18,000 Marriages are Upheld, but Not One More

Mo and Lin of Juneau were legally married in San Francisco City Hall on Sept. 15, 2008, exactly eighteen years after their original (non-legal) wedding. Today's California Court decision means they are allowed to remain married, although other same-sex couples will not be able to legally wed in California.

The California Supreme Court today upheld Proposition 8's ban on same-sex marriage, and also ruled that gay couples who wed before the election will continue to be "married" under state law. A statement from Alaskans Together for Equality and the link to the Anchorage protest information was posted earlier.

Many Alaskan same-sex couples were married in California last year when the marriages were legal, and were waiting to hear if the court would divorce them. Other couples were hoping they would be able to get married in California this year.

Conservative groups that support the ban are angry that the 18,000 couples married before the election can stay married.

On Oct. 5, Mo and Lin held a Jump the Broom wedding reception in Juneau, and their friends created a Human Arch of Love and Acceptance for them to walk through. Then Mo and Lin joined hands and raised their arms as part of the Arch, and other couples walked through.

 

"We may need to do that Arch of Love and Acceptance again and again, letting it grow until all are included and equal in our nation," wrote Mo after the reception. "Perhaps we can have arches of love and support all over our state in 2009, or all over our nation."

Here are photos of the Arch of Love, the Newly-wed/Oldy-wed Game, the 3-tiered cupcake tower, and Mo & Lin dancing at the Juneau reception after their California (still-legal-today) wedding:

Lin responded to today's CA court decision: "It's a sad day for fairness and equality but I take heart from many things. Fair-minded people are planning for the next step toward full equality. I take heart from Meghan McCain's recent words (paraphrased), "Republicans believe in fairness and equality and I believe that supporting gay marriage is part of our platform."

Mo is in California today and plans to attend the Day of Decision action in Santa Barbara tonight. She sent this response:

I will use Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words here among mine, my hero of civil rights introduced to me by my Father in the 60's.

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

Now is the time for us all to work together, harder than before to change this injustice.

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."

Let us stand together, let me hear YOU!

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

Good people please join us, and let us be the change we wish to see in this world.