Supporters of gay marriage demonstrate outside the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
?Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.?
These are the words of Judge Stephen Reinhardt, one of the three judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that had heard both sides of the Proposition 8 appeal.???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? In a ruling of 2-1, the California court system voted Prop 8 unconstitutional on February 7, 2012 saying that it violates the rights of gay Californians. Some of these rights include recognition for same sex marriage and domestic relationships, license marriages for same sex couples, same parentage presumptions for adults in same sex marriages and bans discrimination against prospective parents. Although the proposition has been found unconstitutional, some say there is still a long way to go.
Yvonne Ramos, a 20-year-old communications major and president of LAMBDA, a campus club for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders, approved of the decision. ?This is definitely a milestone but one that has been a long time coming,? she said. ?Who says the issue won?t go to the federal judicial system??
Supporters of Proposition 8 are now looking to appeal to a higher court and have said if they lose, they will take it to the Supreme Court.? But there has been a recent increase in favor of voting no on Proposition 8. In a recent Field Poll released February 22, 59 percent of registered Californians were in favor of giving full marital rights to gay and lesbian couples.? In 2009, this same poll found only 49 percent of voters to be in favor. Some say this huge increase could be because people are simply just changing their minds.
?The issue that Californians in favor of equality in marriage face now is breaking social barriers and having to prove to the world that their relationship is as acceptable as any other,? said Ramos.
In California, a domestic partnership gives certain but not all legal rights to same sex couples. ?This is comparable to what is called a ?civil union? in other states. Relationship recognition for same sex couples in marriage and domestic relationships is one of the issues outlined in the proposition. ??I think that there is only marriage. The term ?gay marriage? segregates the community and implies that their marriage is different from any other marriage,? said Ramos.??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Ramos also said that another reason for the increase could be because other states are allowing equality in marriage.
?California, despite its cultural diversity, has been lagging in this area. Perhaps the recent states such as New York who found in favor of equal marriage helped the increase here,? said Ramos. Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Washington also allow same sex marriage.
In a poll recently conducted at Mt. SAC asking students? opinions on same sex marriages, 28 out of the 30 students supported it. Christian Orozco, communications major, 24 was one of the students polled and voted yes on Proposition 8 in 2008 but has since changed his mind.
?I was honestly confused of what the whole proposition meant when I voted for it last time; I didn?t really know anything about it,? he said. ??But now with all the attention it?s getting, I now understand that marriage is between two people who love each other, and if they can pass that love on to their child, and that child can pass it on to their children, should it really matter if they are the same sex or not? I don?t think who is allowed to marry should be an issue.?
- Tianna Winters
Staff Writer
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