It's funny -- funny strange, not funny ha ha -- that I'm not surprised at all by the California Supreme Court ruling, and that it's left me feeling tired and oddly guilty.
Of course they reversed their stance on whether or not we're equal. Why would that surprise anyone? Well, except for Justice Moreno, who has some balls. Good for you, Sir. As I said, it's what I expected.
But it still left me feeling drained and disappointed. I expected the justice system to protect those of us who are in the minority, and my cynical self was proved right. I found myself wondering if gay people in California should ask if they are now expected to have separate drinking fountains and be isolated from the straight folks in restaurants.
And am I the only truly cynical one who questions why Obama chose today to announce his Supreme Court nominee, thereby pulling focus from the California ruling? But then I've become seriously skeptical about much that he's done, although he has made some positive changes. But that's for another post.
The guilt, though, kind of surprises me.
We're still married, Lillian and I, and in our hearts that wouldn't change at all regardless of what any court says. And the marriages up in the air now are those that have been performed legally in other States, since now no one knows whether or not they'll be recognized in California. They were BEFORE Prop 8, which is why some folks didn't get married in CA -- they couldn't. But now? Who knows.
So there are rallies, and there are growing acts of civil disobedience, and there are all kinds of challenges.
There's talk of putting it back on the ballot in 2010, and one little lady asked how often that would happen. If their side won this time and our side won next time and their side won the time after that, when does it end?
Well, it ends when one side gives up -- which won't be us -- or when the feds step in -- which at this rate is so far out in the future it's unforeseeable. So this could go on for decades.
And a couple of lawyers have filed a challenge to Prop 8 in federal court, and the cool thing is that they're attorneys from opposing schools of thought working together. Of course, that'll take anywhere from two to five years to get to the Supreme Court, and even then they may refuse to hear it.
Or maybe, if we're lucky and we perservere, it'll be a moot point.
But for tonight, I'm tired and sad and very disappointed in the people we trusted to protect us.
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