Thursday Thirteen: Favorite Quotes from the PropH8 Ruling

Yesterday, Judge Vaughn Walker released his decision finding California's Prop 8 unconstitutional. If you haven't read the 136 page ruling, you should because it's beautifully crafted and I no longer begrudge him the time it took to get it all worked out. lol! No, really, I couldn't  imagine what was taking so long. This did not seem to me to be a difficult decision. Whatever. It was worth the wait. You can download the full ruling here: http://tinyurl.com/2dnuweo And I strongly suggest you do, because it's fascinating reading! 

But, in the meantime, here are 13 quotes pulled from the ruling more or less at random--because, seriously, this document is gold. if I had to pick the best 13 quotes, I don't know that I could!

#1. Same-sex couples are identical to opposite-sex couples in the characteristics relevant to the ability to form successful marital unions. Like opposite-sex couples, same-sex couples have happy, satisfying relationships and form deep emotional bonds and strong commitments to their partners. Standardized
measures of relationship satisfaction, relationship adjustment and love do not differ depending on whether a couple is same sex or opposite-sex. 

#2. The availability of domestic partnership does not provide gays and lesbians with a status equivalent to marriage because the cultural meaning of marriage and its associated benefits are intentionally withheld from same-sex couples in domestic partnerships.

#3. Proposition 8 does not affect the First Amendment rights of those opposed to marriage for same-sex couples. Prior to Proposition 8, no religious group was required to recognize marriage for same-sex couples.

#4. Proposition 8 singles out gays and lesbians and legitimates their unequal treatment. Proposition 8 perpetuates the stereotype that gays and lesbians are incapable of forming long-term loving relationships and that gays and lesbians are not good parents.

#5. The gender of a child’s parent is not a factor in a child’s adjustment. The sexual orientation of an individual does not determine whether that individual can be a good parent. Children raised by gay or lesbian parents are as likely as children raised by heterosexual parents to be healthy, successful and well-adjusted. The research supporting this conclusion is accepted beyond serious debate in the field of
developmental psychology.

#6. Religious beliefs that gay and lesbian relationships are sinful or inferior to heterosexual relationships harm gays and lesbians.

#7. The Proposition 8 campaign relied on fears that children exposed to the concept of same-sex marriage may become gay or lesbian. The reason children need to be protected from samesex
marriage was never articulated in official campaign advertisements. Nevertheless, the advertisements insinuated that learning about same-sex marriage could make a child gay or lesbian and that parents should dread having a gay or lesbian child.

#8. California, like every other state, has never required that individuals entering a marriage be willing or able to procreate.

#9. Marriage is the state recognition and approval of a couple’s choice to live with each other, to remain committed to one another and to form a household based on their own feelings
about one another and to join in an economic partnership and support one another and any dependents.

#10. Marriage benefits both spouses by promoting physical and psychological health. Married individuals are less likely to engage in behaviors detrimental to health, like smoking or
drinking heavily. Married individuals live longer on average than unmarried individuals.

#11. Same-sex love and intimacy are well-documented in human history. The concept of an identity based on object desire; that is, whether an individual desires a relationship with someone of the opposite sex (heterosexual), same sex (homosexual) or either sex (bisexual), developed in the late
nineteenth century.

#12. Individuals do not generally choose their sexual orientation. No credible evidence supports a finding that an individual may, through conscious decision, therapeutic intervention or any other method, change his or her sexual orientation.

#13. California has no interest in asking gays and lesbians to change their sexual orientation or in reducing the number of gays and lesbians in California.