The gay marriage case that Hollywood made will be heading to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on January 11th, and the City of San Francisco will be included as a party to the case, says U.S. District Judge Vaughan Walker. Three gay rights organizations--Lambda Legal, the ACLU, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights--were asking to be included as parties to the case on the side of the plaintiffs as well, but they were denied and will have to settle for filing friend-of-the-court briefs. Whether this will serve to un-clutter and speed up the proceedings remains to be seen.
City of SF In, Gay Groups Out in Federal Prop 8 Lawsuit
Equality California Decides to Wait 'Til 2012 for Gay Marriage Fight
In a decision that is probably wise and shouldn't be too shocking, Equality California announced today that they will put off the ballot fight for gay marriage until 2012, rather than going for it in the mid-term elections next year. The idea here is that not only do more people go to the polls in presidential elections, but there will be a greater change in "voter rolls" in 3 years.
Update on Federal Prop 8 Lawsuit: Should SF, Gay Legal Groups Get Involved, Or Not?
The City of San Francisco has moved to intervene on behalf of the gay Burbank couple and the Berkeley lesbian couple who are the mascots in a huge federal lawsuit to overturn Prop 8 which is awaiting trial at the 9th Circuit. A trial date has still not been set, but the drama over who is best equipped to argue the case has been underway for several weeks, and won't be decided until mid-August.
Prop 8 Decision Aftermath / Protest Roundup
It certainly isn't the final word on the issue, but yesterday's decision by the CA Supreme Court set off a well anticipated set of protests across the state and the country.
Listing of Prop 8 Protest Locations
OK, listen up! For all those who believe in marriage equality, and even for those who just love a good protest march, DayOfDecision.org has all the details about protests planned for tonight in San Francisco following on the CA Supreme Court's ruling to uphold Prop 8.
Prop. 8 Protesters Block Intersection at Van Ness & Grove
The intersection at "Grove and Van Ness [is] corked by 200 protesters, more coming from civic center," says Jim Herd who is live on the scene. Traffic is blocked as far as he can see. Cops are on the scene now. As we already mentioned, there is "lots of screaming at Civic Center plaza...[t]he goal, it seems, is to block all lanes of traffic." The protesters, according to a hurried KRON 4 reporter, plan top stay until they are arrested. (For more updates on what's going on at Civic Center, go here.)
Prop 8 Upheld, Rules California State Supreme Court
As anticipated, the California State Supreme Court ruled to uphold prop 8, the same-sex marriage ban. That means that gay marriage in the state of California is still considered illegal, effectively stripping away civil rights of many GLBT Californians. The State Supreme court ruled that prop 8 is legal in a 6-1 ruling with justice Marino being the sole holdout.

