May 23, 2008  |  By: CHRIS JOHNSON  | COMMENTS     

The California Supreme Court has made Stuart Gaffney an honest man.

When Gaffney met his partner, John Lewis, at a party in San Francisco 21 years ago, he told his friends that night that he would marry that man. Thanks to the high court’s ruling last week, Gaffney is now able to make good on that promise.

On May 15, the California Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that a state statutory ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. The decision enables gay couples in the country’s most populous state to marry.

Gaffney, who along with Lewis was among the 14 plaintiff couples that brought the suit before the high court, said he was “absolutely overjoyed” after hearing about the ruling.

“We’re going to be newlyweds after 21 years together,” he said excitedly.

Lewis, who confessed he did not share Gaffney’s vision for marriage when they first met even though he felt a special connection to him, said he was extraordinarily happy when he heard the decision and felt a “deeper sense of well-being because the Supreme Court acknowledged that LGBT people are equal human beings when it comes to relationships.”

Many couples involved in the case shared feelings of euphoria. Pali Cooper, who was in Italy at the time of the ruling, said she was “overcome with emotion” when she and her partner of 19 years, Jeanne Rizzo, found out about the court’s decision.

“Our government finally recognizes that our family really matters and that our relationship matters,” she said. “After all these years, we’ll be able to celebrate with our friends and family and finally have the wedding party that we wanted to have.”

Rizzo was waiting on the steps of the Supreme Court with other plaintiffs when she heard about the decision.

“The attorneys had gone in to receive the ruling from the clerk and they came out just beaming and they just yelled ‘we won,’ and that was absolutely amazing,” she said.

Organizational plaintiffs in the case are joining in the celebration. Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, said the court ruling marks “the first time in our lives that our government is telling us that, yes, we are truly equal.”

“I don’t think there are quite words to express the joy and euphoria that not just myself, but millions of people are feeling today,” he said. “This state has set the tone for what it means to treat people fairly and equally and to allow each of us to realize our hopes and dreams.”

Gaffney said about two minutes after the justices announced their decision, he got a phone call from his mother, who congratulated her son and asked him “When is the wedding?”

He said the court decision caused him to reflect on his parents, who were an interracial couple. Gaffney’s mother is Chinese and his father is Anglo-Irish. Gaffney said the California Supreme Court’s 1948 decision in Perez v. Sharp allowing interracial couples to wed “made it possible for my parents to get married” and consequently made it possible to marry Lewis.

“And now another generation in our family is going to be able to get married because of the same California Supreme Court,” he said. “It’s like our legal history and it’s like our family history are all wrapped up in this decision.”

Still celebrating the victory, the couples have yet to make final decisions about their wedding plans.

“It’s real hard to plan a wedding when you’re not sure what’s going to happen,” Rizzo said. “We see this as an opportunity for our friends and family who love us to be able to gather with us and honor this and I’m excited about that.”

Rizzo said she wants some clarity first for when the state would be able to begin issuing marriage licenses for gay couples. California is expected to be able to formally marry same-sex couples in 30 to 40 days.

Gaffney, project director for the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies at University of California in San Francisco, said he and Lewis, an attorney, are focusing on savoring the victory before moving on to wedding plans.

“We’re going to celebrate tonight — we’re going to take a moment to catch our breath and then plan out ...