Late Thursday night, US District Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen ruled that laws prohibiting gay and lesbian couples from marrying in Virginia are unconstitutional. Read more about the decision here>

Front Page News:

1. The Virginian-Pilot

2. The Washington Post

3. Virginia Daily Press

From the Headlines:

Federal Judge Overturns Virginia’s Gay Marriage Ban
The New York Times 

The challenge to Virginia’s ban was argued by the same bipartisan team of legal stars, Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, that successfully contested California’s ban in 2010. They argued the case on behalf of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, a private national group. More>

Federal judge strikes down Virginia’s ban on gay marriage
Reuters 

The American Foundation for Equal Rights, which brought the Virginia case, said Allen’s ruling upheld core U.S. principles of equality. More>

Virginia’s Gay Marriage Ban Ruled Unconstitutional by Judge
Bloomberg

The Norfolk case has assumed a high profile partly because attorneys for the plaintiffs included Theodore Olson and David Boies, adversaries in the contested 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. More>

Virginia judge strikes down gay marriage ban
USA Today 

Olson, Boies and state Solicitor General Stuart Raphael joined forces at the hearing in Wright Allen’s court. More>

Court strikes down Va. gay marriage ban
The Hill 

Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin also framed the ruling as another step forward. “Yet another court has upheld the fundamental idea that gay and lesbian Americans are entitled to full equality under the law,” he said in a statement. More>

Judge deems Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional
CNN 

“These laws deny Plaintiffs their rights to due process and equal protection guaranteed under the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution,” U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen wrote in her opinion. More>

Norfolk couple thanks court for same-sex marriage ruling
WAVY TV 

Arguments Heard in Federal Challenge of Virginia’s Same-Sex Marriage Ban

“This has the potential to change the opportunities for gay and lesbian citizens in a large number of Southern states,” Mr. Boies said after the hearing.The Norfolk case, Bostic v. Rainey, was brought on behalf of two couples.

…

Tim Bostic, an English professor, and Tony London, a real estate agent, said in the teleconference that they had been together 24 years and, “We want to be married like everyone else.”

Mary Townley, an expert in special education, and Carol Schall, an education professor, said they had been together for 30 years and have a 15-year-old. They wed in California in 2008, but their marriage is not recognized in Virginia. Read more >

Federal judge pledges quick ruling on Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban

“Marriage is not all about children,” [Ted] Olson said. “It is about freedom; it is about liberty.”

Judges have a duty to be suspicious of decisions by the majority that single out groups that have historically been the victims of discrimination, Olson said.

“Sometimes the voters and the legislature get it wrong,” and the result violates the constitution, Olson told [Judge] Wright Allen. “So, we have you.”

The lawsuit is brought on behalf of two Virginia couples. Timothy Bostic and Tony London have lived together for more than 20 years and were denied a marriage license last summer by Norfolk Circuit Court Clerk George E. Schaefer. Mary Townley and Carol Schall of Chesterfield County were married in California and have a teenage daughter. They want Virginia to recognize their marriage. Read more >

Virginia Gay-Marriage Ban Faces Boies-Olson Litigation Team

Boies, one of the country’s best-known litigators, and Olson, a senior Justice Department official under Republican President Ronald Reagan, will face lawyers for two county court clerks and the state’s Registrar of Vital Statistics. Read More >

Case Challenging Gay-Marriage Ban Heard in Va.

In a case that could give gay marriage its first foothold in the old Confederacy, a federal judge will hear arguments Tuesday on whether Virginia’s ban on gay marriage should be struck down – the position the state’s newly elected Democratic attorney general has endorsed, angering many Republican lawmakers. Read more >

U.S. court to hear lawsuit against Virginia gay marriage ban

In 2006, 57 percent of Virginians voted in favor of the constitutional ban. But reflecting the swing in public opinion, a poll released in October by Virginia’s Christopher Newport University showed that 56 percent of likely voters opposed the ban, while 36 percent favored it. Read More >

Loving v. Virginia all over again

“In short, supporting straight marriage does not require stifling gay marriage. The only remaining reasons to stifle it, then, are reasons government cannot embrace: a desire to preserve the traditional institution of marriage and to express moral disapproval of homosexuality. But preserving tradition and expressing disapproval are not valid grounds for circumscribing individual rights.” Read more >

Landmark same-sex marriage case will be heard Tuesday

“Although we’ve been together for more than two decades, we want our relationship to be recognized just like everyone else’s — we want to be married,” [Plaintiff Tim Bostic] said. “And it’s important to us that as Virginians, that we get married in the state that we love, and the state we’ve called home for so long.” Read more >

