Topic: Love to the California Supreme Court...

[TheJudge]

Since this isn't hot and spicy, I will limit myself to saying I love the California Supreme Court.  I've only perused their decision on same-sex marriage, but so far it makes for some interesting reading.  Even the majority of the dissenters are pro-gay marriage if not supporting the majority decision.  It's going to make for a VERY interesting November here, in a state where the State Legislature has twice passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage only to vetoed by the Governor, who based his veto primarily upon Prop 22, which has now been overturned.

If we can defeat the initiative on the ballot for November, well I'll predict the issue permanently settled by the early part of next year.

The biggest question for me is whether I'll be inviting everyone to my wedding on July 2, 2008 or July 2, 2009. 


EDIT:  MY MISTAKE.  The Supreme Court did NOT remand the matter to the State Legislature.  They struck the ban on same-sex marriage and stated the rest of Prop 22 applies to same sex as well as opposite sex couples.  The wedding's on for July 2, 2008. 

It's almost tempting to go out and get the marriage license today.

[TheJudge]

You are invited to the wedding of Robert Jordan & Daniel Kirk

When:  Wednesday July 2nd, 2008 @ 7:00 p.m.

Location:  Sacramento, CA (Exact location to be determined shortly)

We've got some progress.  Our officiator will be either Senator (Ret)  Art Torres, current Chair of the California Democratic Party or Assemblymember John Laird.  Right now we're trying to figure out where in Sacramento we want to hold the ceremony.  Because of Robert's position we may have a few hundred people attending so it has to be somewhere large enough, and it's at 7:00 p.m. so most of our friends and coworkers can attend.  Maybe it will be at the State Capitol. 

[GE-Raven]

I wish you the best in your new life together!  I must it admit it must be kinda nice to not have to field the annoying "so when are you two having kids" questions that started immediately after the wedding for Jen and I.  Thanks for the add on PS3 we will have to find a common game for you to kick my ass in (Unless it is Hot Shots Golf:OoB, then I will whoop ya).

If it were anywhere close I might have a shot of making it (as a musician I have made a few marriages or unions of my gay friends).  However Jen and I are going to Germany and Czech Republic in June, and of course July 4th is our little girls 2nd birthday.

God Bless!

GE-Raven

[marstone]

Well, congrats, and wish you two a long and happy life togeather.

[TheJudge]

Raven, I hope your wife and you have a good, fun time in Europe.    Unfortunately the questions are already being asked about when we're going to adopt kids, or if we're going to get a surrogate mother...so not even gay couples can get away from the children question anymore!

It looks like we've found a location.  My fiance's boss (the Executive Director for the CDP) has a VERY nice house here in Phoenix that can handle the size of the crowd we're going to invite, so we'll have an outdoor wedding there, next to her duck pond.  We decided that we'll send out a few hundred invitations to all the electeds just so they don't get miffed they weren't invited, and it sounds like at least one of the Pelosi's will be there (yay!), but we doubt most of the electeds will actually show up.  The problem is more than a few of them said they'd show up when we got married so we're hoping they back down or the catering bill is going to be horrendous. 

We promised not to say they broke promises by not showing up...

Oh, and the media is NOT invited.  One of my man's coworkers wanted to hold a press conference at the party's office announcing our wedding plans - I thought he was joking but he was completely serious in doing it as a human interest story.  Fortunately we both said NO right away, although the guy might be sneaky and give the media our phone numbers *sigh*.  He's been getting calls all day from folks in the media who are asking if he knows of any good personal interest angle stories behind this...

We've already started sending preliminary invitations by e-mail to people (about a hundred and counting so far).  Hopefully no one sends it to the media...we'll see though. 

[Sirgod]

Dan I've been waiting for this invite for so long now, you can bet I'm going to try and make it out there. If nothing else, I should be able to catch a bus there.

Couldn't be happier for ya man, Take care.

Stephen

[Nemesis]

The biggest question for me is whether I'll be inviting everyone to my wedding on July 2, 2008 or July 2, 2009. 

 

[Centurus]

If I had gas, and an available driver's seat in my truck, and a suit to wear, I'd attend your wedding.  That is if the invitation also extends to me.   

But congrats on this event!!! 

[Soreyes]

Judge I have stated that I don't agree with you about 98% of the time. But on this I have to say Congrats and have a Happy Life together.

Now for the Big Question. You know your going to go Broke putting on this wedding     Just the Catering bill is going to make you go NUTS!!

[TheJudge]

Thanks, everyone, and yes Centaurus, if you're in the neighborhood you're invited. 

As for the catering bill, well we've decided that due to the late hour (7 p.m. wedding, 8 p.m. reception) we'll have hou'r'dourves and finger food type stuff which will help.  Still, did you know that California now has its own economic stimulus plan?  This is why Arnold is telling all the gays to go get married...he wants us to boost the economy in the service sectors!


Edit:  Oh, and Stephen, my friend, if you can make it out here, don't worry about a place to stay.  We have an extra bedroom, although I'm going to warn you the kids' bunkbed is the only bed in there. 

[Ravok]

Well it appears the fat lady has sung. . And I hope it stops the bickering over this.

 Good luck Judge.

[Just plain old Punisher]

Wow, looks like one of them traditional marriages, except you being gay and all =)

So much politics, it's almost like you're getting married in the south or something.

