Weddings for Everybody!

[mgc1961]

Everything about the climax of the legal quest to overturn California’s ban on gay marriage was appropriately cinematic — even the month best to imagine two men atop a wedding cake or two women walking down the aisle.

“It may be appropriate that the case is coming to closing argument now,” Chief Judge Vaughn Walker said with a twinkle. “June is, after all, the month for weddings.”

The Federal District Court trial that seems tailored for a made-for-TV movie features the remarkable odd-couple pairing of two lawyers who have already been depicted in a made-for-TV movie, “Recount,” about their rivalry in another historic trial, Bush v. Gore. The conservative Ted Olson now prides himself on being “an honorary lesbian,” and the liberal David Boies now prides himself on upbraiding Barack Obama for not pushing to give gays the same shot at marital bliss — and misery — that people like the president’s parents got when interracial marriage was legalized.

Officiating from on high was the dapper and quirky, silver-haired, silver-tongued, silver-goateed Judge Walker, who would have been played in a 40s movie by Clifton Webb. The anti-Ito, Judge Walker moved the trial along without preening for the media, asking thought-provoking and occasionally droll questions of lawyers for both sides. Walker is something of a character who invites magicians to perform at the annual court conference and who once made a mail thief wear a sign that said: “I have stolen mail. This is my punishment.” Heightening the dramatic possibilities, he is also, according to The San Francisco Chronicle, gay himself, which might give Prop 8 proponents ammunition to claim bias if he rules against them.


Do you want to read more? Then here you go: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/opinion/20dowd.html?hp

[boobooday]

1. This is really exciting

We could use some good news.

[SocialistLez]

2. I'm all for marriage equality BUT

I'd much rather people not need to be married to do things like make medical decisions for their spouse, have the ability to sue for wrongful death, etc.

I really don't want to get married but since the separation between married and unmarried can be such a big deal, I'll probably end up marrying a long-time girlfriend just to simply have the rights married people have.