Justice

Gay Marriage and the Power of Cities to Change the Country

What was once popular opinion – and public policy – in San Francisco could soon be the national norm.
Reuters

The story of the growing acceptance of marriage equality in the United States is a long one, but the more specific story of one of the seminal legal cases on the issue before the Supreme Court today has its roots in San Francisco on February 12, 2004.

That’s when the city’s then-mayor, Gavin Newsom, made the startling decision – without a legal ruling on his side, or even a local vote pushing the change – that San Francisco would begin granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Only a year earlier, the Supreme Court had struck down sodomy laws as unconstitutional. But the gulf between that federal stance (gays can’t be jailed for having sex) and San Francisco’s (gays can marry) was massive.