The New York Times reports:
The California Supreme Court upheld a ban on same-sex marriage today, ratifying a decision made by voters last year that runs counter to a growing trend of states allowing the practice.
The decision, however, preserves the 18,000 marriages performed between the court’s decision last May that same-sex marriage was lawful and the passage by voters in November of Proposition 8, which banned it.
The ban was upheld on a 6-to-1 majority of the court. Chief Justice Ronald George said “same-sex couples still have the right to civil unions, which gives them the ability to “choose one’s life partner and enter with that person into a committed, officially recognized, and protected family relationship that enjoys all of the constitutionally based incidents of marriage.” But the justices said that the voters had clearly expressed their will to limit the formality of marriage to heterosexual couples.
That appears to give civil unions the same benefits as “marriage.” The difference is in the label or name only. However, advocates for same-sex marriage, appear to differ. Those that oppose same-sex marriage are expressing elation at the court’s holding.
I still don’t see how same-sex marriages or unions affect heterosexual marriages. Frankly, I don’t think it is a matter to be decided on political grounds. Doing so sticks the states’ nose right in the middle of personal matters better left to the people involved themselves. I just cannot subscribe to the view that one group of people should be able to dictate how another group of people should live their lives.
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