Swan Tower

The decision on Perry v. Schwarzenegger has come down, and the ruling is that Proposition 8 (declaring that California only recognizes marriages between a man and a woman) is unconstitutional.

Which is hardly going to be the end of this; the case will end up in front of the Supreme Court eventually. But it's good news for equal rights.

I've been following the court case off and on. If you haven't, you really ought to take a look -- because it's astonishing, how incoherent the Prop 8 defense is. The incoherence starts with the proposition itself, I suppose; California only recognizes marriages between a man and a woman as valid, except for those same-sex marriages performed prior to the enactment of Prop 8. Why do those get exempted? Because the odds of it passing would have dropped precipitously if its supporters had tried to invalidate thousands of existing marriages. Then you get things like the motion the defense filed before this decision, trying to delay enforcement of the decision (which tells you they knew how it would go), wherein they claim in a single document both that "Same-sex relationships [...] neither advance nor threaten this interest [of procreation] in the way that opposite-sex relations do," and that "Not only would redefining marriage to include same-sex couples eliminate California's ability to provide special recognition and support to those relationships that uniquely further the vital procreative interests marriage has traditionally served, it would indisputably change the public meaning of marriage." So which is it, guys? Does same-sex marriage threaten the procreative function of marriage, or not? And that's not even touching the point that we don't exactly require fertility tests before letting people tie the knot; as the judge overseeing the case pointed out, he recently married a pair of geriatrics long past their procreative days.

To quote the decision, "Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California constitution the notion that opposite sex couples are superior to same sex couples." That's the coherent thread running through all the defense's arguments. Every time they were pressed to cite evidence that same-sex marriage would cause material harm to children, the institution of heterosexual marriage, or the fabric of society itself, they failed -- and tripped over a mountain of contradiction in doing so. You can cite religious arguments against the idea, and then we can have a theological debate, but when it comes to state and federal law, there is no defensible basis for this discrimination.

So, I got married. And then I went to Vegas. (With a pause in there to teach two more days of class; I couldn't just cancel a whole week.) Now I'm home.

Very, very glad to be home.

I'm trying to recover enough brain to deal with the backlog of e-mail that has built up over the last month or more. Most of the truly crucial stuff has been dealt with as it happened -- I hope -- but there's a lot of non-crucial stuff owing. If any of that stuff involves you, Dear Readers, then please bear with me as I try to wade through it. Cerberus (my collection of three e-mail accounts) has grown a fine new set of teeth on all of its heads; dealing with those will take a little while.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying my return from the land of Flashing! Lights! and Brightly! Colored! Things! and did we mention the Obnoxious! Noises! The shows we saw (Penn & Teller, and Cirque du Soleil's Kà and Mystere) were fabulous, but right about now, I'm taking deep pleasure in reading unmoving black text on a white page. And even writing a bit of my own; one of the flash vignettes that will make up the story "How They Fall" (if that ends up being its title) got scribbled down during my office hours today. I have hope this signals the return of my brain. It's been missing for several weeks now; I'd love to see it again.

Not like I haven't been under a pretty thorough radio silence lately anyway, just with being insanely busy. But in half an hour I'm going to be kidnapped for the start of my bachelorette party, and then there are rehearsals and dinners and the whole gettin' hitched thing.

When you hear from me again, I will be married.

(Assuming all goes according to plan.)

I'll go crazy posting "Thank you!" responses to everybody who congratulated me on the ring, so I'll do the lame thing and say "thank you!" here instead. I am very pleased by my new sparkly, and am glad other people like it, too.

Now we just have the rest of the wedding to plan, ne?

Spent the weekend up in Indy. Four stores and obscene quantities of silk, satin, taffeta, tulle, crystal, and lace later, ladies and gentlemen, I think I've found my wedding dress.

If I weren't so proud of myself for having put together this icon, I might be tempted to use the detail photo my mother took of the embroidery as my wedding icon.

We've also scoped out hotels to put the guests up in, looked askance at the horrible selection of bridesmaids' dresses, and started thinking about florists. We are, it seems, in business.