Well, this is too bad:

Filed order (STEPHEN R. REINHARDT, MICHAEL DALY HAWKINS and N. RANDY SMITH) Having considered all of the factors set forth in Nken v. Holder, 129 S. Ct. 1749, 1756 (2009), and all of the facts and circumstances surrounding Plaintiffs’ motion to vacate the stay pending appeal, as well as the standard for vacatur set forth in Southeast Alaska Conservation Council v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 472 F.3d 1097, 1101 (9th Cir. 2006), we deny Plaintiffs’ motion at this time. [7691622] (KKW)

Chad Griffin responds:

“Several weeks ago, we filed a motion with the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit asking the Court to lift its stay and allow California’s gay and lesbian couples to marry. We felt then, as we do now, that it is decidedly unjust and unreasonable to expect California’s gay and lesbian couples to put their lives on hold and suffer daily discrimination as second-class citizens while their US District Court victory comes to its final conclusion.

It is un-American to deprive gay and lesbian couples of their fundamental constitutional right to marry. These are adults in committed, loving relationships who just want to live their lives without government interference.

Last August, the US District Court declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional. We believe that the courts will permanently secure the freedom to marry for all Californians.

AFER is committed to ensuring that all Americans have the freedom to marry.”

Two steps forward, one step back, etc.

In the Perris Union High School District in Southern California’s Inland Empire, the problem of anti-gay bullying and discrimination seems to be institutional:

Students and teachers at a Menifee high school say there is a pattern of bullying, harassment and discrimination against gay and lesbian students on campus.

In one instance, a Paloma Valley High School student alleged a teacher wrote an “S” on her hand and called her “a sinner.” In another, a student group says it was barred from doing an activity for gay and lesbian history month, though an ethnic student group could. An openly gay senior says he was unfairly disciplined after a dispute with a classmate who he says harassed him.

Teachers and students took their concerns to Paloma Valley administrators, the school board and the ACLU. District officials say they are addressing the complaints.

“We take them very, very seriously,” said Leslie Ventuleth, spokeswoman for the Perris Union High School District and its chief human resources officer.

Other students say they’ve endured anti-gay bullying from other students over the years, which is unsurprising when the adults in charge are unable to conduct themselves as professional adults. Fortunately, it seems that other teachers were the ones who were led to get the ACLU involved, so it’s not all bad apples:

Concern over their students’ welfare prompted Machado and teacher Elizabeth Darovic to speak out. Darovic helped form the Paloma Valley Gay Straight Alliance several years ago and is still an adviser.

“It’s your responsibility as a teacher to support kids,” said Darovic, an English teacher.

About 30 to 50 students, not all of them gay, attend weekly alliance meetings after school. Students have grown increasingly frustrated about the southwest Riverside County school’s climate, the teachers said. Some have filed formal complaints with the school district. Others spoke publicly at school board meetings.

“It doesn’t feel like a safe place to them,” Darovic said, but nothing happens when they complain. “There have been no consequences.”

Teachers and students cited several issues and incidents that have occurred recently, most during the current school year. In one instance, a teacher drew an “S” on a student’s hand and repeatedly referred to the student, who was wearing a T-shirt that read “Gay is Good,” as a sinner throughout class, according to a complaint with the district provided by a teacher.

It is unbelievable the way wingnuts conduct themselves in public, really.

Read the whole article.

This woman is not insane at all, and neither are her friends:

Just yesterday, we received an urgent prayer alert from our good friend Chuck Pierce concerning California.

[...]

Yesterday, January 4th, I was called by a key intercessor in Santa Ynez. (Please note as you proceed, yesterday was the same day prop 8 was sent to the California Supreme Court) She reported two visions from separate individuals in the area:

A pastor of a large Nazarene Church had a dream of a very large earthquake on the central coast. He shared this at the Christmas gathering for all the Santa Maria Pastors and 5 cities area. Because of the destruction and intensity of the quake he thought he should tell the Pastors so they could pray into it.

Another intercessor in the area had a dream and saw a map of California. She noticed on the map how Pt. Conception juts out into the water. As she looked she saw an 8 with a circle beside it in the waters off Pt Conception.

Regarding these dreams the issue of 8 is significant:
Yesterday, January 4th, Prop 8 went to the California Supreme Court.
December 8th, 1787 was when the Mission near Point Conception was founded.

The earthquake the pastor sensed from the Lord would be 8.0 or larger.

