all or most of the same rights and obligations provided by law to married partners" (France, 2/2000 p1). The court’s decision was a huge win for proponents of gay marriage, however, it has not granted an actual marriage license yet, which is what a couple will really need in the eyes of federal and other state laws. The latest and probably hottest debate over this issue has been in California. In the beginning of March 2000, California voters approved a ballot measure recognizing only those marriages between men and women (Tharp, 3/2000 p1). Entitled Proposition 22, this ballot won by a 61-39 percent margin. Until this point, state law had required California to validate unions legally performed in other states. This ban, however, will make any same-sex union invalid in California. Ironically, same-sex marriages are not currently legal anywhere in the United States. Therefore, Proposition 22 is quite possibly "jumping the gun." Opponents of P-22 state that "gays’ right to marry, though rejected by most churches, should be preserved in secular society—and an individualistic tradition that impedes political organizations" (Egelko, 3/3000 p3). It has also been called "barbaric" and "mean-spirited." The individuals who have been backing this type of legislation include conservatives and religious leaders who have historically been undermining the basic individual rights of gays and lesbians for years; a fact that makes it very hard to believe this is not an attempt to hurt or discriminate against gay and lesbian people. Whether the recent legislation is anti-gay or pro-straight is still to be decided. One thing is evident, though, it highlights an anxiety that may very well be produced by the marital state of our current society. As Naomi Wolf states in her article "Scenes from a Gay Marriage":With fifty percent of first marriages ending in divorce, the institution of straight marriage has broken down. I...
