| GAY MARRIAGES
Feb 2004- A judge
refused to stop gay couples from getting married at San Francisco's City Hall defying
California state law.
State Superior Court Judge James Warren said he could not issue a temporary restraining
order to halt the same sex marriages because there was not enough evidence presented
showing that immediate damage would be done by allowing them.
He added that the lawsuit brought by the anti gay marriage Alliance Defense Fund required
a 24-hour notice to the San Francisco attorney's office, which was not given. Warren
emphasized he did not rule on the merits of the case, which ADF attorney Robert Tyler
called an example of "municipal anarchy." The court is scheduled to meet again.
Thousands of gays have wed at City Hall in a direct challenge to a law passed by
California voters in 2000 that restricted marriage only to heterosexual couples. The
measure passed with support from about 60 percent of those who voted on the initiative.
San Francisco's new mayor Gavin Newsom decided to lift a ban on same sex marriages on the
grounds that homosexuals have the right to wed under the state's equal protection clause.
Newsom's order made San Francisco considered a pioneer in the gay rights movement, the
first place in the nation to grant marriage licenses to homosexuals.
No U.S. state, including California, allows gay marriage. A heated debate rages on over
whether Massachusetts lawmakers should overturn a landmark state supreme court ruling
allowing such unions.
While defending its new marriage policy in
court, the city also is suing the state, challenging its gay-marriage ban. The city
contends the ban violates the equal protection clause of the California Constitution.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said that the state will reject the city's same-sex marriage
certificates.
Back to Liberals Aid Terrorists - Why Muslims Hate
Liberals |
