Same Sex Marriage

The San Francisco Giants became the first professional sports franchise in the country to release a video addressing bullying and violence against gay and lesbian youth Wednesday.

The team announced two weeks ago that they would record and release their own rendition of the “It Gets Better” nationwide anti-bullying initiative that was launched in response to several suicides of GLBTQ youth who were discriminated against because of their sexual orientation.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in San Francisco today on the question of whether a lower court ruling that California’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional should be allowed to stand.

The two-and-a-half hour hearing was televised live nationwide on C-SPAN, affording viewers a rare chance to watch the judges pressing both sides on questions such as whether Proposition 8 has any rational basis.

SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed a lower court’s ruling that overturned California’s Proposition 8, a voter-approved ballot initiative that prohibits same-sex marriage, until it can decide an expedited appeal.

The appeals court’s stay means that same-sex marriages in California cannot resume at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, when a stay issued by U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who ruled the measure unconstitutional August 4, would have expired.

(8/12) — UPDATED 18:30 PDT — SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge is refusing to stay his ruling that California’s voter-approved Proposition 8, which defines marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman, violates the U.S. Constitution pending an appeal by the measure’s backers.

But U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker chose to prevent his decision from taking effect until August 18 at 5 p.m. — allowing Proposition 8 backers time to appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for an emergency stay, and preventing any same-sex weddings until then. Same-sex marriage opponents said they had immediately appealed Walker’s ruling.

SAN FRANCISCO — Jubilation over a U.S. District court ruling finding California’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional permeated the streets of San Francisco’s Castro District Wednesday evening, but both opponents and supporters of Proposition 8 agreed that the legal battle over the voter-approved ban was far from over.

On the heels of yesterday’s ruling from a federal judge that California’s Proposition 8 is unconstitutional, hundreds took to the streets in San Francisco to celebrate. Participants gathered in the early evening and marched down one side of Market Street from the Castro district to City Hall, led by a festooned flatbed truck playing music.

(8/4) — UPDATED 18:37 PDT — SAN FRANCISCO — California’s voter-approved Proposition 8, which defines marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman, violates the United States Constitution, a U.S. District Court judge ruled Wednesday afternoon.

In a sweeping decision, posted online Wednesday afternoon, Judge Vaughn Walker soundly rejected all of the arguments that same-sex marriage opponents presented, saying “Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples.”

Walker, however, stayed his ruling, preventing same-sex marriage licenses from being issued immediately.

(8/3) — 18:50 PDT — SAN FRANCISCO — A federal ruling on the constitutionality of California’s 2008 voter-approved Proposition 8, which defined marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman, will be handed down Wednesday afternoon.

Chief U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker, who presided over a historic nonjury trial of the case, is expected to post his decision online between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., according to published reports.