California Dreamin' or Rainy Days and Mondays? Another Week with No Decision on Marriage Equality

I cried last week when I listened to NPR playing testimony by straight allies in Maine before their state legislature took their historic vote for marriage equality.

But another week has passed since I last posted about the much-awaited decision by California's highest court on the validity of Prop 8 (see my 6 May post). And the one-year anniversary of their momentous decision to grant marriage equality came and went this past Thursday too. And the justices have to issue a decision by June 3rd. What does the delay mean?

As the calendar pages flip by, the good news continues to flow westward: the governor of New Hampshire has announced that he will sign marriage equality legislation, and the New York Assembly added five new supporters when they voted to pass a new marriage equality bill. The momentum continues to grow: soon tiny Rhode Island will be the only New England state (okay, Massachusetts is a commonwealth*) without gay marriage.

I continue to hope that our court will do the right thing. And perhaps naively, I keep thinking that their delay is a sign that they are taking the time to reflect, rewrite, and harness the groundswell of change that is happening in courts, legislatures, and people's hearts and minds across our country.

I want to take the opportunity to point you to an organization that has done so much to fight for marriage equality: NCLR. Check out this blog post ("Fasten Your Seatbelts"**) by its incredible executive director Kate Kendell. NCLR works everyday to help build a more just and fair America for all queer people. I have the honor of knowing well some of the amazing people who provide community leadership and legal acumen and services at NCLR, and the equally amazing people who raise the money to make that important work possible; and I have had the added honor this past year of helping them fundraise. If you click through to their website you can even sign up to receive a text message as soon as the court schedules an announcement.

Keep up the positive visualization!

*Four U.S. states are technically "commonwealths." Do you know the other three?

**And here's some cultural background you'll only get on a blog written by a gay man: "Fasten your seatbelts...it's going to be a bumpy ride!" became famous as the warning by Bette Davis' character, Margo Channing (based upon Tallullah Bankhead), to Marilyn Monroe's character in a New York soiree scene in "All About Eve." But the film was released in 1950 and seatbelts in cars weren't common until the late 50s--the audience would have understood that the characters were tossing around high-society banter, because only airplanes had seatbelts. Okay, bet you didn't know I was that kind of gay man...(Don't get me started on the original "A Star is Born...")