As a San Franciscan, deeply tied to the gay community of the Castro, I can not help but examine Judge Walker's decision Wednesday about gay marriage.
My interest deals with
the social consequences of a court decision to override the second
vote of the people on the gay marriage issue.
I am immediately struck by the way my life has been shaped by previous instances of a division between the public's opinion and our government's actions.
The first instance was the Brown v Board of Education case. The Court decision had no immediate impact because it was part of a long term trend to give full civil rights to blacks. The impact came when Federal District courts directed active integration measures in urban schools.
I was an activist who
helped plan and explain to San Francisco parents what school
integration by busing meant. I saw the hatred of mothers who wanted
nothing to do with their children being bused to an integrated
school.
Over the next decade the majority of white families with children moved out of San Francisco. The public school system has been an inadequate shambles for the past forty-five years as a direct result of forced public school integration.
I saw the executive branch, elected by a wide popular majority (Nixon's second term) face a vehement urban population that wanted out of the Vietnam War. The urban population elected a Congress that committed patricide on the president and deliberately lost a war that had already been won on the ground and in a peace treaty. Millions of Cambodians died as a result.
I saw a U.S. Supreme
Court establish a right of women to an abortion, after a steady
progression of states (17 major states) had already made abortion legal.
Consequence: a political issue that lasted more than 30 years and
created anger and acrimony in millions of homes and shaped many elections.
I saw Rose Bird put on the California Supreme Court, express her personal opposition to the death penalty ( not reflected in her court decisions) and saw the citizens rise up and throw her out (1986 by 67%) along with two other justices (one was a friend of mine).
I saw a California governor, Gray Davis, a Democrat, actively meddle in the the Republican primary to get himself an easier opponent in the general election. A year later Davis was recalled by the voters angry at his thwarting the will of the people.
The list goes on. But I hope my readers get the point. The pro-gay marriage decision by a Federal judge, Vaughn Walker, overriding two public elections will result in serious and meaningful public reactions.