Reason No. 36 to Love California: Gay Marriage

No it's not the avocados; fresh sushi-grade fish; year-round hiking, surfing or biking; the abundance of hybrid cars; Half Dome; Coachella; Tahoe; Golden Gate Bridge; Hollywood or Hwy 1 (but these all pretty much kick ass). It's the fact that the California Supreme Court believes in the rights of all people. California's high court today overturned a ruling saying that it's unconstitutional to deny gay couples the right to marry. They likened it to not allowing interracial couples to marry.

The justices, in a 4-3 ruling, wrote, "In view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples."

This is a huge day for our country. Massachusetts made same-sex marriage legal four years ago at the same time that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom started issuing marriage licenses to gay couples. All the marriages granted during that period had been nullified, but will now be reinstated. Today Newsom said, "It's a throwaway line, but I think it's true: As California goes, so goes the rest of the nation."

So Mayor Daley -- when are you going to start issuing same-sex marriage licenses in the city? Let's make this happen! -- Ari