On Tuesday, advocates of same-sex marriage received good news. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declared the famous Proposition 8 unconstitutional. Prop 8 banned gay marriage in California shortly after gay marriage was made legal, and the proposition was approved by voters during the 2008 election.
The court's decision passed 2-1, with the official statement being that Prop 8's only function was to "lessen the status and human dignity" of homosexuals. The decision makes California the seventh state (not including the District of Columbia) where gay marriage is now legal.
But while the repurcussions in California will become plainly obvious quickly enough, what does the decision mean for South Carolina? At what point will the Palmetto State embrace gay marriage?
In terms of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) rights, South Carolina lags far behind the rest of the nation. It is one of only eighteen states whose constitution fails to recognize not only gay marriage, but any same-sex partnership.
Employment discrimination laws are available for anyone in the country who is the subject of workplace discrimination based on race or sex. However, this does not apply to sexual orientation in a number of states. Since the first LGBT discrimination law was passed in Washington DC in 1972, only around half of the states have passed any legislation protecting gay workers.
In South Carolina, it is still completely legal to be fired based on your sexual orientation. On a similar note, it also remains legal for a landlord to discriminate against a tenant in the state, as there are no housing discrimination laws based on sexuality.
As a representative for the state in 1996, Lindsey Graham voted in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, wherein the federal government defined marriage as between one man and one woman. Eight years later, now a Senator, Graham voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have added an amendment to the US Constitution. It failed in 2006.
Senator Jim DeMint, a Tea Party favorite, is regularly classified as one of the most conservative Senators in Washington. In 2004, he came under fire for saying that openly gay people should not be permitted to teach in public schools. While he later apologized for the remarks, he is still opposed to the legalization of gay marriage due to "the costly secondary consequences" on society upon dealing with the prevalence of certain diseases in the homosexual community.
In very recent news, SC Equality has sought to increase visibility of LGBT issues through a recent license plate promoting equality. However, judging from both the rules already (or not) in place, as well as the lawmakers elected to pass legislation, it will be a while before South Carolina comes even remotely close to the sort of progress that California is seeing this week.
But even with the overturned legislation, the struggle for equality in California isn't over. Just because gay couples can wed doesn't mean that equal rights will immediately follow. Ultimately, equality is in the hands of the people, who have to reject the discrimination of previous generations and demand old prejudices be put to rest.
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