A Look at the Prop. 8 Ruling
August 11, 2010
The following are quotes from the recent federal district court opinion issued in Perry v. Schwarzenegger. This case of judicial activism declared Proposition 8 (defining marriage to be between husband and wife & passed by California voters) unconstitutional under the U.S. Constitution:
Click here to read the full court opinion.
Factual Finding:
#48: “Same-sex couples are identical to opposite-sex couples in the characteristics relevant to the ability to form successful marital unions.”
#70: “The gender of a child’s parent is not a factor in a child’s adjustment.”
#71: “Children do not need to be raised by a male parent and a female parent to be well-adjusted, and having both a male and a female parent does not increase the likelihood that a child will be well-adjusted.”
#77: “Religious beliefs that gay and lesbian relationships are sinful or inferior to heterosexual relationships harm gays and lesbians.”
#72: “The genetic relationship between a parent and a child is not related to a child’s adjustment outcomes.”
Conclusion of Law:
p. 113: “Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage; marriage under law is a union of equals.”
p. 113: “Rather, the exclusion exists as an artifact of a time when the genders were seen as having distinct roles in society and in marriage. That time has passed.”
p. 113: “The evidence shows that the movement of marriage away from a gendered institution and toward an institution free from state-mandated gender roles reflects an evolution in the understanding of gender rather than a change in marriage.”
p. 114: “Plaintiffs’ unions encompass the historical purpose and form of marriage.”
p. 124: “Proposition 8 thus enshrines in the California Constitution a gender restriction that the evidence shows to be nothing more than an artifact of a foregone notion that men and women fulfill different roles in civic life.”
p. 124: “Rather, the evidence shows that Proposition 8 harms the state’s interest in equality, because it mandates that men and women be treated differently based only on antiquated and discredited notions of gender.”
p. 127: “Indeed, the evidence shows beyond any doubt that parents’ genders are irrelevant to children’s developmental outcomes.”
p. 127: “…same-sex parents and opposite-sex parents are of equal quality….”
p. 130: “Here, proponents assume a premise that the evidence thoroughly rebutted: rather than being different, same-sex and opposite-sex unions are, for all purposes relevant to California law, exactly the same.”
p. 132: “Many of the purported interests identified by proponents are nothing more than a fear or unarticulated dislike of same-sex couples.”