Judge rules Prop 8 unconstitutional

Glory hallelujah! Please go read Gabriel Malor — who is gay — at Ace of Spades HQ for the first take on the ruling in Perry v. Schwarzenegger regarding California’s Prop 8, which defined marriage as only being legal between a man and a woman. Gabriel’s summary of the verdict is as follows: “… there is a constitutional right to gay marriage and also a constitutional right for gays not to be discriminated against in a state marriage regime.”

By the way, I see a different guarantee of equality for lesbians and gays under the U.S. Constitution than the ones argued in Perry v. Schwarzenegger — equal protection and due process. I am saving it for my book on the conservative case for lesbian and gay equality.

I want to remind my dear gentle readers who are worried about marriage having a religious definition that the Metropolitan Community Church is fine with same-sex marriages. If we need more religions to marry same-sex couples, we’ll found them.

In addition, each religion already defines marriage differently. The Mormon Church, which has spent the most money and mobilized its followers to fight same-sex equality, has THREE definitions of marriage — including polygamy. Mormons believe only a “celestial” marriage of a heterosexual Mormon couple performed in a Mormon temple has real spiritual value. In addition, the emphasis the Mormon-funded National Organization for Marriage puts on its definition of marriage only being valid if the couple can directly procreate from their sexual union comes completely from Mormon beliefs and requirements, including that its members trace their ancestry back to Adam. Mormons create and exploit controversy over gay equality in order to soften you up for conversion to Mormonism by getting you to agree to core Mormon beliefs without knowing you are doing so.

I’d also like to reassure my dear gentle readers that full equality for lesbians and gays, including marriage equality, is going to promote improved morality and social stability. What has been supremely destructive and corrupting is inequality, especially since its rationale was the religious one that gays are intrinsically evil so no amount of virtue redeems a gay person’s life if they insist on being true to themselves and building a life with a same-sex spouse.

This year I’ve been looking at my heirloom tomatoes and the herbs and flowers I started from seed and realizing how important it is that my plants get the right conditions at the right time to flourish. Equality for lesbians and gays is going to foster moral development, which has to start young and includes dating in high school — and going to the prom. Equality for lesbians and gays — including the right to have the dream of marriage — is going to create a society that is both more moral and more stable.

P.S.

I wonder what frenzy of gay-bashing that this decision will induce from gay-hating, anti-gay misogynist and gay conservative Daniel Blatt over at Gay Patriot, the safest place in the conservative blogosphere to denounce gays — including teen-aged lesbian Constance McMillen, who just wanted to go to the prom with her girlfriend — thanks to Daniel.