poo, part III
Aug. 12th, 2004 11:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sevfiguratively this time.
California's Supreme Court annulled more than 4,000 gay marriages in San Francisco on Thursday, finding the city acted improperly in granting marriage licenses earlier this year in defiance of state law.
I mean, it's not a wild surprise, because change doesn't happen in a slow, steady, always-trending-in-one-direction fashion.
To compare: It took nineteen years for the fight against anti-miscegenation laws, from the time of its first win in California, to reach the Supreme Court. In 1948, the Perez decision was considered wildly controversial. Many judges in many states upheld their anti-miscegenation laws after that -- for example Virginia in 1955, Oklahoma in 1965, Virginia again in 1966 (Loving vs. Virginia, which is the one that finally convinced the
Supreme Court).
From the first time the issue went to the US Supreme Court in 1883 (Pace vs. Alabama), it took sixty-five years to overturn an anti-miscegenation law in any state (Perez vs. Sharp, California).
From that first win, it took nineteen years to succeed on the supreme court level and fifty-two years to get 41 anti-miscegenation laws repealed on the state level.
Sixty-five years. Fifty-two years. Nineteen years.
So, history suggests this was going to happen, but that doesn't necessarily make it easier to hear. Dammit.
California's Supreme Court annulled more than 4,000 gay marriages in San Francisco on Thursday, finding the city acted improperly in granting marriage licenses earlier this year in defiance of state law.
I mean, it's not a wild surprise, because change doesn't happen in a slow, steady, always-trending-in-one-direction fashion.
To compare: It took nineteen years for the fight against anti-miscegenation laws, from the time of its first win in California, to reach the Supreme Court. In 1948, the Perez decision was considered wildly controversial. Many judges in many states upheld their anti-miscegenation laws after that -- for example Virginia in 1955, Oklahoma in 1965, Virginia again in 1966 (Loving vs. Virginia, which is the one that finally convinced the
Supreme Court).
From the first time the issue went to the US Supreme Court in 1883 (Pace vs. Alabama), it took sixty-five years to overturn an anti-miscegenation law in any state (Perez vs. Sharp, California).
From that first win, it took nineteen years to succeed on the supreme court level and fifty-two years to get 41 anti-miscegenation laws repealed on the state level.
Sixty-five years. Fifty-two years. Nineteen years.
So, history suggests this was going to happen, but that doesn't necessarily make it easier to hear. Dammit.
