puke................
SAN FRANCISCO --- Dozens of gay couples were married Monday after a landmark ruling making California the second state to allow same-sex nuptials went into effect.
At least five county clerks around the state extended their hours to issue marriage licenses, and many same-sex couples got married on the spot.
"These are not folks who just met each other last week and said, 'Let's get married.' These are folks who have been together in some cases for decades," said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
The May 15 California Supreme Court ruling overturning bans on same-sex marriage took effect at 5:01 p.m.
The really big rush to the altar was not expected until today, which is when most counties planned to start issuing marriage licenses. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of gay couples from around the country are expected to seize the opportunity to make their unions official in the eyes of the law.
In San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom, who helped launch the series of lawsuits that led the court to strike down California's one-man-one-woman marriage laws, presided at the wedding of Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 84.
Hours before the ruling went into effect, a conservative legal group asked a Sacramento court to order the California agency that oversees marriages to stop issuing gender-neutral marriage licenses.
IMPACT ON GEORGIA
ATLANTA --- So what happens if the same-sex couples getting married in California settle down in Georgia ?
Probably not much, observers and legal scholars say. At least not until the controversy reaches the opposite end of the spectrum: gay divorce.
Gay Georgia couples who get married in California will have to divorce in California, and a divorce settlement there will raise the question of how to divide property owned in Georgia, said Robert Schapiro, a constitutional-law professor at Emory University.
Additionally, a divorce would raise the question of a gay couple's custody rights, he said.
"I think we will see some cases specifically about those kinds of questions," he said.
But Shannon Goessling, the executive director and chief legal counsel of the conservative Southeastern Legal Foundation, points out that the state's gay marriage ban also prohibits Georgia courts from recognizing any rights stemming from a gay marriage, so getting those issues before a judge might be impossible.
If such cases do arise, they couldn't set a precedent for rights based on such a marriage, Ms. Goessling said.
-- Morris News Service
Comments
puke................
You got to legalize it.
It's sad when we legalize what used to (and rightly was) considered a mental disease on par with schizophrenia and depression. Homosexuality is a perversion of design and should be abhorred as much as any other perversion.
Laff Kia, like we should listen to a person that belongs to a cult like yourself. Your religion was based on the Egyptian religion get your head out of your bible and read some history.
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