Adovcacy News - A painful
and difficult day for San Francisco
August
12, 2004
A
painful and difficult day for San Francisc0 Joint
statement vows to fight on for gay marriage
In
solidarity with our American neighbours, friends, and supporters who are working
for same-sex marriage, we publish this joint statement from Equality California,
Lambda Legal, American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, and National
Center for Lesbian Rights:
SAN
FRANCISCO -- Today the California
Supreme Court ruled that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom did not have the
authority to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and declared the licenses
issued to thousands of same-sex couples invalid. The ruling does not address whether
same-sex couples must be allowed to marry under the California Constitution. That
issue is being litigated in a separate lawsuit brought by the National Center
for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal and the ACLU. Legal briefs are being filed in
that lawsuit in the next few weeks, and the case is expected to move quickly in
state court.
More
than 4,000 couples and their families are directly affected by the Court's decision
today, depriving these families of equal dignity as well as of the many legal
protections granted to married couples under California law. Among the families
are Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, the first same-sex couple to receive a marriage
license in San Francisco on February 12, 2004.
"Del
is eighty-three years old and I am seventy-nine," said Phyllis Lyon. "After being
together for more than fifty years, it is a terrible blow to have the rights and
protections of marriage taken away from us. At our age, we do not have the luxury
of time."
Joe
Varnell and Kevin Bourassa with Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, California's first
couple to be married by San Francisco.
One
very real consequence of the Court's action is that if one of the women were to
die before the other, the surviving partner would have no right to social security
or pension benefits and no protection against losing their family home.
In
its decision today, the Court did not rule on the ultimate issue of whether excluding
same-sex couples from obtaining government-issued marriage licenses violates the
California Constitution's guarantees of equality, liberty, and privacy. That
question is at the center of cases currently pending in San Francisco Superior
Court, including Woo v. Lockyer, an action on behalf of several same-sex couples,
Equality California, and Our Families Coalition filed by the National Center for
Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal, and the ACLU in March, and a case on behalf of the
City and County of San Francisco, brought by San Francisco City Attorney Dennis
Herrera. These cases are similar to a Massachusetts lawsuit that led to a decision
last year ordering government officials to issues marriage licenses to same-sex
couples statewide. In another similar case, a Washington State trial court judge
ruled last week that a state law prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying violated
the state's Constitution.
"This
is a painful and difficult day for the thousands of couples whose love, commitment
and desire to protect their families was placed on hold," said Kate Kendell, Executive
Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. "While their families are
not yet treated equally, their courageous public declarations have shown the world
the harm caused by marriage discrimination and will result in our ultimately obtaining
the freedom to marry."
"It
is important to remember that today's decision says nothing about whether California
can continue to discriminate against our families," said Jon Davidson of Lambda
Legal. ACLU of Northern California Associate Director Bob Kearney added: "In 1948,
the California Supreme Court was the first in the country to end race discrimination
in marriage. We are confident that the court will live up to its own history and
bring a swift end to marriage discrimination in California."
While
the challenge to the present law governing the issuance of marriage licenses moves
forward in the courts, a simultaneous effort to change that law legislatively
is also moving forward. The Marriage License Non-Discrimination Act, legislation,
which is being carried by San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno and officially sponsored
by Equality California, became the first marriage equality bill to pass a legislative
body when it was passed by both the Assembly Rules and Judiciary Committees earlier
this year.
"Denying
one group of people a government issued license for the sole purpose of discriminating
against them and their children flies in the face of everything that has made
California great," said Geoffrey Kors, Executive Director of Equality California,
sponsor of the legislation and party to the litigation on behalf of its members.
"These 4000 families, and hundreds of thousands of other families headed by same-sex
couples, deserve nothing less than equality and we are confident that the courts
and the legislature will remedy this injustice."