|
Gay tidings as judges back off
18/02/2004 08:07 - (SA)
|
|
|
 |
|
Hyde Revilla and Dawn Revilla tie the knot.
(Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
San Francisco - Ecstatic US gay couples were racing to be married in San Francisco after judges blocked two separate bids by conservative groups to immediately outlaw the city's historic same-sex marriages.
Two judges in the ultra-liberal city outraged conservatives on Tuesday by refusing to issue immediate injunctions blocking defiant Mayor Gavin Newsom and his staff from issuing marriage certificates to same sex couples.
"Basically the city has won the right today to continue issuing same sex marriage licences," said Matt Dorsey of the San Francisco city attorney's office.
In one case, brought by the Campaign for California Families' (CCF), Judge Ronald Quidachay postponed making any decision on the group's request to halt the marriages until Friday at least.
He told the CCF to "go back to square one" and properly inform the city or the court of the details of its lawsuit before he would hear it.
In the second highly-scrutinised but complex ruling, Judge James Warren refused to grant the conservative Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) a restraining order barring the city from carrying out further same-sex marriages.
Cease and desist
Instead he issued a toothless "cease and desist" order that said that the city should either stop the marriages or come back to court on March 29 to explain why it thought it should continue.
Newsom hailed the twin court decisions as a victory for the city and vowed to push ahead with issuing marriage certificates to same-sex couples until a court firmly bans the practice.
Separate and unequal
"While some may believe that separate and unequal institutions are acceptable, we will oppose intolerance and discrimination every step of the way," the controversial young mayor said.
"San Francisco is a city of tolerance and mutual respect and we will accept nothing less than full civil rights for all our residents."
More than 2 500 gay couples have been wed in the country's first officially sanctioned same-sex marriages that began on Thursday when Newsom launched a campaign of civil disobedience aimed at challenging state laws that define marriage as "between a man and a woman".
Newsom said the city was simply complying with a constitutional equal protection clause by flouting state laws that do not recognise same-sex marriage.
He said he was overwhelmed by the thousands of couples who had travelled from all over the United States to be wed.
The city has been marrying an average of 450 couples a day since Thursday, instead of the normal 30.
"The issue here is simple -- the state constitution does not permit discrimination at all, anywhere," said Newsom.
|
