The City halts same-sex marriages
By: Brent Begin
Examiner Staff Writer
November 6, 2008
 |
| Angelina Barrintos, left, and her partner Brianna Reyes, wait outside the County Clerk's Office after showing up for their scheduled wedding date on Wednesday. The couple rescheduled their appointment for December despite being turned away due to the passage of Proposition 8. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Like thousands of couples before them, Brianna Reyes and Angelina Barrintos showed up in their wedding finery Wednesday to be married at San Francisco City Hall.
But instead of celebrating their nuptials, Reyes and Barrintos were turned away at the County Clerk’s Office. They were one of at least seven couples who showed up at City Hall on Wednesday expecting to be married, but who instead were met with apologies and the news The City was not issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
With unofficial election results showing Proposition 8, the constitutional ban on same-sex unions, passing with a slim majority, The City on Wednesday ordered a grinding halt to all same-sex marriages. “It doesn’t change anything about how we feel about each other,” Reyes said. “We just wanted to make it legal.”
Statewide, confusion reigned about the status of same-sex marriages. A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Debra Bowen said initiatives typically take effect the day after an election, although the results from Tuesday’s races will not be certified until Dec. 13. Still, Los Angeles County continued to issue licenses to same-sex couples, while others halted the practice immediately.
Three groups — including City Attorney Dennis Herrera — have already filed legal challenges to the proposition, but the measure’s passage also raises a question about the status of the 18,000 same-sex couples throughout the state who have already wed. City officials are waiting to clarify whether more than 5,000 same-sex couples who tied the knot in San Francisco between June 17 — a month after a state Supreme Court ruling legalized the unions — and Tuesday will have their unions nullified.
“I’m really sorry [the vote] came out the way it did,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Wednesday. “You don’t take rights away from people. To the best of my knowledge, it’s never been done.”
Mayor Gavin Newsom told reporters he isn’t going to order the clerk to issue licenses, as he did in 2004, putting San Francisco at the forefront of the issue. Still, he said he is proud of the work he’s done.
“The most extraordinary gift I’ve ever been afforded was being elected mayor of San Francisco and being given the privilege to stand up for people’s rights,” Newsom said.
Late Tuesday night, the backers of Prop. 8 sent out a message of hope and “healing among all, and a continued respect for the diverse views that have been expressed during this campaign.”
However, ProtectMarriage.com said they would fight the legal challenges and protect the will of the voters.
“The coalition that has worked so hard for the past year to enact Prop. 8 will vigorously defend the people’s decision against this unfortunate challenge by groups who, having lost in the court of public opinion, now turn to courts of law to pursue their agenda,” said the group’s chief legal counsel, Andrew Pugno.
Lawsuits follow passage of Prop. 8
After losing in the polls, The City filed a lawsuit Wednesday asking the state Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8, which defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
It was one of three lawsuits filed the day after voters cast a shadow of uncertainty on the thousands of legal same-sex marriages that have occurred since June.
A ban on same-sex marriage is invalid because the very fundamentals of California’s highest law prohibit it, City Attorney Dennis Herrera argued.
The challenge, filed in state Supreme Court, argues that taking rights away from a “politically unpopular group” is a fundamental violation of the California Constitution’s equal protection clause, and requires a much higher threshold for passage than a simple majority vote.
“I’m very confident in the strength of our argument,” Herrera told The Examiner. “This is all in the context of marriage equality, but it means so much more than that. You can think of a whole host of other contexts where somebody could have their own rights stripped away by a majority vote.”
Backers of Prop. 8 vowed to continue fighting for the will of the voters, and some legal experts were doubtful that a constitutional amendment approved by a majority of voters could be challenged in court.
The court is very unlikely to overturn the will of the voters, said Ethan Lieb, a constitutional law professor at Hastings College of the Law.
“The only real legal battle you’ll see is over the question of retroactive effect,” Lieb said. “Will the tens of thousands of marriages already performed be invalidated?”
No, State Attorney General Jerry Brown said Wednesday.
“It is my belief that the courts will hold that these same-sex marriages entered into are valid,” Brown said in a statement.
Herrera won’t fight the court battle alone. Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties have joined the challenge with San Francisco.
In addition, a similar challenge was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The petition goes a step further in asking for an immediate stay of the proposition, allowing couples to wed as the battle continues in court. The third suit was filed in Los Angeles on behalf of a married lesbian couple. — Brent Begin
The City’s marriages by month
State same-sex marriages began June 17.
| Same sex | Opposite sex | |
|
June 17-30 |
1,076 |
548 |
|
July |
867 |
563 |
|
August |
764 |
674 |
|
September |
876 |
796 |
|
October to Nov. 3 |
1,408 |
670 |
|
Total |
4,991 |
3,251 |
Source: County Clerk’s Office
