Sacramento, CA— Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) made the following statement regarding the California Supreme Court's hearing on Marriage Equality today:

“I congratulate the loving and committed same sex couples who have bravely brought the discrimination they’ve faced to the forefront of the state and the nation’s consciousness. I am proud to stand with them, Mayor Newsom and City Attorney Herrera as they make the case that LGBT couples and their families are full participants in our great democracy, deserving of respect, dignity and equal treatment under the law.   
 
I am hopeful that the California Supreme Court will reaffirm its position from 1948 when it historically ended its ban on interracial marriage, saying that, ‘marriage is a fundamental right of free men... any legislation infringing such rights must be based upon more than prejudice and must be free from oppressive discrimination to comply with the constitutional requirements of due process and equal protection of the laws.’

Those words are as true today as they were 60 years ago.  It is as absurd to deny LGBT couples access to a marriage certificate as it was to deny them to interracial couples back then. Time has a way of clarifying these issues, but it takes fair minded justices to speak up for equality in order for fairness and respect to win out over ignorance, fear and intolerance.

California’s legislature has twice voted to embrace the basic human right of all people to marry the person they love and end our state's discriminatory marriage laws that run contrary to our constitution, and I hope the Supreme Court does the same. Their decision in this historic case will no doubt have implications on thousands of same sex couples and their families as well as our society for years to come.”