The Episcopal Bishops of Los Angeles and California have filed suit to overturn California’s Proposition 8 banning gay marriage.On Nov 17, Bishop J Jon Bruno of Los Angeles and Bishop Marc Andrus of California along with the California Council of Churches, the Progressive Jewish Alliance and the Unitarian Universalist Church filed a writ with the California Supreme Court seeking an injunction blocking implementation of the petition based by voters.
“Proposition 8 poses a grave threat to religious freedom,” the director of the California Council of Churches, the Rev. Rick Schlosser argued.
“If the Court permits gay men and lesbians to be deprived of equal protection by a simple majority vote, religious minorities could be denied equal protection as well—a terrible irony in a nation founded by people who emigrated to escape religious persecution. If the Court permits Proposition 8 to take effect, religious discrimination similarly could be written into California's Constitution,” he said.
On May 15 the justices of the California Supreme Court voted 4 to 3 to overturn a state ban on gay marriage, but a Christian groups garnered enough signatures to place the issue before voters, and on Nov 4 the state adopted Proposition 8 by a 52 to 48 percent margin, overturning the court ruling and banning gay marriage.
Several lawsuits filed by local governments and lobbying groups have been filed with the state’s highest court seeking to overturn Proposition 8, arguing that the ballot initiative was improper. The Episcopal bishops’ lawsuit argued Proposition 8 unlawfully altered the California Constitution by altering fundamental constitutional principles---a power granted only to the legislature and not to ballot initiatives.
Counter lawsuits have also been filed by supporters of the California Marriage Protection Act (Proposition 8), urging the court to uphold the election. The Liberty Council, a conservative Christian pressure group, argued that “for the second time in eight years, more than 50 percent of California voters have confirmed that what has been true for thousands of years still remains true today: Marriage is the union of one man and one woman.”
It argued that Proposition 8 “does not alter the balance of power between the various branches of government, nor does it undermine or eliminate fundamental rights. Instead, Proposition 8 memorializes the centuries-old definition of a universal social institution by adding 14 words to the Constitution: ‘Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California’.”
Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented: “The people of California have spoken by affirming traditional marriage. It is time to move on. Fourteen words that reaffirm the historic and common sense definition of marriage are not a radical revision to the Constitution. It is a simple affirmation of what has been and should always be.”
However the Rev. Edwin Bacon, rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, which has been at the forefront of the battle to defeat Proposition 8, said opposing the ballot initiative puts one “on the right side of history on this important civil rights issue.”
“Standing for marriage equality is just another opportunity for us to live out the gospel,” Mr. Bacon said, urging the court to block implementation of the Nov 4 ballot initiative.
While Proposition 8 generated strong passions, not all high profile gay activists backed gay marriage. In comments made to USA Today on Nov 11 in New York, singer Elton John, said that gay activists had miscalculated. Speaking of his own civil partnership solemnized in Dec 2005 in England, John said “I don't want to be married. I'm very happy with a civil partnership. If gay people want to get married, or get together, they should have a civil partnership," John said. “The word 'marriage,' I think, puts a lot of people off.”
"You get the same equal rights that we do when we have a civil partnership. Heterosexual people get married. We can have civil partnerships."
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(Source: RI)