BOND // GLOBAL

Photo by Trish Tunney

It’s been six weeks of mayhem for all the organizations that in some way deal with gay marriage. I don’t think any of us realized that the Supreme Court ruling would be this momentous and so revolutionary. On May 15th it was like being tapped on the shoulder and someone saying, “We’re ready for you now.”

So for six weeks we’ve been running around compiling info on the new California gay marriage laws, covering the weddings from June 16th, setting up forums, revamping the website, fielding calls and queries, and finally celebrating it all at Gay Pride.

Marching with Marriage Equality in today’s Pride parade in San Francisco was a fabulous experience. It went from last year’s ‘hopeful’ to this year’s ‘hell yeah!‘: the crowds cheering legally married gay couples instead of was-married-now-domestic-partners-again couples. It was joyous.

This is a great era for the LGBT community but the trickle-down effects are beneficial to everyone. The ruling will effect the entire society’s perceptions about marriage and thus, weddings. The Courts have put gay back into marriage. We now have an adjective to put in front of the kinda-boring-words ‘marriage’ and ‘weddings’ to turn them into a yippee-word: gay.

Picture your guests saying, “This weekend I have to go to a wedding.” Now imagine them saying, “This weekend I’m going to a gay wedding!” Doesn’t that sound waaaay more fun? The whole institution was in dire need of a face-lift and by merely adding the word ‘gay’ achieves just that.

Thus begins a whole new concept in weddings: fun vs. stressful, good food vs. bad food, not enough alcohol vs. the finest alcohol, men in rented clothes vs. hot men and women in designer suits. I definitely want a gay wedding. Who wouldn’t?

Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis after court decision. Photo: Jim Wilson/NYTimes

Yesterday the California Supreme Court ruled that the definition of marriage as 'between a man and a woman' was discriminatory and stated that domestic partnership rights were NOT ENOUGH! Gay couples could get legally married in as little as 30 days. Bond rejoices in the court's decision and wishes the best for all the couples wishing to get married in the state of California. A grand victory for civil rights.

> Check out the celebration
> Gavin Newsom addresses the public

Dear Friends, Neighbors, Co-workers, and Family:

We are writing you to let you know that some very conservative groups from outside California are funding a campaign to collect signatures to put a Constitutional Amendment on the November 2008 California ballot to forever exclude same-sex couples from marriage. They are paying people to collect signatures outside local stores, such as Raley's, Safeway, Target, and Wal-Mart.

This initiative measure would be very harmful and hurtful to Jeff & me, and thousands of other loving, committed same-sex couples. We want to be left alone, and to be able to get married just as other people can -- in other words, simply be treated fairly and equally. Maybe some folks have a different point of view. But we're really disturbed to think that if these paid gatherers get enough signatures, millions of strangers all across California -- whom Jeff and I have never even met -- will be voting on whether we should be married.

We would really appreciate it if you come across paid signature gatherers, to please be very careful about what you're signing (they may have several different petitions with them), and, of course, decline to sign the one regarding marriage.

The signature gatherers sometimes can be a bit deceptive. They might ask you to sign an environmental initiative and then hand you a stack of different petitions, including the one that excludes people from marriage. The marriage exclusion initiative is appropriately titled "Limit on Marriage," but it's actual text is deceptively simple. Signature gatherers might say something like "the marriage initiative doesn't change anything" -- when, of course, it does by amending the state Constitution to permanently exclude same-sex couples like Jeff and me from marriage.

We have also just learned that the conservative groups are making automated solicitation calls to people at their homes, asking them to sign the petition. We ask that you please decline these requests, as well!

Thank you very much for your help and consideration. We really appreciate it. Please let us know if you have any questions or would like to talk about this further. We really appreciate your support!

Jeff & Dave
Marriage Equality

> marriageequality.org