Haines His Way

Can California's same-sex marriages be saved?

A constitutional ban would also likely doom the unions already on the books.

We have all heard of May-December marriages, but in California these days, it's the status of a June-November marriage that is at issue.

Since June 16, same-sex couples have been marrying at a rapid clip, pursuant to last month's landmark ruling by the state Supreme Court. In November, however, Californians will vote on a proposed state constitutional amendment that would define marriage as being strictly between a man and a woman. If it passes, there obviously would be no more same-sex marriages in the future. But what would happen to the marriages that gays and lesbians already entered into between June and November?

This would be a novel issue, so no one knows for sure. But I believe the amendment would void the marriages. For the same-sex marriages to survive, freedom-to-marry advocates would have to win at least one of two arguments in the courts. Both arguments would rest on the unfairness of applying the reinstated ban retroactively, but both would probably fail.
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The language leaves room for other states to recognize the June-November marriages as valid, but it leaves no discernible discretion for any governmental body in California to continue extending marriage rights to the June-November crowd.

return to NY (where you can't get married) and have the marriage recognized.

No backwards.