Associate Press reports that gay marriage opponents have filed a lawsuit in California seeking an injunction against the city of San Francisco for illegally issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples over the past two days. The decision to issue the licenses was made by newly elected mayor Gavin Newsom, who was quoted on Good Morning America as saying, "I'm not interested as a mayor in moving forward with a separate but unequal process for people to engage in marriages," likening the situation to the segregated school system in the US following the controversial Plessy vs. Ferguson case mandating it in 1896. The overturning of this decision in 1954 in Brown vs. Board of Ed. is believed by many to be the first major victory in the civil rights movement.

California passed the Knight Initiative in 2000, effectively defining marriage as being only between a man and a woman. This lawsuit seeks to actively enforce that initiative, despite concerns by some (including Newsom) that it may be in direct violation of the 14th amendment to the US constitution.

This issue raises a host of questions: first, where is the logic in claiming to defend an institution that is clearly failing (with divorce rates surpassing 50%) by barring people from getting married? Second, why bring religion into a discussion that has a direct economic impact - there are over 1000 incentives in both state and federal law for getting married? And third, why won't religious groups leave the rest of us the fuck alone?