and anti-interraccial marriage laws, and this one?", "are the domestic partmership laws separate, but equal?"

they avoided the word "tradition", for the word "common understanding", "standing the test of time" (by, er, being around very, very long time - naturallistic fallacy)

"parallel" was the word they used for the separate but equal question.

and they were asked "what adverse consequences do you forsee if we rule for same-sex marriage?"

That is the heart of this bullshit. They are afraid. I once debated someone online and he said this after I said there was no danger in marriage:

"Sorry, but do you have any proof of this claim? Gay marriage could cause.....I can say 'could' because I'm not the one proposing the change. The burden of proof is on you. I am open to your arguments."

Let's start with the reminder that you can't prove a negative. You can't prove that waking up late doesn't cause cancer, so we have to assume that it does?

And this is the time honored technique of bigoted societies, putting the burden of proof on you, so they are safe saying disaster "could" happen. It's protecting their ability to be afraid of an imaginary, unarticulated, unproven something.

And withholding a benefit, because of an imaginary fear, is the definition of prejudice and bigotry. So opponents of gay marriage are not safe by saying "could". "Could", without probable reason for fearing this "could", is bigotry.

And hopefully, this CA decision puts a dent in it. The bigots are gearing for a ballot initative, and the equality activists are driving to beat it.

Here's to hope.