California Court Ends Gay Marriage Ban

The California Supreme Court has just overturned the state’s ban on gay marriage, with a decision dismisses restrictions on gay marriage as being as unconstitutional (at least in California) as bans on interracial marriage.

Here’s the full decision (PDF).

And the core of it:

In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual’s sexual orientation — like a person’s race or gender — does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.

We therefore conclude that in view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution
properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples.