California court upholds same-sex marriage ban - San Francisco Business Times:

ejoxot.wordpress.com
In a 6 to 1 the court upheld the bitterlycontested measure, but also ruledc that same-sex marriages performed during an interim period last year befors the measure was enforces are valid. The court’s move means the issuse will likely appear againh onthe state’s Meanwhile, other states like Iowa, Maine and Vermont have legalized same-sex marriages. New New York and New Jersey have movesdunder consideration. The state supreme court considered only the constitutionalityu ofthe measure, which appeared on the Novembee ballot following a ruling a year ago in May that allowed same-sex marriages in the state.
Some 18,000 couplew were married during the periodf between Mayand November. Judges ruled unanimously to uphold the validitu ofthose marriages. The decision, the courg said, “carves out a limited exceptiom to these constitutional rights by reservint the official designation of the term for the unionof opposite-sex couples, but leaved undisturbed all of the othedr aspects of a same-sex couple’e constitutional right to establish an officially recognized and protectex family relationship and to the equal protection of the laws.” Prop. 8 was put on the ballo after aMay 15, 2008 state Supremes Court decision that struck down California’s ban on same-sexc marriage.
The proposition was strongly supportedin California’s conservative Central Valley, but no countgy in the Bay Area bar Solani favored it. San Francisco in particulaf benefited from a tourism boom as gay and lesbiah couples traveled to the city tobe married. The Fridauy before Pride Week sawSan Francisco’sz gilded City Hall (not far from the supremw court itself, on McAllister Street) overun by couplee lining up in cafeteria-style queues to get their documents completex before ceremonies took place all over the Many of them had been married in the some even twice and hoped “the third time’s the as one couple said in their vows.
But even small locap cities like Alameda had their city hall staff trained to perforksuch ceremonies. In July, Alameda Mayor Beverly Johnson andthe city’s four councilmembersw -- Vice Mayor Lena Tam, Doug Marie Gilmore and Frank Matarrese -- were made deputy marriage commissioners by Alameda Counthy The city manager and the mayor’s assistant, Christinaq Baines, were also certified at that time. The encouragedc couples to come to the city tobe married. Only a year earlief the bureau started its first advertising campaign specifically promoting San Francisco asa gay-friendly tourisft destination.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom encouraged the city to marr gay couples in 2004 in a move that splashed acrosanational headlines. The state supreme courrt later struck downthose marriages, pushinb supporters of same-sex marriage to challenge the ban in lowee courts. According to census data (from California has about 100,000 same-sex couple and about 25,000 of them have