SAN FRANCISCO — Albany resident Alan Eckert was alone on the corner of Seventh and Mission streets early Tuesday morning holding a colorful sign that read, “GAYS — We love Boies,” a play on words praising lawyer David Boies for helping oppose California Proposition 8.
Eckert felt the need to stop by before work to hold the sign outside the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco because he wanted people to know the court would be deciding the fate of Prop. 8 by 10 a.m. Tuesday.
“I’m half of one of the 18,000 married same-sex couples in California, and I’m very grateful it wasn’t taken away from me,” Eckert said. “I just wish that it wasn’t taken away from the rest of these citizens.”
Eckert was one of roughly 100 people drawn to the courthouse steps to show their support for same-sex marriage, a crowd that erupted in celebration when they found that Prop. 8 was deemed unconstitutional.
Opponents of Prop. 8 began arriving as early as 8 a.m., uncertain whether the appeals court’s decision would be made public before its self-imposed 10 a.m. deadline. Castro Valley High School student Austin Bruckman should have been in school, but his parents called him in sick so he could head down to the courthouse.
“What better way to start the day than to say, ‘Hey, we’re not all equal in California,’” Bruckman said. “As a human being, we all have the right to love and be loved, and that’s what this is all about.”
However, because no public announcement was planned, the crowd was forced to furiously refresh the court website on their smartphones, tablets and laptop computers as the 10 a.m. deadline for the decision neared.
The crowd, which had huddled in a circle, went from tense to jubilant as one woman read aloud the case summary stating that Prop. 8 violates the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution and then raised her laptop above her head.
Eventually, printed copies of the 100-page court decision as well as shorter summaries of the decision were brought out of the courthouse, which the crowd grabbed to read and take home as memories of the day’s proceedings.
Although he was pleased with the decision, Jeremy Sell, a law student at UC Hastings, was not nearly as optimistic after reading the entire summary.
He took issue with Judge N. Randy Smith’s dissenting opinion that the designation of marriage is not necessarily related to a same-sex couple’s ability to be good parents.
“Unfortunately, Judge Smith thought this was unrelated to child rearing when children are always having to answer questions about whether their parents are married or not,” Sell said.
After the crowd had finished reveling in its victory, they headed down to city hall for a rally and to meet with different religious figures who would symbolically marry same-sex couples.
However, the couples could not legally marry because the court is waiting to issue a formal mandate, allowing Prop. 8 supporters to file an appeal and seek a stay in the full 9th Circuit Court or the Supreme Court.
Bruce Ivie and David Bowers, Castro Valley residents, nevertheless waved signs calling for equality in marriage.
The two celebrated the decision as the most recent victory in their 31 years together, having married in San Francisco in 2004, then having their marriage nullified by the Supreme Court, then marrying again in 2009.
“Everyone in the world has the right to love the person that they love and to marry that person,” Ivie said. “I know that it’s my right as a U.S.-born citizen and a taxpaying adult.”
Christopher Yee covers Berkeley communities.
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