Couples fight to overturn Va. ban on gay marriage

“We’re not doing it just for us… we’re doing it for all Virginians who want marriage equality,” plaintiff Mary Townley said. Read more >

Same-sex marriage ban goes before federal court in Norfolk

“I’m feeling great. Glad to be here. A lot of people worked hard along the way to get us here,” AFER Plaintiff Tom Bostic said in front of the courthouse Tuesday morning. Read more >

Lawyers Olson and Boies want Virginia as same-sex marriage test case
The Washington Post

The legal team that overturned California’s ban on same-sex marriage is targeting Virginia to launch another challenge aimed at convincing the Supreme Court that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry no matter where they live. More >

Ted Olson, David Boies Team Up Again To Make Virginia For All Lovers
U.S. News & World Report

“I’m a Virginian, I’ve lived in Virginia for 32 years,” Olson said. “I’ve come to really love Virginia – it’s natural beauty, the entrepreneurial spirit of its people, it’s history, the state of Patrick Henry and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the state of the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal. Of all places in the United States, Virginia should recognize rights of equality.” More >

Prop. 8 legal team joins fight against Virginia’s gay marriage ban
Los Angeles Times

“As a Virginian and a conservative, I believe these [marriage discrimination] laws stand against the very principles of our nation’s founding,” Ted Olson said. More >

Boies & Olson Reteam for VA Gay Marriage Case
Bloomberg Law

The Virginia case is a step beyond the California one. In California, courts had found gays had a right to marry before the state’s voters prohibited same-sex marriage. In Virginia, no such court decision had been made. More >

Legal team that challenged Calif. ban on gay marriage takes aim at Virginia’s prohibition
The Associated Press

Virginia gave us the first marriage equality case — and the one that most clearly established that the right to marry the person you love is a fundamental right of all Americans,” David Boies said in a statement. “It’s fitting, then, that Virginia be the battleground for another great test of that principal.”

Lawyers hope win in California will open Virginia to same-sex marriage
UPI

Olson and Boles have joined attorneys representing Timothy Bostic and Tony London of Norfolk and Carol Schall and Mary Townley. More >

Prop 8 Team, Ted Olson And David Boies, To Fight Virginia Marriage Ban
BuzzFeed

Olson and AFER often pointed to Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 Supreme Court case striking down Virginia’s law banning interracial marriage, as a model for their action in California. Now, Olson, Boies and AFER are going directly to Virginia to fight their next case. More >

Lawyers Target Virginia as Same-Sex Battleground
Newsmax

The legal team that took California’s Proposition 8 to the Supreme Court have chosen Virginia as the battleground which they hope will legalize gay marriage nationwide.

Prop. 8 Legal Team Sets Sights on Va. Marriage Ban
The Advocate

Ted Olson and David Boies, the bipartisan legal team that successfully argued against California’s Proposition 8 at the Supreme Court, have signed on to a federal challenge to Virginia’s ban on marriage equality.

Olson, Boies join Virginia marriage lawsuit
Washington Blade

“We aren’t asking for special privileges or treatment,” Towning said at the National Press Club press conference as she stood alongside Schall and their 15-year-old daughter Emily. “We just want to be the same as everyone else to be married.” More >

Prop. 8 is gone—for good. Gay and lesbian couples can once again get married in California.

This time, it’s permanent. There’s nothing anyone can do to take it away.

This past weekend, I was at San Francisco City Hall where volunteer clerks and justices of the peace made sure every couple that showed up could get married. It was an incredibly moving experience. Loving couples—who have waited so long—were finally able to exchange their vows and have them legally recognized by the state. And once they said “I do,” they were showered with flowers and an eruption of applause.

Because of the work we’ve done together, we’ve forever changed people’s lives.

The outpouring of support from people like you—our generous donors and vocal advocates—made our victory over Prop. 8 possible. Along every step of the way—from the historic District Court trial to the United States Supreme Court—together, we brought marriage equality back to California.

And now the public debate about marriage equality has been decided. Our nation’s High Court—and a majority of Americans—is on our side.

From our lead co-counsel, the incomparable Ted Olson and David Boies, our plaintiffs, the newly-married Kris Perry & Sandy Stier and Paul Katami & Jeff Zarrillo, and everyone on the AFER team, thank you.

