county fair multnomah

Linda Barufaldi and Joyce Marieb already have set a date: Aug. 30. That's when the couple – together for 35 years – plan to, at long last, marry.
“I'm delirious, I'm stunned,” Barufaldi said after learning of yesterday's California Supreme Court decision declaring the state's ban on same-sex marriages unconstitutional.
Other longtime gay couples in San Diego County expressed the same sense of exhilaration, saying they couldn't wait to exchange vows in front of friends and family. It's a moment many felt was long robbed from them.
“I didn't think we'd see this day in our lifetime,” said Barufaldi, who lives with Marieb in La Mesa.
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, who reversed his opposition to same-sex marriage last year after disclosing one of his daughters is a lesbian, declined to share his personal reaction to the ruling but said “the court has spoken.”
“We follow a rule of law, and that's what we'll do,” Sanders said. “I made my comments last September, I believe, and I don't really have anything else to say about them.”
Reaction among the religious community was generally divided along theological lines, with conservatives condemning the decision and liberals praising it.
“I'm very disappointed,” said Jim Garlow, pastor of the Skyline Church in Rancho San Diego. He called the ruling an example of “judicial activism,” and said it would inspire more people to join the effort to make such marriages illegal.
“This battle is not over,” he said, pointing to the push to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would only permit marriage between a man and a woman.
If that bid to change the state constitution reaches the ballot, it would be the second time in eight years California voters have been asked their opinion on same-sex marriage. In 2000, 61 percent of voters supported a ballot initiative defining marriage as between a man and woman.

signonsandiego.com


Tags: , ,