May 23, 2008   | COMMENTS     

The gay blogosphere was abuzz with positive reactions to the California marriage decision last week. Conservative anti-gay groups, meanwhile, were also furiously updating their sites with calls for action. Here are some choice comments from the online reaction to the court ruling:

“No residency requirement, no stopgap civil unions system — this is full nuptial parity for all who wish to utilize it! This is a true game-changer that just might go down in history as the beginning of the end for the ‘protect marriage’ movement.” (goodasyou.org)

“I disagree with this ruling because I believe the decisions the Court made better belong with the legislature and/or the people. And [I] am troubled by the court’s dismissing their role in deciding this issue, particularly given that the court is redefining an institution which has long had a particular meaning, that of being a union of one man and one woman.” (gaypatriot.net)

“ … Obama’s position strikes me as transparently flimsy. His only defense of his support for full marriage rights without the m-word is a function, in his description, of comfort and religion. But he is very comfortable around gay people, gay couples and our families. And his own church actually favors equal marriage rights for gay couples — and its inclusion of gay people was obviously a reason why TUCC was attractive to Obama. Marriage is the one issue where Obama is still politically afraid, intellectually vacuous, and a moral coward. This is the civil rights movement of our time. Whatever happened to the fierce urgency of now?” (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)

“When I talk to my eighty year old mom tomorrow morning and we rehash the day’s events (as we do every morning), I’ll point out that the California Supreme court’s reputation is a conservative one. I’ll point out that they have been strong in upholding the death penalty. I’ll point out that they frequently rule in favor of business interests. I’ll point out that three of the four justices who ruled for the majority were appointed by Republican governors. So what’s the moral of the story today? We are reminded that when we make a strong case (thank you to NLCR, Lambda Legal and the ACLU) in front of fair-minded judges, judges who are doing their jobs, judges who, regardless of who appointed them, evaluate cases with integrity, we win. And we are all reminded that ‘separate but equal’ has never cut it in America. Because ‘separate’ is simply not equal at all.” (Joan Garry, huffingtonpost.com)

“California’s Supreme Court just overturned the ‘gay marriage isn’t legal’ thing, and that means the gayest state in America is about to become even more gay, as California will become the second state where homosexuals can get married, to each other.” (wonkette.com)

“We are not done. This is a joyous day and we should celebrate. But tomorrow, we must double and triple our efforts in California and New York and New Jersey and Connecticut and Iowa to seize this momentum, protect equality where we have it, and win marriage equality where we are already poised to do so. Everyone knows that, someday, we must and we will achieve recognition of our marriages from the federal government. But that day will come only after we have achieved true marriage equality in a critical mass of states. We have to do this one state at a time.” (bilerico.com)

“There is great concern that — despite very public statements about leaving the state’s current domestic partnership laws in place — if the constitutional amendment is passed by voters and overturns the court ruling or an as-yet-unplanned attempt to gut a piece of current legislation to pass a marriage equality bill — the anti-gay forces will go after all LGBT legal rights.” (Karen Ocamb, huffingtonpost.com)

“The Democratic presidential candidates have both released responses to today’s gay marriage ruling in ...