Learn more about what happened. >

Prop. 8 Victory Celebration

Marriage Equality Restored in California

San Francisco Pride

1. San Francisco Chronicle

2. La Opinión

3. Los Angeles Daily News

4. Contra Costa Times

5. The Bakersfield Californian

6. Los Angeles Times

7. The Sacramento Bee

Earlier this week, Kris Perry went to Dickinson College in central Pennsylvania to share her story as a plaintiff in AFER’s case for marriage equality. The event was sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the college’s Student Senate Public Affairs Committee.

In the hour-long talk, Kris talked about what it was like to be at the Supreme Court two weeks ago, how she became a plaintiff, and what the experience has been like for her and her family.

Kris and her partner of over 13 years, Sandy Stier, live in Berkeley California and have four boys. Along with Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, the couple is challenging California’s ban on marriage for gay and lesbian couples on the grounds that it violated the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the 14^th Amendment. Learn more about Kris & Sandy’s story, watch Kris’s talk, and check out local media coverage:

The Patriot News:

Perry’s captive audience of mostly students of the Carlisle-based college listened to her personal account of her and her partner’s struggle for marriage equality, which began in 2008 in California with their challenge to Proposition 8, before landing before the Supreme Court.

Between now and July, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on two cases dealing with same-sex marriage: one testing the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, the other involving theDefense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage for federal purposes as the union of a man and a woman.

…

Proposition 8 and DOMA offer the Supreme Court an opportunity to affirm an ancient principle — equality before the law — in the context of contemporary social realities. The court should rule clearly and boldly.

Thirteen of the nation’s top fifteen papers have editorialized in support of marriage equality. Read the full editorial here.

USA Today

“When DOMA was passed in 1996, same-sex marriage was mostly theoretical. No state had legalized it. Now, thousands of gays are legally married, and the treatment DOMA imposes is explicitly inferior.” [12/10/12]

The New York Times

“The court should avoid that kind of error in the same-sex-marriage cases. It should broadly declare that under the Constitution the right to marry applies equally to all couples, period, and that this principle applies to the federal government and every state.” [03/25/13]

Los Angeles Times

“Time is on the side of same-sex marriage, as public attitudes are rapidly changing. But the court’s responsibility is not to anticipate what the public might do. It is to decide what the Constitution commands. Sometimes, as the brief filed by Boies and Olson reminds the court, that means protecting minorities from “majoritarian prejudice and indifference.” [11/29/12]

San Jose Mercury News

“It will be far better for the country if the high court comes down on the side of equal rights in a way that settles the matter quickly and cleanly and allows divisions on social issues to begin to heal. But the battle for marriage equality has been won. Now it’s just a matter of how the war will end.” [12/7/12]

The Washington Post

” Even if the direction is clear, the path toward a universal right to marriage equality remains long…Federal courts have ruled that the act deprives gay men and lesbians of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection…If the Supreme Court does enter the fray over gay marriage, it would do well to consider the results of Tuesday’s ballot questions and, more broadly, the clear trajectory of the nation’s shifting ¬attitudes.” [11/7/12]

Daily News

“The Maine and Maryland referendums — and likely one still undecided in Washington State — took matters one step further. The people themselves had their say, and they said, yes, ‘We do.’ That’s called democracy, and it’s a beautiful thing indeed.” [11/8/12]

Chicago Tribune

Marriage is “good for communities, since it minimizes the unwanted side effects of broken homes. Authorizing same-sex marriage also works to break down age-old prejudice, discrimination and even violence against gays.” [1/3/13]

Chicago Sun-Times

“It’s time for gay marriage in Illinois. Not in the distant future. Not in the near future. But now.” [12/16/12]

The Dallas Morning News

“We urge the Supreme Court to affirm the right of gay couples to marry based upon the fundamental American ideal of equality before the law.” [12/14/12]

Houston Chronicle

“The trends are becoming clear on marriage equality. After an election in which voters in four states supported same-sex marriage, and with polls consistently showing growing support for the cause, many conservatives are rethinking their opposition. The shift isn’t just about political expediency but honestly focusing on the future of the American family.” [2/1/13]

The Philadelphia Inquirer

“It is important that any same-sex-marriage law also protects the rights of religious institutions to decide, according to their tenets, who may be married within them. But that should not prevent same-sex couples from otherwise having their marriages recognized as legal.” [12/24/12]

The Arizona Republic

“The facts on the ground are undeniable. Gays and lesbians are forming families. They’re having children. They need the full rights and framework of family law.” [8/9/10]

The Denver Post

“And the growing tolerance for gay marriage has the potential to influence the public debate in positive ways. The nation is at a turning point when it comes to same-sex marriage.” [12/16/12]