California ruling stings gay-marriage backers; Hundreds rally at Westlake after court upholds ban

Even as hundreds of same-sex marriage supporters gathered at Westlake Park Tuesday evening to protest California's upholding of a gay-marriage ban both supporters and opponents say its impact — at least here — is more emotional than practical.

The court decided, in a 6-1 vote, to uphold Proposition 8, which California voters approved last fall. The court also decided that the marriages of an estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who wed there before the ban took effect will remain valid.

Before a receptive, resolute crowd at Westlake Park, state Sen. Ed Murray, who has championed gay-rights bills for years, said: "I know we're disappointed.

"We have been disappointed before. And in our struggle for justice, we may be disappointed again."

But he encouraged people not to give up.

For gay-marriage opponents, though, the court decision was heartening.

Pastor Joseph Fuiten of Cedar Park Assembly of God Church in Bothell said the court "did right in this case."

The justices "decided they weren't going to be activist and overturn the will of the people," Fuiten said. "So it was a good day for the democratic process."

Joe Mirabella, the Washington state community organizer for Join the Impact, which co-sponsored Tuesday evening's protest, said he didn't see the California decision as a big setback overall, given the gains same-sex marriage advocates have won of late.

In recent months, Iowa, Maine, Vermont and Connecticut have legalized same-sex marriage, and action is pending in New York and New Jersey.

"It's inevitable," Mirabella said. "The tide is in the direction of equality. It's just a matter of time."

The California court said voters spoke clearly, through Proposition 8, in wanting to limit marriage to a man and a woman. At the same time, the court said same-sex partners can still enjoy equal legal benefits through recognized civil unions.

As for the thousands of couples wed last year in the five months that gay marriage was legal in California, the court said an amendment such as Proposition 8 is not retroactive unless it is clear that voters intended it to be, and that was not the case with Proposition 8.

The court also said it would be too disruptive to apply the measure retroactively and dissolve all gay marriages.

The ruling is likely to shift the battleground over gay marriage in California back to the political arena, as gay-rights advocates already are mobilizing to push another ballot measure to erase Proposition 8.

They're hoping they can duplicate the political momentum they've gained in the East Coast states that have moved in recent months to legalize gay marriage.

Nationwide protests

The Westlake protest was one of many nationwide following Tuesday's court ruling.

Janaya Almquist, a 32-year-old from Bothell, came to the rally with a friend and her friend's daughter.

"I think it's heartbreaking," she said of the court decision. "I was shocked because I keep hoping we've moved beyond the process of using our laws to take away other people's civil rights."

Brian Murphy, 45, of Seattle, attended with his partner to "show solidarity with people in California."

He held a hand-printed sign saying: "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win."

He said that was a quote from Gandhi and that he regarded it as a checklist in the fight toward winning gay marriage.

Earlier Tuesday, local gay-marriage supporters said the California ruling, while not unexpected, was still disappointing.

"I find it frustrating" that resources will have to be put back into a state where the battle for gay marriage has already been fought, rather than putting resources into states where the issue hasn't been on a front burner, said longtime Seattle gay-rights activist Bill Dubay.

Connie Watts, executive director of Equal Rights Washington, a pro-gay marriage organization, said she didn't view the court decision as any more of a setback than Proposition 8's passage in November.

She took heart in the "tremendous momentum around the country in moving this issue forward."

Watts doesn't think the California ruling will have a major impact on a Washington state effort to repeal a newly passed domestic partnership-rights law, since they're different issues.

Gary Randall, president of Faith and Freedom Network, which opposes gay marriage and is backing the repeal effort, agrees.

But he does think the California ruling provides positive reinforcement that "not everybody is on that side of the issue" (in support of gay marriage).

Randall believes that as people really think about marriage, they'll conclude that marriage should not be redefined because it's about "more than just affirming a relationship between a couple. ... It's about the next generation.

"It's a unique relationship," he said. "It genetically connects a man and a woman in relationship to a child. That's the optimum."

Still vulnerable

For Ken Molsberry of Seattle, who married Chris Vincent in California in July, the court ruling brought mixed emotions.

"In a way we are happy that our marriage has been allowed to stand," said Molsberry, a 47-year-old systems analyst. "But we're extraordinarily saddened that other same-sex couples won't have the fundamental right that we have to get married."

He was also appalled, he said, that "the court has ruled that voters have the right to take away a fundamental right from a minority."

Vincent, a 49-year-old musician, said that while he's relieved his marriage was not invalidated, the ruling "still makes us feel very vulnerable" to legal challenges.

"It's muddied the water by having a specific group of people granted rights that their peers are not," Molsberry said.

Information from The Associated Press, The Washington Post and the San Jose Mercury News was used in this report.

Janet I. Tu: 206-464-2272 or jtu@seattletimes.com