8 The Play
Written by Dustin Lance Black
Presented by Broadway Impact
and Busted Space Theatre Company
California and Prop 8: A Timeline
January 3rd, 2000
After many same-sex couples cited many emotional and financial benefits for gay marriage, Gov. Gray Davis signed AB 26 into law. This allowed same-sex couples to register with the state of California as domestic partners, giving them hospital visitation rights and health insurance coverage from CalPERS, the state retirement system. While this seemed like a huge achievement at the time, gay marriage was still not recognized by California and many rights were still denied to gay couples.
March 7th, 2000
Proposition 22 was passed by 61% of California voters. Only 14 words long, the shortest initiative on a California ballot to date, stated "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." However, this short passage set forth a $16 million campaign that ignited all of California.
September 19th, 2003
Gov. Gray Davis signs a bill into law that gives more rights to state-registered domestic partners. These legal benefits included making medical decisions for a partner in the hospital, using sick leave to care for an ill or incapacitated partner and relocating with a partner without losing unemployment benefits. However, this bill still did not recognize same-sex marriage in California.
February 12th, 2004
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom allows city officials to start issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples. On March 11th, the California Supreme Court orders the city to stop issuing marriage licenses after over 4,000 licenses were given to gay couples and over a dozen were married. August 12th, the California Supreme Court found that Mayor Newsom overstepped his boundaries and that these 4,000 licenses issued were "void from their inception and a legal nullity." This meant that these marriage licenses were not legally recognized under California law. This was the first time this nation issued marriage licenses to gay couples.
On the news, we have see many states go through a series of trials and laws regarding gay marriage. However, there is one state that has been through one of the longest journeys to marriage equality: California. Below is a timeline spanning thirteen years, from the signing of AB 26 for same-sex benefits to the U.S Supreme Court decision of Proposition 8. When disussing Prop 8 and reading aloud 8 the Play, it is important to look back and see how we have gotten to this point in history with same-sex marriage.
September 29th, 2005
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetos a bill for same-sex marriage, after passing through both the state Senate and Assembly. He stated that the bill would wrongly reverse Proposition 22, that states that marriage is between a man and a woman. On, October 12th, 2007, Gov. Schwarzenegger vetos a bill by state lawmakers that would legalize gay marriage in California. Because Proposition 22 was passed by voters, he asked the courts to rule on the legality of Proposition 22 before deciding on any other bills regarding gay marriage.
March 4th, 2008
The California Supreme Court hears four lawsuits issued by same-sex couples after the marriage license ruling in 2004. Three of the seven justices leaned toward uphold the state law that marriage was between a man and a woman. On May 15, the court ruled that the state of California protects a fundamental "right to marry" that should also extend to same-sex couples. Existing bans, including Proposition 22, are unconstitutional.
June 2nd, 2008
Over one million signatures culminated into the California Marriage Protection Act, which appeared on the ballot as Proposition 8. These petitioners wanted to define marriage as "a union between a man and a woman." The California Supreme Court dismissed arguments that Proposition 8 is an illegal constitutional revision and that voters were being mislead when signing petitions to put this legislation on the ballot.
November 4th, 2008
Despirte protests, Prop 8 was passed by 52% of the vote. November 19th, the California Supreme Court voted to review legal challenges to Prop 8, however gay marriages are still put on hold. They stated that Prop 8 went against equal protection rights of the two same-sex couples that brought this case to suit. Judge Walker stated that "barring same-sex couples from marrying was a violation of the equal protection and due process clauses of the Constitution."
May 27th, 2009
Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier, along with another couple Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo, were denied marriage licenses in California with the passage of Proposition 8. Along The American Foundation for Equal Rights filed a suit in court, stating that they will call for an injuction of Proposition 8 and the reinstatement of marriage rights for same-sex couples in California.
Originally the case was named Perry v. Schwarzenegger in 2008 as Arnold Schwarzenegger was the current governor of California. The case was then renamed Perry v. Brown after Jerry Brown was elected governor in 2011. After both governors refused to defend Proposition 8 in court, the case was renamed Hollingsworth v. Perry after Dennis Hollingsworth. He is a former Republican state Senate minority leader and head of ProtectMarriage.com, who was the official sponsor of Prop 8 on the ballot in 2008. Without support from the state, they stepped in to defend the ban on same-sex marriage.
On October 14th, a federal judge rejected arguments from Prop 8 supporters and ruled that the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage raised legal and factual issues that needed trial before a constitutional change could be inacted.
