Petrelis Files

CA Gay Marriage Ruling:
Courthouse Steps Photos

I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to witness and participate in homosexual history in the making today. The California Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling granting full marriage rights to gays and lesbians, and I was on the courthouse steps before and after the decision was handed down. As you can see from two of the photos, I was present with a huge sign promoting global gay solidarity.

Click here to see mainstream press photos of the big solidarity sign.

With much of the USA and world's eyes, and hordes of media outlets, focused on the gay marriage ruling issued in San Francisco, I wanted to use the opportunity to send a message of international gay and lesbian solidarity to my brothers and sisters around the globe.

An important quote from the decision:

"[R]etaining the designation of marriage exclusively for opposite-sex couples and providing only a separate and distinct designation for same-sex couples may well have the effect of perpetuating a more general premise -- now emphatically rejected by this state -- that gay individuals and same-sex couples are in some respects 'second-class citizens' who may, under the law, be treated differently from, and less favorably than, heterosexual individuals or opposite-sex couples. Under these circumstances, we cannot find that retention of the traditional definition of marriage constitutes a compelling state interest. Accordingly, we conclude that to the extent the current California statutory provisions limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, these statutes are unconstitutional."

Here are the photos I took a short while ago.

(Ten minutes before the decision was rendered.)

(Two gay plaintiffs holding hands, nine minutes before the ruling
was made public.)

(Two of the lesbian plaintiffs anticipating the decision.)

(Promoting an international queer solidarity message, five minutes before the decision was issued.)

(Those two gay male plaintiffs, again declaring their love for cameras, four minutes before the ruling.)

(Gay and lesbian plaintiffs addressing reporters.)

(A swarm of reporters and photographers surround the plaintiffs, one minute before the ruling was announced.)

(A gay community member, not a plaintiff, is the first person to read from the decision on the steps of the courthouse.)

(Lesbian attorney Kate Kendall talks about the
decision to reporters.)