San Francisco, California -
The city of San Francisco continued handing out marriage licenses to same-sex couples Monday despite a threatened showdown with the state, and among those tying the knot was GLAAD media director Cathy Renna and her longtime partner Leah McElrath.
"We were in Los Angeles for a GLAAD board meeting," said Renna, "an decided to come up and take the plunge."
Beginning today the city required couples seeking marriage licenses to make appointments. Renna and McElrath were able to pull some political strings, though, and were fitted in.
Wearing kaki and casual tops the women pledged their devotion to one another at a city hall ceremony.
Renna announced at the board meeting in Los Angeles she is leaving GLAAD to return to private sector.
More than three-thousand gay couples have gotten married at city hall since February 12th. The frenzy that greeted the first days that weddings for same-sex couples were allowed to marry was more controlled today with the requirement of appointments. Only about 50 marriages were performed Monday.
In Sacramento, lawyers for Attorney General Bill Lockyer were continuing to work on the state's response to the same-sex marriage issue. Sunday Lockyer implied that court papers could be filed as early as today (365gay.com story), but he now hedges the date topic saying only that it will be done soon.
However, in a Monday afternoon interview Lockyer said that the courts will invalidate the marriages within weeks and stop the city from issuing additional marriage licenses.
His remarks drew an angry response from Lambda Legal.
"The state's attorney general should understand better than anyone that local officials must abide by the state Constitution," said Jon Davidson, Senior Counsel for Lambda.
"First and foremost, the law governing this state is the California Constitution, and denying same-sex couples equal access to marriage violates that law. The City of San Francisco is trying to defend people's constitutional rights; that's a duty the attorney general shares, and we're disappointed that he seems unwilling to fulfill it."
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, famed attorney Gloria Allred announced she was filing suit against the State of California on behalf of two same-sex couples: Metropolitan Community Church founder Troy Perry and his husband Phillip Ray DeBlieck, and Robin Tyler and her life partner Diane Olson.
Both couples were denied a marriage license last week by the Los Angeles County Clerk's office.
Perry and DeBlieck were legally married last summer in Toronto but wanted to remarry in California to have their union affirmed there..
The lawsuit challenges California Family Code Section 308.5 which states that marriage is a civil contract between and man and a woman .
"We argue that the statute is unconstitutional in violation of the California Constitution Article 1, Section 1 and Article 1, Section 7," Allred said. "We alleged that denial of the marriage license violates the constitutional guarantees of equal protection under the law, due process and the right to enjoy and defend life and liberty and acquire, possess and protect property, and pursue and obtain safety, happiness and privacy."
Allred said that it is "absolutely necessary that we bring this lawsuit because even if San Francisco wins a favorable decision at the trial court level in the pending law suit filed against it, that decision is not binding on L.A. County, and they are not legally required to change their policy on account of it."
by Mark Worrall
365Gay.com Newscenter
San Francisco Bureau
©365Gay.com® 2004
"We were in Los Angeles for a GLAAD board meeting," said Renna, "an decided to come up and take the plunge."
Beginning today the city required couples seeking marriage licenses to make appointments. Renna and McElrath were able to pull some political strings, though, and were fitted in.
Wearing kaki and casual tops the women pledged their devotion to one another at a city hall ceremony.
Renna announced at the board meeting in Los Angeles she is leaving GLAAD to return to private sector.
More than three-thousand gay couples have gotten married at city hall since February 12th. The frenzy that greeted the first days that weddings for same-sex couples were allowed to marry was more controlled today with the requirement of appointments. Only about 50 marriages were performed Monday.
In Sacramento, lawyers for Attorney General Bill Lockyer were continuing to work on the state's response to the same-sex marriage issue. Sunday Lockyer implied that court papers could be filed as early as today (365gay.com story), but he now hedges the date topic saying only that it will be done soon.
However, in a Monday afternoon interview Lockyer said that the courts will invalidate the marriages within weeks and stop the city from issuing additional marriage licenses.
His remarks drew an angry response from Lambda Legal.
"The state's attorney general should understand better than anyone that local officials must abide by the state Constitution," said Jon Davidson, Senior Counsel for Lambda.
"First and foremost, the law governing this state is the California Constitution, and denying same-sex couples equal access to marriage violates that law. The City of San Francisco is trying to defend people's constitutional rights; that's a duty the attorney general shares, and we're disappointed that he seems unwilling to fulfill it."
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, famed attorney Gloria Allred announced she was filing suit against the State of California on behalf of two same-sex couples: Metropolitan Community Church founder Troy Perry and his husband Phillip Ray DeBlieck, and Robin Tyler and her life partner Diane Olson.
Both couples were denied a marriage license last week by the Los Angeles County Clerk's office.
Perry and DeBlieck were legally married last summer in Toronto but wanted to remarry in California to have their union affirmed there..
The lawsuit challenges California Family Code Section 308.5 which states that marriage is a civil contract between and man and a woman .
"We argue that the statute is unconstitutional in violation of the California Constitution Article 1, Section 1 and Article 1, Section 7," Allred said. "We alleged that denial of the marriage license violates the constitutional guarantees of equal protection under the law, due process and the right to enjoy and defend life and liberty and acquire, possess and protect property, and pursue and obtain safety, happiness and privacy."
Allred said that it is "absolutely necessary that we bring this lawsuit because even if San Francisco wins a favorable decision at the trial court level in the pending law suit filed against it, that decision is not binding on L.A. County, and they are not legally required to change their policy on account of it."
by Mark Worrall
365Gay.com Newscenter
San Francisco Bureau
©365Gay.com® 2004
This article originally appeared on 365gay.com. Republished with permission.
