California's Prop 8 Upheld, Married Couples Still Wed

You may be surprised to hear me say this but I think the recent decision by the California Supreme Court to uphold Proposition 8 was a good thing:

The California Supreme Court today upheld Proposition 8's ban on same-sex marriage but also ruled that gay couples who wed before the election will continue to be married under state law.

Although the court split 6-1 on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the justices were unanimous in deciding to keep intact the marriages of as many as 18,000 gay couples who exchanged vows before the election. The marriages began last June, after a 4-3 state high court ruling striking down the marriage ban last May.

All things considered, I think that a decision by the court to strike down Prop. 8 would have been counterproductive to the same-sex marriage movement. Marriage equality has been having a great run lately, most notably in states like Vermont where same-sex marriage was passed by both houses of the state legislature and signed into law by the Governor. In my view, this is the better approach and robs the opposition of their favorite "Activist Judges!!" canard.

Overall, my prediction is that Prop. 8 gets voted off the books in a few years.

To help bring that about, jump over to the Courage Campaign and do what you can to help:

In response to the court's decision, the Courage Campaign will hit the California airwaves in the next 72 hours with a 60-second TV ad version of "Fidelity" -- the heartbreaking online video viewed by more than 1.2 million people, making it the most-watched video ever in the history of California politics.

We are launching this provocative new TV ad in the spirit of Harvey Milk's call to "come out, come out wherever you are" and proudly tell the stories of the people most affected by the passage of Prop 8 -- in moving images set to the beat of Regina Spektor's beautiful song.

Be fearless. Watch this 60-second "Fidelity" TV ad now and -- if you want more people to see it -- contribute $25, $50, $100, $250 (or as much as you can afford) to expand our ad buy immediately in Bakersfield, Fresno, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco ASAP.

Update: Poppa Sully's reaction is similar to mine:

Politically, this seems to me the perfect decision. It would have been dreadful if voters were retroactively told their valid vote was somehow null and void - it would have felt like a bait and switch and provoked a horrible backlash.

It would have been equally dreadful if those couples lawfully wed were subsequently forced into divorce by the court. And these married couples and their families and children will now become the focus of the debate in California, as they should be. They are the evidence that we are right: that extending the blessings and responsibilities of full family life to gay men and lesbians is a good and conservative and integrating thing. We need now to put these families forward as our core argument. Their lives are our best case. Like mixed-race married couples in another era, they will show that there is nothing to fear here and much to celebrate.