Marriage Equality now Marriage Reality in California

Good news everyone! The Supreme Court of California has just released a ruling ensuring full marriage equality in that state. This is great news, since it does not appear that same-sex marriages will be limited California residents, unlike Massachusetts' requirement that both spouses be state citizens. Let me repeat that: It looks like California has just legalized equal marriage for everyone in the US.

It's unclear at this time when California will begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. It it also unclear how other states will treat the new marriages from California. Because of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), they are not required to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. However, the DOMA is very clearly unconstitutional (a post on that soon). Up until now, though, no one has had standing to challenge DOMA because no out-of-state couples have been able to legally marry and then sue their own state for recognition. This ruling, In Re Marriage Cases opens the doorway to overturning the discriminatory and unconstitutional DOMA.

We have our new Perez v. Sharp, but when will we get our Loving v. Virginia?

UPDATE: Governor Schwarzenegger has stated that he will not fight the court's ruling and does not support a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages.
Sources:
[Good As You]
[PageOneQ]
The Court's Ruling In Re The Marriage Cases: [PDF] [Scribd iPaper]

Marriage Equality Ballot Measure Passes AZ House

For the past few months, some bigoted members of the Arizona legislature have been attempting to place another marriage equality ban on the state's November ballot. Up until recently, some expert political wrangling by equality-minded legislators, notably Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (pictured), have kept the hate-motivated ballot measure at bay. However, two days ago on May 12, the house passed SCR1042 in a vote of 33-25.

Immediately upon passage, however, Rep. Sinema again showed her political expertise by invoking House Rule 8 (J), which requires that, upon a motion by any legislator, any bill which is "not a proper subject of legislation, or which contains language that is insulting or derogatory" must be immediately referred to the rules committee for a decision on whether the bill is appropriate. Unfortunately, the Rules Committee promptly approved the bill, and it was passed to the Republican-dominated Arizona Senate, where it will almost certainly be passed.

Sources:
[Arizona Daily Star]
[SCR1042]

CA Supremes to Rule on Marriage Equality Tomorrow!

According to PageOneQ, the California Supreme Court has announced that it will rule on the equal marriage cases it heard back in March. No indication yet as to how the court will rule.