The Calfornia Supreme Court yesterday decided to weigh in on Gay Marriage by agreeing to decide whether or not a ban on gay marriage is constitutional or not. At issue is whether or not the ban is discriminatory.

How did we get here? Let's go take the Way Back Machine and see.

We start in 2004 when Gavin (gaw-- that was one wife and at least three girlfriends ago) decided to allow gay couples in the city to get married. After a month or so of that, the State Supreme Court ruled all those marriages invalid based on Prop. 22 (the Knight Amendment from 2000) which declared a marriage to be between a man, a woman and their divorce lawyers. The Court, however, refused to rule on the validity of the marriage issue and threw the hot potato back to the lower courts where it eventually made its way back to the Supreme Court.

A few months ago, a state appellate court ruled 2-1 that the gay marriage bill can stand if the state makes it so gay couples who register as domestic partners have the same rights as married straight couples. It is that decision that the Supreme Court is now reviewing. In an unusual twist, State Attorney General Bill Lockyer sided with the opponents of the law (the pro-gay marriage side) because he thought it was a matter of such importance that he felt it should be heard by the highest court in the state. Also, a bill to make gay marriage legal in the state, pushed by Mark Leno, was passed by the California legislature but was vetoed by the Governor back when he was trying to be conservative.

The court is not expected to hear the case until next fall.

This is on the heels of a recent ruling in New Jersey that gay couples are entitled to have the same rights as married couples in the state. Which means that so far, gay couples can at least have civil unions or domestic partnerships in Hawaii, Maine, Vermont, the District of Columbia, Massachusets, New Jersey, California, and Dick Cheney's house.

Look, SFist Rita, Gavin's wearing a black tie!

Yesterday's Sunday's A Drag ($30+) brunch at Harry Denton's Starlight Room mainly filled us with cheer, laughter, and decent food and drink. Brunch with entertainment, emceed by Donna Sachet (pictured above)? Sign us up! Female impersonators/drag queens make us feel interested, excited, and curious. They are sometimes so sexy, we wonder how they pull it off. We usually smile a lot after seeing and interacting with them.

But the word drag took on an entirely new meaning when we arrived (on time) for our 1:30 p.m. seating. We had a reservation, but couldn't get the staff's attention for what felt like endless minutes. Our strategy was to position our smiling, cleavage baring selves close to the hostess podium. We tried to give off a friendly "help us, please" vibe. There were a good forty customers also in the podium/bar area, who all seemed to be enjoying their drinks while chatting and looking around. Ages ranged from mid twenties to mid sixties. The mood seemed full of anticipation, and we guessed that most folks may have been also wondering what the seating sitch was: when would we be seated and where. After ten minutes of being ignored by the bobbed, attractive female Icy Hostess and black gowned servers, we decided that while we were still excited for the brunch and show, this was a drag.

We interrupt our sports coverage to give you this story. It's maybe not a local story, but we're sure it's of local interest. In fact, it's of national interest because it's just that good. And here it is: Dick Cheney's daughter, Mary, is pregnant. You know, Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter (oh wait, are we allowed to say that? When John Kerry did, he got taken to the cleaners for outing somebody who was already out). The one who has had a longtime partner that gets hidden every time Mary is out doing some sort of political thingy. Yep, she's pregnant. Dick Cheney's granddaughter is going to have two mommies.

Isn't it ironic? Don't ya think?

This, of course, comes from the party that gave us Mark Foley, and the methamphetamine man-massage loving religious leader. The one that's been running against gays and for traditional values and well, you know. Even better, they live in Virginia, a state that just passed a referendum standing up for family values and all that stuff.

One can only wonder where the, uh, sperm came from. Somehow, we don't think it came from David Crosby.