In the ruling, Judge Walker pointed out that the defendants in the case could not provide any evidence to support what they claimed was the rational basis for the law:

Proponents argued that Proposition 8 should be evaluated solely by considering its language and its consistency with the “central purpose of marriage, in California and everywhere else, to promote naturally procreative sexual relationships and to channel them into stable, enduring unions for the sake of producing and raising the next generation.”

At oral argument on proponents’ motion for summary judgment, the court posed to proponents’ counsel the assumption that “the state’s interest in marriage is procreative” and inquired how permitting same-sex marriage impairs or adversely affects that interest. Counsel replied that the inquiry was “not the legally relevant question,” but when pressed for an answer, counsel replied: “Your honor, my answer is: I don’t know. I don’t know.”

This ruling applies only in California at this time and it will be appealed immediately. If the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the ruling, it would then apply throughout that district in five western states. If the Supreme Court ultimately upholds it — which, to be realistic, is not terribly likely — then Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage passed in 2004 would also be overturned.

For 19 years, Renee Harmon says, she and Tammy Davis lived as if they were married.

The two women had joint bank accounts, owned houses and decided to raise children together. Harmon said she even cut the umbilical cords when their daughter and twin boys were born, in 1999 and 2002, after Davis was artificially inseminated.

They broke up in 2008, so the children were roughly 9 and 6 years old at the time. For their entire lives, they had known Harmon as a parent and undoubtedly bonded with them. But now Davis has apparently cut off all contact between Harmon and the children she has parented since their birth, and Harmon wants a court to grant her the same kind of custody and visitation rights a biological parent would automatically have.

The first hearing in that case is March 22 in Wayne County Circuit Court.

And while it’s true that Michigan does not recognize same sex marriages or civil unions, that may not be entirely relevant to the custody or visitation issues in this case. A non-biological parent may still be granted visitation by a court because they’ve had a longstanding relationship with a child. The court is generally tasked with determining what is in the best interests of the child, and it’s unlikely that ripping a child away from a parent they have known their entire life is going to be emotionally healthy for the child.

But Michigan courts have not traditionally been friendly to such arguments and the ban on same-sex marriage may well play heavily regardless of the best interests of the child. This will be a very interesting case to watch.

According to AnnArbor.com, Byrnes has this to say in a press release:

“Residents of Washtenaw County need a state senator who will bring a progressive social message to Lansing and deliver business-friendly policies that promote economic growth for Michigan in the global economy,” she said in a press release. “I have spent my tenure in the House being a consensus builder who finds a ‘way to yes.’ I want to take that leadership to the Senate.”

Michigan Messenger has written about the expected Byrnes Senate run since June, when the Lyndon Township Democrat announced she would introduce legislation to repeal Michigan’s Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Observers have noted that Byrnes, whose 52nd House District seat encompasses sections of the city of Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County towns and townships north and west of the city, may be eying a run for the 18th Senate District seat that takes in much of Democratic-dominated county. That district, currently represented by Liz Brater, who is term limited, is said to be eyed by State Rep. Rebekkah Warren of the 53rd House District, which takes in the majority of the city of Ann Arbor and portions of neighboring townships. Warren is the daughter of State Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith of Salem Township, who is running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

With Byrnes now in the race, and Warren still poking around the edges in consideration of a run, expect to see more moves to progressive legislation dealing with reproductive health, protecting lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders and more.

Pam Byrnes

Byrnes told Michigan Messenger in June, that she thought the time was right for the legislative move.

The time has come. … I think attitudes are changing. We are seeing other states flip on this issue especially when you get the former Vice President Dick Cheney acknowledging same-sex marriages then I think we definitely see a change in attitude and it’s time to revisit this.

Byrnes’ proposal would require a two-thirds vote of approval from both the House and the Senate in order to revise the state constitution by putting a question on the ballot.

And electoral success in Michigan Tuesday might just support Byrnes’ June optimism.

Byrnes announcement on Wednesday came less than 24 hours after Kalamazoo voters overwhelmingly approved an ordinance to prohibiting discrimination on the basis of, among other things, sexual orientation and gender identity. Those same voters in Kalamazoo voted openly gay resident Terry Kuseke to the city commission.

