"This year, however, proponents of same-sex marriage have found encouragement in both the California Supreme Court decision and in a subsequent order by Gov. David A. Paterson of New York, instructing agencies in his state to recognize same-sex marriages performed legally elsewhere. The California court has also rebuffed several challenges to its May 15 decision, made by two conservative legal groups and by Republican attorneys general who fear that the California marriages will lead to legal challenges brought in their own states." - Bret Taylor

The current UK administration defused the issue of same sex unions by the introduction of Civil Partnerships in 2005 linked to an across the board change of relevant laws to provide parity with married couples - with the exception of those with religiious objections (who should really know better) this has gone smoothly and been introduced across the UK. Its not called a marriage but has all the advantages (and responsibilities!) of the mixed sex varaint. - Jican

The opposition should be pleased. Now that they're married, they'll be having less sex. - Phil Wolff from Alert Thingy

our friends Bob and Michael get married in SF on August 20th. - Todd Mundt

Is that Bruce Willis in the second picture? j/k - Nesta Campbell

@Phil: Ha! Comment of the day :) - Bret Taylor

I love my native state! - Zach Landes

Phil: Brilliant Comment! - Parth Awasthi from twhirl

It makes me very happy to see gay folks entering the light in California. I'm also very amused at how frustrating it must be to the Right. Well, I guess in a few years one of us will be proven right. Either a small percentage of the population of California will be happily married and gay or the country will lay in smouldering ruins and people will be having sex with box turtles. - Internet's Tad

Tad: I feel a box turtle urge coming on! Hah. - Robert Scoble

@Tad - I had box turtles as pets when I was kid. Never considered that activity with them though... - Hutch Carpenter

"It does not affect your daily life very much if your neighbor marries a box turtle. But that does not mean it is right. Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife." - Rick Santorum (Idiot) ex-Senator from Virginia - Internet's Tad

Dude in the pic with "Bruce Willis" is freakin HYOOOGE! I wonder how many opponents of gay marriage have been pwned by his hand...LOL - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

Really? BTW...Santorum => Pennsylvania - Hutch Carpenter

Whoa, don't push Santorum on us Virginians! hehe - jcunwired

Oh crap - sorry to pollute Virginia with Santorum! Oops. I wouldn't wish that on anyone... - Internet's Tad

I hope it "sticks". My boyfriend and I are waiting until after November. To have the rug pulled from under us after enjoying a few months of wedded bliss would be too much for the heart to bear. - Jason Menayan

Congrats to all the new couples, with wishes for many happy years. - Chris Baskind

bravo, - pestwave

All You Need Is Love! - Chris Nixon

In my home town in Austria, we had a case of a black man and a white woman wanting to marry, they ended up being refused by the marriage registrar. Of course, we also haven't got gay marriage legalized here. The US have problems, but in some cases, law is way more progressive than in Europe. - sebmos

YAY! - dave mcclure

Yay! - Yuvi

@Phil: LOL! This has certainly been a momentous (and good) development. But it would be nice to see these kinds of decisions made through the legislative process. The fact that this decided in the courts will make the outcome more contentious than it would have been had the population been forced to have a legitimate conversation about the issue. The more bigoted corners of our society now have a victim card to play - and play it they shall... - Forrest Cox

@Forrest: The genius of our system of government lies in its checks and balances. In particular, an unfettered democracy would be subject to the problem of the "tyranny of the majority". Fortunately this is offset by our Constitution and our courts, whose job is to ensure that individual rights are not trampled on, no matter how unpopular that individual may be, for whatever reason. Any bigots playing the victim card are ignorant of basic civics. - Ruchira S. Datta

@Ruchira I agree. The Cali court is playing exactly its Constitutional role, and it's essentially a conservative and Federalist approach to reconciling changing societal mores and the demands of a minority. As I've commented elsewhere, we are winning this argument, and we're doing it state by state, rather than through a Federal fiat, which simply is not feasible at this time. All good things... - Rick Powell