[...]

Prop 8 is a foundational covenant issue, i.e. issue of marriage, in the state. If the state supreme court does not uphold it, a covenant issue is broken with God. Judgment is looming. Also, of note yesterday it was announced on the radio and sent to me by another intercessor that in San Diego, there is a Korean war memorial. A judge has ruled that a cross that was dedicated in the 1950′s, cannot be there, as it is, because it stands for the the government embracing “a religion”. The implication was that it had to be “modified”. She stated in her note to me, “the MOMENT I heard this I had a “sinking feeling” in my heart and said out loud in my car. God will not contend this any longer, judgment is coming.”

Many are feeling the weight of this hour and time. There has been a very real assignment of death and destruction as many have faced health issues, even serious ones. We are at a critical “hinge point” and much will depend on our prayers and actions now. An earthquake from Point Conception would divide impact the state in three major fault lines and could potentially divide the state in half. We pray this stirs your hearts towards God’s purposes. Our hope and trust is in Him.

Okay.

[h/t Kyle]

This one was a squeaker for the very pro-gay Kamala Harris, who has vowed not to defend Proposition 8, but Harris’s campaign has declared victory:

Kamala Harris’s campaign has declared victory after a narrow race between her and Republican Steve Cooley to become California’s next attorney general. According to a press release from campaign spokesperson Ace Smith, “uncounted ballots will only bolster Kamala Harris’s lead… the provisional ballots cast on Tuesday will reflect Harris’s victory.”

Harris has vowed to let Proposition 8 die in a federal appeals court. Cooley had said he would support California’s initiative banning same-sex marriage. Oral arguments in the case begin December 6 — the current governor and attorney general of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger and incoming governor Jerry Brown, are refusing to defend the antigay ballot initiative. It can only bolster the case of attorney Ted Olson, leading the case against Prop. 8, that the state’s incoming executives also do not support the proposition.

So there are silver linings to be found in Tuesday’s atrocious election.

Writing today for Bay Windows, journalist Rex Wockner reported that the California Senate passed a resolution Aug. 30 condemning Uganda‘s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The vote was 21 – 14.

Sponsored by Equality California, the resolution calls upon the U.S. State Department to escalate efforts to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. It also “encourages a more careful review of all United States funding and resources given to faith-based organizations in foreign countries.”

The resolution says that “some United States-based religious leaders have been fomenting fear and discrimination against the…LGBT community in Uganda” and that “the links between some United States-based religious groups and the antigay bill…have been well-documented.”

“There is a growing movement, supported and funded by some United States-based religious groups, to further criminalize homosexuality globally,” the resolution states. “[T]he Senate calls upon the United States Department of State to censure American citizens and organizations who contravene American foreign policy by demonstrated exportation of fear and misinformation to other countries. …”

Earlier this week, a panicked anti-gay Pacific Justice Institute [sic] went to court in California to try to force Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and AG Jerry Brown to defend the unconstitutional Proposition 8.

Today, the California Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, denied their case.

This is why they don’t like courts, y’all. Religious bigotry and bias just don’t cut it against facts, evidence and the laws of a secular nation.

[h/t Sudbay]

TBogg described Carly Fiorina like this yesterday:

Fiorina is paying for her campaign with the money from her “severance package” (she was fired, sacked, given the boot, transitioned to “Vice President of Don’t Be Here Anymore”) after laying off thousands of employees and offshoring (“rightshoring”, she calls it) their jobs.

And they still hate her.

She ran Hewlett-Packard into the ground, basically. It’s exceedingly funny that “pro-bidness” types are supporting her, since she’s proven that she can’t run a business.

When asked in a debate with Barbara Boxer her feelings about marriage equality, in light of the fact that civil unions, domestic partnerships and DOMA are all roadblocks to true LGBT equality, denying gay couples over 1,000 federal rights, this was Carly Fiorina’s pathetic non-answer:

[h/t Jeremy]

Trite, code-laden catchphrases that shouldn’t impress anyone with an IQ over 70.

Focus on the Family today misinformed its readers about legal background to the Ninth Circuit ruling in Perry vs. Schwarzenegger against Proposition 8.

Instead of citing the actual ruling, Focus lawyer Bruce Hausknecht parroted ProtectMarriage.org’s hasty rationale for a stay. Hausknecht is most interested in the stay request’s reference to Adams v. Howerton, a 1982 immigration case involving a same-sex couple that was based not upon federal family law, but upon a 1952 immigration law’s definition of foreign spouse.

