Two points, before you ask. First, voters can make relatively small changes to the constitution. The writ is arguing that this is not a small change. Second, the groups filed a writ before the election making a similar argument in order to keep the proposition off the ballot, but the court wasn’t willing to hear it. Here’s why:

“Historically, courts are reluctant to get involved in disputes if they can avoid doing so,” said Shannon Minter, Legal Director of NCLR. “It is not uncommon for the court to wait to see what happens at the polls before considering these legal arguments. However, now that Proposition 8 may pass, the courts will have to weigh in and we believe they will agree that Proposition 8 should never have been on the ballot in the first place.” (from the ACLU press release)

So this is some potentially good news- the fight isn’t over. Of course, the prop 8 folks are going to yell about activist judges. It’s good to remember that, as Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California points out, “[a] major purpose of the constitution is to protect minorities from majorities.” The judges are there to ensure that the law is applied fairly to all citizens. If that makes them activists, then I’m all for it.

Given how the folks in favor of prop 8 lied about the issue, sent out a video of a group of children without the consent of the parents, and resorted to blackmail, I find it hard to understand how they can keep pretending that this is about morality. And don’t even get me started on the issue of a church telling its members how to vote.

In my opinion, there isn’t so much love in the world that we can afford to throw any of it away. I think that any time any people publicly declare their love for each other, that’s something to celebrate, even if their relationship is 180 degrees away from anything I would want to do myself. How does a queer couple’s joy, commitment and happiness diminish a heterosexual couple’s marriage in any way?

In my experience, when someone resorts to lies to try to get you to believe what they have to say, it’s because they know that their position is untenable, at least on some level. If you can’t convince people with the truth, what does it say about you when you resort to lies?

Anyway, keep your chins up, folks. Equal rights aren’t dead, even if some folks would like them to be.

Last night was a dream come true — we toasted with champagne, cried tears over Obama’s speech, went out to the streets to celebrate (in the Castro, SF [video]) crossed our fingers for a pretty close Prop K (decriminalizing prostitution), and held our breath — All Night Long — and are still waiting for results about Prop 8’s ban on Same-Sex marriage. At this moment it’s 96% reporting and papers are calling it passed.

Personally, I have hopes that the courts won’t let the constitution be re-written. There’s still a lot of work to do to help educate the state of California about what same-sex marriage means, and there’s a lot of lies and fear out there from people wanting to protect ‘traditional’ marriage. (It’s not “Yes we did”… it’s “Yes we will” — there’s much work to do.)

It’s a bittersweet victory for civil rights. With love, here’s a song for the new day.