Calif. 'Isn't Letting Me Feel Happy,' Plaintiff Charges

The gay couples seeking to overturn the California ballot measure that prohibits them from marrying took to the witness stand on today’s first day in court, with one, Paul Katami, charging that “being gay means I’m unequal” as long as marriage is defined as being between a man and a woman—and thus Proposition 8 violates constitutional guarantees of equal protection.

“The state isn’t letting me feel happy,” added Kristin Perry, who married her longtime partner in San Francisco in 2004. That ruling was later invalidated in a lower court before the state’s supreme court declared gay marriage OK; Prop 8, passed by the state’s voters in 2008, outlawed it again—and, the AP notes, it’s likely Perry v. Schwarzenegger will go to the US Supreme Court, no matter the verdict.
(More Proposition 8 stories.)