All i have to say is WOW!!!! And thanks to Doreen for pointing this out to me! *hugs*
S.F. defies law, marries gays / LEGAL BATTLE LOOMS: City Hall ceremonies spur constitutional showdown, injunction threat
In a historic act of civil disobedience, San Francisco defied state law and issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples Thursday, a move expected to ignite a constitutional showdown as early as today.
A lesbian couple who have been together five decades were the first to marry, followed by 89 other couples who said their vows in City Hall ceremonies. The cheers and yelps echoed throughout the building all day, as gays and lesbians who had expected to be refused wedding licenses during a planned National Freedom to Marry protest were instead married under the ornate City Hall rotunda. Several couples rushed to get married during their lunch hours after word spread that they could.
"A barrier to true justice has been removed,'' said Mayor Gavin Newsom, who argues that state law defining marriage as between a man and a woman amounts to unconstitutional discrimination against gays and lesbians.
Newsom had announced just three days ago that he wanted the city to explore ways to let same-sex couples marry. City officials rushed the policy into place when they got wind that groups opposed to gays and lesbians marrying were about to file suit to block Newsom's plan.
The Liberty Counsel, a legal-aid group acting on behalf of Campaign for California Families, plans to file suit today in state Superior Court in San Francisco to force the city to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples and to void those already granted. On Thursday, the city issued a total of 118 marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Newsom "is essentially setting himself up as king," said Mat Staver, president and legal counsel of the Liberty Counsel. "He can't do it. It's like saying he wants San Francisco to secede from California or the United States. What the mayor is doing is only symbolic; the marriages licenses that were issued aren't worth the paper they're written on.''
It appears that the earliest a court could order an injunction to halt the marriages would be Tuesday. As of Thursday night, the city had not received the required 24-hour notice from Liberty Counsel that it would seek an injunction, said Matt Dorsey, a spokesman for the city attorney. State courts will be closed Monday for Presidents Day.
City officials plan to issue more marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples today.
The litigation will hinge on whether California marriage law illegally discriminates against same-sex couples under the state constitution.
Constitutional law experts said the marriage licenses issued Thursday may not stand up in court because marriages are governed by the state, not local, governments.
"In the end, it's much more likely to be symbolic,'' said Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law professor at the University of Southern California. "If the state decides it's not going to recognize these marriage licenses, there's nothing the city can do.''
Joel Paul, a constitutional law expert at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, said the city's actions conflict with Proposition 22, the 2000 voter-approved initiative that bans the recognition of same-sex marriages in California.
For the moment, he said, the marriage licenses have no legal significance unless the newlyweds try to assert their rights as married people by applying for Social Security benefits or seeking custody of property or children.
State Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office had already started to study the issue of same-sex marriages because of the debate over gay and lesbian unions taking place in Massachusetts, a spokeswoman said. The high court in that state ruled that barring same-sex couples from marrying was unconstitutional.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera said he would defend San Francisco in court with pro bono legal assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and other civil rights groups.
The Liberty Counsel had planned to file for an injunction Thursday, but the state courts were closed in observance of Abraham Lincoln's birthday. That wasn't lost on city officials, who fast-tracked plans to put the same-sex marriage procedures in place before a judge had time to stop the weddings.
Officials alerted only a handful of people that they were ready to act. By early Thursday, employees in the county clerk's office, in consultation with city and civil rights lawyers, had changed marriage license documents to make them gender-neutral, replacing the words "bride'' and "groom'' with "first applicant'' and "second applicant.''
At 11:06 a.m., two icons of the lesbian movement, Del Martin, 83, and Phyllis Lyon, 79, exchanged wedding vows, kissed and embraced. Mabel Teng, the city's assessor-recorder, officiated over the ceremony, inserting the phrase "spouse for life'' in place of "husband'' and "wife.''
Lyon, who will celebrate her 51st anniversary with Martin on Saturday, Valentine's Day, got a call Wednesday from Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, asking her if she'd be willing to take the plunge.
"I asked Del, and she said OK," Lyon said. "We didn't really think about this before, because we didn't think it was possible. Now, so much has changed ... and everyone's working so hard to get gay marriage. It didn't seem right to say 'no.' "
About 20 people witnessed the ceremony. Many of them were moved to tears as the couple were wed, using borrowed rings.
Reaction to the day's events came quickly.
"The state of California must rebuff the efforts of this rogue mayor," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative group in Washington, D.C. "His actions, and the actions of those who are attempting to redefine marriage in Massachusetts, show that homosexual activists are ready and willing to ignore the people and to ignore the law to further their agenda of normalizing homosexuality.''
Dorothy Erlich, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, countered: "Just as we told the state in 1974 when they passed a statute limiting marriage to a man and a woman, that kind of discrimination against same-sex couples violates the California Constitution's promise of equality. Discrimination in marriage was wrong then and it's wrong now.''
On the same day that San Francisco entered uncharted territory, Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, introduced the California Marriage License Nondiscrimination Act, which would amend the state Family Code to define a marriage as between "two persons" instead of between a man and a woman.
"Simple enough, but really changes the world for so many millions and millions of people here in California,'' said Leno, who stuck around City Hall for the day to marry couples.
Newsom said the fight was no different from the battles to eradicate laws banning marriage between people of different races and different religions.
"America has struggled since its inception to eradicate discrimination in all forms," said Newsom, who did not officiate over ceremonies Thursday. "California's Constitution leaves no doubts. It leaves no room for any form of discrimination.''
Chronicle staff writer