Voters in Detroit also sent openly gay former news man Charles Pugh to the president’s seat on the Detroit City Council — making him the first openly gay council member in the city’s history. Meanwhile, voters in Ferndale return Michigan’s first openly gay mayor, Craig Covey, to the mayor’s seat there.

The issue of same-sex marriage itself had a mixed result nationally. Maine voters rejected a law which would allow same-sex couples to marry, while Washington state voters approved a ballot measure dubbed “everything but marriage.” A year ago, as the nation celebrated the election of then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama to the White House, LGBT Americans were outraged to lose the right to marry in California because an initiative there, called Proposal 8, passed.

Byrnes was flanked by representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan; Triangle Foundation, a Detroit-based LGBT rights group; Michigan Equality, a Lansing-based LGBT rights group; and from both organized labor and clergy.

Photo by SFBart via Flickr

Byrnes plans on formally announcing her legislation on Saturday at the Michigan Pride gay rights rally at the state Capitol. But the Washtenaw County Democrat’s plan faces considerable challenges.

State Rep. Pam Byrnes

“While we support repeal of the ban, I think getting a two-thirds [majority vote in the legislature] could be difficult,” said Mark Brewer, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Paty. “We will have to deal with it as it moves along the process.”

Gary Glenn of the American Family Association of Michigan, who helped drive the ballot initiative that ultimately created Michigan’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, said Byrnes’ proposed legislation has little chance of success.

“In the unlikely event it ever does come up for a vote, we doubt it gets even a simple majority of the House voting in favor of overturning so recent a vote of the people,” Glenn said in an email to Michigan Messenger. “It certainly will not get the two-thirds vote required to actually place it on the ballot. But it does make for high drama, as political theater goes, to announce such legislation during a homosexual ‘rights’ rally, even though it’ll never see the light of day thereafter.”

And Glenn could be right. While a recent poll reported on by the Detroit Free Press has showed a significant shift in support for same-sex marriage in the state since the 2004 statewide vote, support for same-sex marriage in the state currently stands at 46.5 percent.

While Brewer said it was premature to assess how Byrnes’ proposed legislation could affect the 2010 legislative and gubernatorial races, the Michigan Democratic Party chief acknowledged that putting lawmakers in the position of voting on legislation seen as “pro-gay marriage” could be used as a weapon in the coming election, where control of both legislative chambers could be in play.

“It’s a queston of whether it comes up for a vote,” said Brewer. “It also puts Republicans in tough spots. I would be surprised if [Sen. Majority Leader] MIke Bishop [R-Rochester] would allow something like this to come to a vote.”

Byrnes’ unexpected move to introduce the same-sex marriage legislation has raised questions about the lawmaker’s timing, which could be tied to the speaker pro tem’s political calculus.

Observers have noted that Byrnes, whose 52nd House District seat encompasses sections of the city of Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County towns and townships north and west of the city, may be eying a run for the 18th Senate District seat that takes in much of Democratic-dominated county. That district, currently represented by Liz Brater, who is term limited, is said to be eyed by State Rep. Rebekkah Warren of the 53rd House District, which takes in the majority of the city of Ann Arbor and portions of neighboring townships. Warren is the daughter of State Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith of Salem Township, who is running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

Some sources have told Michigan Messenger that Byrnes could be using Saturday’s announcement and the same-sex marriage legislative push as a way to increase her visibility among Ann Arbor’s GLBT community in order to boost her chances at winning Brater’s seat.

Phil Volk, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party’s LGBTA Caucus, said it’s hard to predict how Byrnes’ legislation might be received.

“It’s going to depend on who frames the questions first and gets their talking points out,” Volk said of the proposal.

Still, Volk said: “We are going to see a lot of people diving for cover.”

Volk said marriage equality proponents have to frame the issue as equality, and prevent the opponents, like Glenn from framing it as a “family values thing.”

Michelle Brown, co-director of Michigan Equality, said Byrnes’ move was important, and would move the issue forward.

“If you don’t ever start to talk about it, how will you ever be ready to talk about?” Brown said. “So to have someone in the legislature say: ‘You know what, it’s time we revisit it,’ to me sort of says its a wake-up call for everybody that perhaps we all need to be listening to what the people of Michigan are saying.”

