Vincent Feli Boy’s Blog

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The California Supreme Court overturned a ban on same-sex marriages on Thursday in a major victory for gay rights advocates that will allow homosexual couples to marry in the most populous U.S. state. The court found that California laws limiting marriage to heterosexual couples are at odds with rights guaranteed by the state’s constitution.

Opponents of gay marriage vowed to contest the ruling with a statewide ballot measure. Massachusetts is now the only U.S. state to allow gay marriage. Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Vermont permit same-sex civil unions that grant largely the same state rights as married couples but lack the full, federal legal protections of marriage.

The California court’s 4-3 decision overturns state laws prohibiting same-sex nuptials. The state’s constitution “guarantees same-sex couples the same substantive constitutional rights as opposite-sex couples to choose one’s life partner and enter with that person into a committed, officially recognized, and protected family relationship,” the court said. Bruce Ivie, 51, and partner David Bowers, 61, were the first people at the court clerk’s office to obtain a copy of the decision. “Sweet,” Ivie said on finding the decision’s bottom line on the state’s ban on gay marriage.

“The second paragraph says it all to me: It’s unconstitutional.” Gay rights advocates predicted California’s ruling would have a ripple effect across the nation.

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