On June 26 2013, the United States Supreme Court handed gays and lesbians their biggest victories in a decade by striking down Article 3 of DOMA, which allowed the federal government to ignore all legal same-sex marriages performed in the country, and by dismissing the proponents of Proposition 8 (California’s Constitutional Amendment that blocked gay marriage in 2008 after a brief period during which it was legal) for lack of standing.
In a nutshell, after the California Supreme Court unanimously declared gay marriage legal in the state effective immediately, gays and lesbians started to marry while our opponents started gathering the signatures to pass a Constitutional amendment to limit marriage to heterosexual partners. They succeeded in November 2008 when same-sex marriages were blocked.
Soon after, AFER (American Foundation for Equal Rights) sued the state to overturn Prop 8 because it effectively took away a right that had been deemed fundamental by the Supreme Court according to the state Constitution. We won the first time when a federal judge, Judge Walker, declared that Prop 8 was unconstitutional.
Our opponents appealed that decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals when the new California Governor and his Attorney General both declined to defend Prop 8 because they too considered it unconstitutional. Their appeal was allowed to proceed at the Circuit court level after the Supreme Court of California declared that they had the right to defend their championed proposition if the legitimate governmental entities declined to do so. Unfortunately for them, we won a second time when the Ninth Circuit Court sided with us and substantially upheld Judge Walker’s decision.
Unsatisfied, Prop 8’s proponents appealed to the US Supreme Court, which has now declared that they had no standing to defend the proposition in court in the first place, thereby invalidating the Appeals Court’s decision, and rolling history back to Judge Walker’s ruling, officially and permanently ending the travesty that was Proposition 8.
The Appeals Court didn’t even wait for the customary 25-30 days after a Supreme Court’s decision before lifting its stay on gay marriages in the state of California, so just 2 days after the ruling, on June 28, gays and lesbians started to marry again, and the first marriage was performed by none other than the Attorney General herself!!
While ecstatic for the state of California and what it means to re-add the most populous state in the union to the column of the Equality States (now 13 plus DC!!), our personal biggest joy came for the death of Article 3 of DOMA.
DOMA, the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, was passed to prevent the federal government from recognizing gay marriages. It was passed by a panicked GOP when it realized that gay marriage was becoming a reality and signed by a panicked Bill Clinton who, I believe, signed it only to avoid the possibility that a constitutional amendment would be passed instead, something that would have been much harder to undo.
DOMA’s Article 3 held that the federal government didn’t have to recognize any legal same-sex marriage for any federal purpose. This is utterly unconstitutional and was found to be just that by a 5-4 Court decision that declared it null because it infringed upon our equal rights and due process, and also because of federalism issues.
With this ruling, the federal government can no longer withhold federal benefits from legally married same-sex couples. This brings us well over a thousand federal benefits that were previously denied, including social security, taxation, inheritance and immigration.
DOMA is not completely defunct but its Article 2, which states that individual states don’t have to recognize other states’ same-sex marriages, infringes upon another US Constitution article, and will therefore be struck down as well once it reaches the Supreme Court. That’s the next battleground.
Ray and I, the death of Article 3 means that my legally wedded husband can now file a green card petition on my behalf just like any straight couple would be allowed to do. This is something we’ve been waiting for almost 16 years to happen.
After jumping from one visa to the next just so that we can stay together, we’ll finally be able to plan our future without having to worry if it will be here in the States or somewhere else. I will finally be free from the yoke of uncertainty that has shackled me for all these years.
This momentous decision for gay rights in America means that our family is finally safe from the possibility of getting splintered in just over a year when my work visa would have run out.
Our joy and relief was expressed in tears, hugs, kisses, and boundless joy that lasted for days, and can still be felt.
Our application has been submitted and we know for a fact that it will be approved. That, my friends, is the meaning of happiness.
Here’s a video compilation put together by AFER about the events surrounding June 26. Keep the Kleenexes handy:
Season 2