Seeing a flimsy opportunity for profit, Focus breathlessly concludes:

Apparently, the 9th Circuit has already decided as a matter of law that there is a “rational basis” for a duly-enacted law that favors heterosexual marriage over homosexual marriage.

In short, Hausknecht parrots a false precedent from a sister political organization’s distortion of an unrelated field of law, and presents the antiquated distortion of history as if it were accepted case law.

Hausknecht then insinuates that Judge Vaughn Walker has recklessly ignored immigration rulings that Focus incompetently claims are “binding” upon U.S. citizens — and that may well be found unconstitutional, as U.S. society has become less bigoted against citizen women, blacks, religious minorities, and legal immigrants since 1952.

Focus on the Family clearly wishes it were still 1952, when all people were equal — but only if they were white, male, Christian, and of European descent. Maybe if they close their eyes, open their wallets, pray in “tongues,” and shout such irrational pseudo-legal babble loud enough, then a miracle will happen, their wallets will fill up, and it will be 1952 when they open their eyes.

Crazier things have happened.

Oh. Wait. No, they haven’t.

As lawyer David Boies points out to CBS News, Perry vs. Schwarzenegger dealt a serious blow to the junk science of the ex-gay movement.

Challenged to produce empirical evidence of the inferiority and changeability of homosexual orientation, the Christian Right defenders of Proposition 8 failed — because their “science” doesn’t exist.

The science talk begins at 2:45:

Hat tip: Rex Wockner

August 4, 2010, is a historic day in this latter day civil rights battle.  Bear in mind, of course, that this is long from over, but Judge Walker’s ruling is fairly extensive, finding Prop. 8 unconstitutional both on equal protection and due process grounds.  Also, Walker applied both the strict scrutiny standard and rational basis and found the proponents’ arguments wanting.  I’ll post more when I’ve had a chance both to read it for myself and bounce it off my lawyer friends, but for now, courtesy of Jeremy, here is the ruling.

UPDATE: WOW, and immediately the sad, threatened little trolls come out! Well, welcome. We’ll never try to take away your rights. My commenters will make you look stupid, though.

UPDATE II:  Will post more Detailed Analysis soon, but for now, here’s Choire Sicha on what will happen when this goes to the Ninth Circuit:

This means it is off to the fun-loving Ninth Circuit, where they will literally laugh in the faces of the anti-gay-marriage folks! And possibly write a decision in the form of a sissy bounce video or something.

OMG, I can’t wait!

UPDATE III: God, I’m totally Greenwalding this post with updates. Joe Jervis points out that the commenters at Free Republic are already advocating the murder of gays. Nice.

UPDATE IV: Governor Schwarzenegger Issues Statement on Proposition 8 Ruling

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement after U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker issued a ruling invalidating Proposition 8:

“Judge Walker had the great responsibility of deciding whether Proposition 8 violates the Constitution of the United States.  He heard in-depth arguments from both sides on fundamental questions of due process, equal protection and freedom from discrimination. There are strong feelings on both sides of this issue, and I am glad that all viewpoints were respected throughout the proceedings. We should also recognize that there will continue to be different points of view in the wake of this decision.

“For the hundreds of thousands of Californians in gay and lesbian households who are managing their day-to-day lives, this decision affirms the full legal protections and safeguards I believe everyone deserves. At the same time, it provides an opportunity for all Californians to consider our history of leading the way to the future, and our growing reputation of treating all people and their relationships with equal respect and dignity.

“Today’s decision is by no means California’s first milestone, nor our last, on America’s road to equality and freedom for all people.’

UPDATE V: The National Organization for Marriage Responds:

Dear Marriage Supporter,

Moments ago, in a burst of unprecedented judicial arrogance, Judge Walker struck down California’s Prop 8:

This is a ruling that not only ignores the clear, legally-enacted will of the people of California, but jeopardizes the marriage laws of 45 states and threatens to strip millions of Americans of our core civil right to vote for marriage. We will fight back! Details to follow . . . .

Brian S. Brown

UPDATE VI: President Obama’s Statement

“The President has spoken out in opposition to Proposition 8 because it is divisive and discriminatory. He will continue to promote equality for LGBT Americans.”

UPDATE VII:  Wingnut reactions to the ruling, by the way, are in a separate post, so go there if you’re interested.