Celebration in Walnut Creek Over Judge Striking Down Gay Marriage Ban

"Today is a good day!" declared Tom Lewenz.

The 13-year Walnut Creek resident was holding hands with his spouse, Keith Green, and the two were among a group of about 50, standing at the corner of Civic Drive and North Broadway Wednesday evening.

Like many of the others in the crowd, the couple, married since 2007, were displaying a sign showing their support of gay marriage, as well as waving to motorists passing by Civic Park. This demonstration was to celebrate a judge's ruling earlier in the day declaring California's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.

The motorists showed overwhelming support for the demonstration, which went from 6 to 7 p.m. with honks and shouts of "woo! woo!"  

Earlier Wednesday, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker declared Proposition 8, approved by voters in 2008, "unconstitutional under both the due process and equal protection clauses" of the 14th Amendment.

In his 136-page ruling (attached here), Walker said "Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license."

Indeed, the ruling says, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more uphold in the California Constitution a notion hat opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples.

"It's great!" said Arliss Ungar of Lafayette about the judge's ruling, as she joined the demonstration. "I've been married to my husband for 53 years, and I've never been threatened by gay marriage."

As with other demonstrators, any legal decision about the future of same-sex marriage hits close to home. Ungar has a lesbian daughter, who grew up in Walnut Creek. Her daughter is married, is a Unitarian minister and is the mother of an 11-year-old daughter.

Walnut Creek's demonstration was one of several in Contra Costa County organized by the county's chapter of Marriage Equality USA.

She and others at the demonstration talked about how allowing gays and lesbians the same legal rights to marry as heterosexuals is a matter of civil rights. 

Walker's ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought last year by two same-sex couples who argued that Proposition 8 unlawfully infringed on civil rights. Walker also said that people's moral disapproval provides no basis to deny legal rights to gays and lesbians.

"California is a free, more just place today," said US Rep. John Garamendi, in a statement delivered to the crowd by his communications director Donald Lathbury. "By overturning Proposition 8, Justice Vaughn Walker affirmed a basic American value: we all deserve to be treated fairly under the law, and we all deserve the freedom to marry." 

"We think it's a good thing for all marriages," said Leslie Takahashi Morris, who with her husband, David Takahashi Morris, is a co-minister at Walnut Creek's Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church.  

"We say that as people who have had the privilege in our work of celebrating marriage," she said. "Marriage rights for all makes for stronger marriage."

Takahashi Morris was holding a sign announcing "Another straight family celebrating marriage rights for all." The couple had brought along their son, Liam, 10, who said he was happy about the judge's ruling. He said about Proposition 8: "This isn't nice!"

Few, however, held illusions that the judge's ruling was the final word on this issue. They all knew that same-sex couples will not be able to start lining up at county clerks' offices around the state Thursday morning.  

The judge ordered an injunction against the enforcement of Prop. 8 but he issued a temporary stay of his order. He wants to decide whether to suspend his ruling while supporters of Proposition 8 appeal. The stay means that same-sex couples are still prohibited from marrying.

The appeal is to come from lawyers for religious and conservative groups that sponsored Proposition 8. Walker asked Proposition 8 supporters and opponents to submit written arguments by Friday on the issue before he makes a decision. 

An appeal would first go to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the U.S. Supreme Court if the high court justices agree to review it.

As Lewenz said about this legal battle: "Today is a good day. We'll take it one day at a time."