August 4th, 2010
The first arguments were heard in front of Judge Vaughn Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The plaintiffs called many witness that came from the LGBT community, marriage experts, and psychologists who argued the benefits behind same-sex marriage and how it would in no way harm opposite-sex relationships. The defense had only two witnesses, who ended up arguing to aid of the plaintiffs and harmed the defendant’s case. Judge Walker ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. He concluded that Proposition 8 “unconstitutionally burdens the exercise of the fundamental right to marry and creates an irrational classification on the basis of sexual orientation.” He concluded that a ban on same-sex marriage went against the due process clause of the 14th amendment.
However, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided to hold the ban on gay marriage until December. On March 23rd, 2011, it was announced that gay marriages would not resume until while the Ninth Circuit Court decides whether or not Proposition 8's ban is constitutional.
July 28th, 2011
It was announced that the California Supreme Court will hear the Prop 8 case on September 6th. On November 17th, the court decided that sponsers of Prop 8 and measures of the ballots can legally defend the proposition since the state of California refused to do so.
ProtectMarriage.com appealed to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. This was problematic from the start for the defense. To begin with, the Ninth Circuit is a famous liberal appeals court and the three-judge panel that was hearing the case included Judge Stephen Reinhardt. Reinhardt is one of the most liberal judges in the Ninth Circuit and his wife is an executive director of Southern California ACLU, involved in legal challenges against Proposition 8. When lawyer Charles Cooper asked Reinhardt to recuse himself from the case because of this information, the judge refused. The three judge panel also declined to throw out the previous court’s ruling on Prop 8 after the defense stated Judge Walker had personal interest in the case because he himself is gay.
February 7th, 2012
The Ninth Circuit held a 2-1 ruling to uphold the district court’s decision. Though they didn’t rule that any bans on same-sex marriages were unconstitutional, they ruled that Proposition 8 had no legal standing to take the right of marriage away from gay and lesbian couples. When ProtectMarriage.com asked the Ninth Circuit to hear the case as a whole rather than a panel of three judges, their request was again denied. This lead to the defense appealing to the last court of appeals: the United States Supreme Court.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted to not review the California Supreme Court's decision and now the legal battle would head to the United States Supreme Court. On July 31st, supporters of Prop 8 asked the Supreme Court to take their case against gay marriage. On December 7th, the U.S Supreme Court announced they will hear arguments in the case and decide if Prop 8 supporters had legal standing in court.
March 26, 2013
The US Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments in the Prop 8 case. Like the Hollingsworth v Perry case in 2008, it became evident that the defense had a lack of substanial evidence to provide legal standing of Proposition 8. The Supreme Court was given 90 days to make a final decision on the case.
June 26th, 2013
Five years after appearing on the ballot, Proposition 8 was ruled unconstitutional by a vote of 5-4. This ruling meant that gay marriage could once again resume in California. The main reason justices struct down Prop 8 is because they decided that the proponents of putting Prop 8 on the ballot had no constitutional authority to defend this law in court. With the states refusal to defend Prop 8 in court after their loss in trial, there was no legal backing in the defense.
Protesters of Proposition 22 defeated after it was passed.
Former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Meet the Press.
Campaign posters on both sides of the Proposition 8 issue before voting in 2008. The Yes on 8 campaign was run by the pro-marriage site Protect Marriage.
Former State Senator and Head of Protect Marriage,
Dennis Hollingsworth
Judge Vaughn Walker, who presided over the Prop 8 case.
Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth Circuit
Logo of Protect Marriage, who sponsered the defense for the Prop 8 trial when the state stepped down.
The nine judges of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013.
One of the many demonstrators against Proposition 8 in front of the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. He is waving a gay pride flag after it was announced on June 26th that Prop 8 and DOMA had been struct down.
What's Next?
On June 26th, 2013, Along with Proposition 8, the U.S Supreme court also struck down a controversial part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). They stated that same-sex couples legally married deserve equal rights with the benefits under federal law that go to all other married couples.
In the next year, many states began to hear federal cases over uplifting their ban on same-sex marriage. On October 6th, 2014, in a surprise move by the U.S Supreme Court, the ban was lifted on five states and paved the way for gay marriage: Virginia, Oklahoma, Utah, Wisconsin and Indiana.
While there was no ruling on gay marriage as a whole, this ruling allowed other states in the same appeal court districts to lift bans, including: North Carolina, West Virginia, South Carolina, Wyoming, Kansas and Colorado.
On January 16th, 2015, the Supreme Court announced in June they will hear the case for Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Kentucky. This case will prove to be historic, because this will decide once and for all whether all 50 states should allow same-sex marriage.
Current States as of 2015 that allow, ban, or are waiting for further legal action for same-sex marriage. Provided by The Washington Post.