Yesterday the California State Supreme Court ruled that the same-sex marriage licenses issued in San Francisco were invalid.

It makes me sad to think this inequality still exists.

If "marriage" is considered a sacred religious act, then the state should have nothing to do with it. That nothing would include allowing benefits, from the public or private sector, related to the status of being married. Each church would continue deciding on its own whether their followers could be married by that church or not. Simply, being married shouldn't get you anything being single can't. And the converse, there shouldn't be any penalty for being married, like inequalities in income tax rates.

If legally there needs to be some sort short cut for benefits status', for wills, insurance claims, power of attorney etc. (which actually all can be dealt with without being married, it just takes more paperwork), then there should be some separate relationship that the state handles, the "civil union" example. If you get a civil union, then there's an automatic person who is the default for inheratance, etc. That would be issued by the state, and would be totally separate from a religious marriage.

So, I'm sad that committed, loving same-sex couple cannot receive the same benefits as opposite-sex couples.

*But* I have to agree with the ruling that public officials can't just arbitrarily ignore laws that they disagree with or think are bad. They've got to work to change them within the system just like everyone else. If just any official could decide what to ignore and not, we'd soon have things like the President ignoring the Constitution when it suited him...oh, wait.... Crap....

I look forward to a day when this inequality doesn't exist, and its looked back upon as the anachronistic thing it is.