U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker has lifted the ban on gay marriage in California.
Starting next Wednesday, August 18th, same-sex couples will be allowed to legally wed in the state, but there is a catch. If gay marriage foes do not file with 9th Circuit Court of Appeals by 5 p.m. on the 18th the ban will be lifted
Last week, Walker made judicial history by overturning California’s gay marriage ban approved by voters in 2008 with Proposition 8. Walker had waited until today to rule whether or not gay marriages need to wait for a pending appeals court decision to resume. That will not be the case.
The issue, obviously, remains divisive with pro and con positions still being voiced constantly.
California is now poised to become the seventh location in the country which allows gay marriage joining Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Washington, D.C.
On the November 2008 ballot California’s Proposition 8 stated, verbatim, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” That is not a “gay marriage ban” because a same-sex relationship is not, by definition of thousands of years and hundreds of cultures, a marriage. Please do not fall into the trap of framing the issue in the same way that the opponents of marriage frame the issue. Prop. 8 was a pro-active measure to protect marriage. And 7 million Californians agreed with it.