Source: San Jose Mercury News , Press Enterprise , Sacramento Bee In a finding that could foreshadow a difficult political battle for a proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage, a new Field Poll says more California voters oppose Proposition 8 than favor it. By a 51% to 42% margin, voters appear ready to vote No on Proposition 8, the "Limit on marriage" constitutional amendment. The new poll, released today, is the first independent statewide measure of public opinion on the proposed constitutional ban since gay men and lesbians began marrying legally in California on June 16. It was...(read more) ...

The California Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal brought by civil rights groups to keep the anti-gay marriage ban off the ballot. Their argument was that 1. Those signing were told that the initiative would not change the law, just keep it the same. This is no longer true. California law now recognizes marriage. 2. The language of the proposition does not amend the constitution. Because it is not just a matter of changing marriage law but instead goes to the heart of equal protection and discrimination against a suspect class, it revises the nature of the Constitution, which is ...

Writer Elizabeth Howton, who legally married her partner in California and will have her marriage recognized when she moves to New York, rejects the idea being put forth by leading activists that couples should refrain from suing the federal government to gain recognition for their unions. Their thinking "is well-reasoned, strategically correct -- and doomed to failure," she writes. "The battle for gay marriage has always been an anarchic, guerrilla affair, advancing in fits and starts through ill-advised lawsuits rather than a coordinated strategy. From the Hawaii case that started it all to Gavin Newsom's San Francisco show, nothing ...