Federal Judge overturns California Proposition 8

Congratulations and thanks to Federal District Court Judge Walker whose decision - published yesterday - voided California's ban on gay marriage which was passed by referendum at the last State elections.

According to media reports, Judge Walker's 138 - page decision carefully analyzed the qualifications and testimony of "expert" witnesses who appeared in support of the gay marriage ban and essentially dismissed them as frauds and bigots.  He found their evidence that homosexual marriage is a threat to hetero-sexual marriage or that children of homosexual marriages suffer psychological damage is insupportable in fact.

The Judge's decision found that proposition 8 offended the provision of the United States Constitution that barred government from making laws which restrict the inalienable rights of its citizens. To deny homosexuals access to marriage was to deny them a fundamental right to which all other citizens have access, on that basis he struck down the gay-marriage ban imposed by California Proposition 8.

This is a landmark decision in U. S. constitutional law. It will inspire similar challenges in other states where the christian extreme right has used anti-gay marriage legislation to stampede their congregations out to vote. Fortunately, Judge Walker's decision was so carefully analyzed and so effectively written that the politicians on the supreme court will have a difficult time overturning it without bringing themselves even further into disrepute.