[Sirgod]

Thanks, everyone, and yes Centaurus, if you're in the neighborhood you're invited. 

As for the catering bill, well we've decided that due to the late hour (7 p.m. wedding, 8 p.m. reception) we'll have hou'r'dourves and finger food type stuff which will help.  Still, did you know that California now has its own economic stimulus plan?  This is why Arnold is telling all the gays to go get married...he wants us to boost the economy in the service sectors!


Edit:  Oh, and Stephen, my friend, if you can make it out here, don't worry about a place to stay.  We have an extra bedroom, although I'm going to warn you the kids' bunkbed is the only bed in there. 

Man that is great. I'll take you up on the offer. Let me see what I can do.

Stephen

[Centurus]

Well it appears the fat lady has sung. . And I hope it stops the bickering over this.

 Good luck Judge.

Hey hey hey, I'm no lady alright.  Although I have been told I could fill out a 40DD bra nicely.

[Pestalence_XC]

First I want to say Congrats Judge.. I wish you the best.

I do want to point out that I read the judgment of the Supreme Court of California.

They stated that there was no Constitutional reason that Same-Sex marriage could not take place.. However, at the end on the decree, the Supreme court left it open for Public Voting.

Which means depending on how legislation goes.. You may be in rough waters again..

Here is the last paragraph of the Supreme Courts decision..

We should allow the significant achievements embodied in the domestic partnership statutes to continue to take root.  If there is to be a new understanding of the meaning of marriage in California, it should develop among the people of our state and find its expression at the ballot box.

                        CORRIGAN, J.

I do wish you the best.. but be prepared for more resistance in the future.. If legislation does put the Definition of Marriage up for public vote.. it could go the way Proposition 22 did, with a 2/3 vote of the state against Same-Sex being a "Married Couple" instead of a legalized "Domestic Partnership".

[TheJudge]

Pestalence,

Couple things real quick.  First, regarding legislation, California is way ahead of the supreme court of the state.  Twice now the state legislature has passed a bill granting same-sex marriage as part of the statutes of the state.  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it, both times referencing this court case and the potential resolution by the courts as being 'preferable'.  (On a side note, he's already stated 'it's done', that he will support and enforce the court decision and that he opposes the November ballot issue). 

The biggest danger we face is a November ballot proposition currently being reviewed by the Secretary of State office.  It will define marriage as between one man and one woman in the state constitution (something Proposition 22 didn't do - putting it in the state constitution).  Now, before the supreme court ruling, polling put the proposition behind 42 oppose to 41 support (in California, 90% of the time a proposition begins with more oppose than support, it fails).  Unscientific polling by media outlets since the ruling are coming up with surprisingly consistent numbers.  (given that both sides are freeping these polls).

The most common results are 42-43 % support for gay marriage, 12-17% support for 'civil unions' only, and 41% oppose gay marriage period.  With the ballot initiative coming up in November, it's going to be a fight, but 95% of elected state democratic representatives have voted for gay marriage bills in the last three years.  The Governor has publicly opposed the anti-gay marriage ballot initiative, and the Democratic Party has put support for gay marriage into its party platform for 2008, which means the party itself will be spending a few hundred thousand opposing the ballot intiative.  If we can keep our current margins, and get 60% of those that support civil unions to vote "NO" on the ballot iniative, we will win.

Also in our favor is that voting "YES" on the iniative will take something away from people that they have already, and makes our argument stronger to oppose the initiative.

[Grand Master of Shadows NCC37385]

Well, as you know I dont agree with "gay" marriage, but Im big enough person to be able to sincerely wish you good luck. So. Good luck, Judge.

[TheJudge]

Shadows,

I thank you for your wishes of good luck.  Your message is one of the reasons why I have been a part of this community for all these years.  Most of the time, we here see past our differences and truly wish each other the best.  We can ask for nothing better.  Thank you.

Now for the better news...in a way.  There is no way in hell we're going to be able to pull this wedding off in the next six weeks.  You may have noticed it is an election year and both of us are so darn busy we haven't been able to spend more than ten minutes doing planning since last week.  We need to be further along, and we're not going to be with the upcoming schedule over the next few months.  We have an election on June 3rd and my clients are getting frantic.  The week after that we have a meeting to attend in Dallas, Texas.  After that he has to go to Denver for a pre-convention review of the hotel the California Delegation will be staying at in August.  In the end, we've decided to postpone this for a bit. 

We really like the July 2nd date.  It is the date that we've used as our anniversary because it is the date we 'moved in' together.  We want to keep it, so we've postponed the wedding until July 2nd, 2009.  Yes, I know there is a ballot measure on the November ballot that could take this away from us, but I have faith in the people of California (and I've gotten to see some early poll numbers that are VERY much in our favor). 

Thanks everyone!

[Ravok]

Well, as you know I dont agree with "gay" marriage, but Im big enough person to be able to sincerely wish you good luck. So. Good luck, Judge.

 You are a fine Southern Man of integrity Will. Judge is right, its times like this that make me proud to be a member here.

[AcePylut]

TJ, I hope you know that marriage is just really an excuse to go on a honeymoon 


Kidding aside... good luck with your marriage, I wish you well!