Equality Above And Below the Border

Big movement on the marriage equality front, both in California and in Mexico.

California's Attorney General--and gubernatorial candidate--Jerry Brown filed a motion with Judge Vaughn Walker requesting that no stay be placed on the ruling overturning Prop H8. So, if Walker decides to lift the current stay, there would be a brief period of legal same-sex marriages performed until the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals officially takes the case and imposes its own stay.

And within moments of Brown's filing to lift the stay, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also filed a motion to lift the ban until the case is heard on appeal. This was quite the switch for Schwarzenegger, who in the past has been against marriage equality.

Let's hope the stay is lifted, even temporarily, and marriage will become the right of every Californian, and set the stage for the rest of the country.

Meanwhile, south of the border.....

The Supreme Court of Mexico ruled by a vote of 8-2 that a Mexico City law allowing same-sex marriage is constitutional. The law, which passed last year, was challenged by Mexican Attorney General Arturo Chavez, who argued that allowing same-sex marriages violates the guarantee of familial integrity under the Mexican Constitution. The law was also challenged by the state governments of Jalisco and Baja California, which argued that the same-sex marriage law had a negative impact on them. But the court rejected their arguments, finding that the constitution did not specify what constituted a family.

The court will rule next week on the issue of adoption by same-sex couples, which was allowed under the Mexico City law, and whether the marriages must be recognized nationwide.

Carlos and I both got a bit of an ironic chuckle about this as he is from Mexico City and I am from California and here we are in South Carolina.

Ah, well, the dominoes might just begin falling in our direction.