California: gay people have right to marry

I’m blogging lite, as you know, but must while in the U.S. of A. mention the decision of the California Supreme Court, which has ruled that gay people have a constitutional right to marry their same-sex partners, just as opposite-sex couples do.

The responses of the candidates for the White House are interesting: I have sympathy for McCain’s view that this should be a matter for political decision, not for judges; but also for the view of Obama and Clinton, that civil unions equivalent to marriage would be a good way forward, as the UK and many other European countries have already found. The difference between them is subtle, but clear – while McCain would simply leave this to the States (a much more liberal position than many Republicans would take, many of them wanting a constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage), his Democratic opponents would encourage civil unions. The question for social liberal is, how hard would they encourage them?