Brown said the impact on the 2010 election cycle is going to be how the LGBT community responds to Byrne’s move and any legislators who support it.

“The impact is if we sit at home in 2010,” Brown said.

In an action alert sent out by the group, Glenn writes:

Michigan Equality is a homosexual activist group headquartered in Lansing, whose executive director is John Nemecek, a former professor at Spring Arbor University who now dresses as a woman and goes by the name “Julie.”

We cannot dismiss as equally delusional his announcement of plans (see below) to put a constitutional amendment on Michigan’s 2012 ballot repealing our voter-approved Marriage Protection Amendment and legalizing so-called homosexual “marriage.” The Marriage Protection Amendment itself started with AFA-Michigan’s similar call for such a proposal in June 2003, culminating in a petition drive and voter approval in 2004.

With homosexual Kalamazoo billionaire Jon Stryker’s financial support, Michigan Equality’s plans could become a reality. With your support, the American Family Association of Michigan will continue to stand guard and prepare to meet and oppose any future such threat to marriage and the family in our state.

Nemecek made a call to for repeal of the amendment by 2012 in a protest at the state’s capitol Tuesday night. The protest was in response to the California Supreme Court decision which upheld the ban on same-sex marriage in the Golden state which was approved by voters in Nov of 2008.

It should be noted that Nemecek legally changed her name from John to Julie in Feb. of 2007 as part of her treatment for gender dysphoria, the medical term for transgenderism.

Asked if he supported marriage equality for the gay community, the congressman replied, “Sure. I always have.”

A repeal of DOMA would open the door to allowing marriages of same-sex partners performed in others states to be recognized throughout the state, as well as the federal government.

And when you go by party identification, it’s even worse. Among Republicans, it’s a tie at 49% between those who favor same-sex marriage or civil unions and those who reject both. But less than 30% now identify as Republicans, which means if they want to win elections, the GOP has to attract independents and even some self-identified Democrats. And among independents, 69% favor same-sex marriage or civil unions and only 25% favor no legal recognition.

And the numbers get even worse when viewed by demographics. Among those under 40 years old, support for same-sex marriage is at 57%, plus the support for civil unions. So you can expect this trend to pick up speed over the next few years. By the time we get to the 2010 and 2012 elections, this is going to be an even bigger problem for the GOP. How do they keep their social conservative base happy on this issue without losing everyone else? The answer, I suspect, is that they can’t.

Glenn spoke to the Conservative Students organization, which was formerly the Young Americans for Freedom chapter at CMU. He was there to speak about the importance of protecting “traditional” marriage, which he and his group define as between one man and one woman. Glenn was the author of the 2004 amendment to the Michigan Constitution which restricted marriage to one man and one woman. He is also opposed to the laws appearing across the country which allow same sex couples to marriage.

Because of the protesters, the conservative student group shut the meeting with Glenn to the general public.

According to CM-Life, the campus newspaper,

The crowd, which waited behind the metal gate across the street from the Bovee University Center harmoniously chanted “Gay, straight, black, white, marriage is a civil right,” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, homophobia’s got to go.”

Signs were printed with statements like “hate is not a family value,” and “you don’t have the balls to be queer.”

The protest was organized through Facebook.

“I would hope this is a harbinger of things to come, and that this would spread to other states and their legislatures would show similar courage and vision,” said Noel Siksai, president of the Log Cabin Republicans of Michigan, an organization of gay Republicans.

Siksai said Douglas’ veto is a sign of how Republican Party nationwide is divided over gay marriage issues.

“They still don’t get it,” he said of Republicans who oppose equal rights for the LBGT community. “Technically [Douglas] is a moderate Republican but at this point he was trying to uphold the status quo rather than realizes that times are changing.”

The other three states that have approved gay marriage are Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa, but Vermont is the first to approve same-sex marriage through the legislative process.

“The struggle for equal rights is never easy. I was proud to be President of the Senate nine years ago when Vermont created civil unions,” said Vermont Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin. “Today we have overridden the Governor’s veto. I have never felt more proud of Vermont as we become the first state in the country to enact marriage equality not as the result of a court order, but because it is the right thing to do.”

On Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court overturned a state ban on same-sex marriage.