UPDATE: Judge dismisses challenge to wording of Prop 8. Both title and arguments included on the ballot will remain as proposed by the Secretary of State. [Link to decision]
A California trial court judge is likely to rule today in the challenges brought by both proponents and opponents of Prop 8, which would amend the state’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage. At a hearing yesterday, Judge Timothy Frawley of Sacramento Superior Court indicated that he was likely to reject the arguments of both sides and leave the language of the ballot measure as it has been proposed by the Secretary of State. Pro-SSM advocates wanted the office to cut out arguments by Prop 8 proponents that California schools would have to teach that SSM had the same validity as traditional marriage, unless voters adopted Prop 8. (See my earlier post) Anti-SSM advocates objected to the purpose of Prop 8 being phrased as “eliminating” the right of same-sex couples to marry rather than restoring or protecting traditional marriage. See details here.
Meanwhile in New York, Governor Paterson’s executive order directing state agencies to recognize out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples as valid under New York appears headed for validation as within his powers, as it certainly should.
Paterson Win On Gay Rites Looks Likely – August 8, 2008 – The New York Sun
By ABRAHAM RIESMAN, Special to the Sun | August 8, 2008
A New York Supreme Court judge seems poised to uphold Governor Paterson’s pro-gay marriage policies against an attack from a Christian legal group.
The Alliance Defense Fund has sued Mr. Paterson, claiming the governor overstepped his boundaries when he issued an executive order in May calling for state agencies to ensure recognition of same-sex unions performed legally outside of New York. Currently, such marriages cannot be legally performed in the state.
During oral arguments yesterday, Judge Lucy Billings sharply questioned the lawyer representing the group, Brian Raum.
The most heated exchange came over one of the Alliance Defense Fund’s key arguments: that the word “marriage” fundamentally means a bond between a man and a woman.
Mr. Raum argued that, if Mr. Paterson’s interpretation of New York law were to stand, “then marriage would mean nothing. It would mean whatever any foreign jurisdiction says.”
“Yes, it does mean that in New York,” Judge Billings replied. She said that there could be an exception if a certain marriage were deemed “abhorrent” but did not say gay marriages fit that definition.
Judge Billings also implied that she would rule against the Alliance Defense Fund, forcing them to appeal their case. “The petitioners, I’m sure, are headed to a higher court,” she said.
Recognition of out-of-state same-sex marriages has long been honored under New York common law. In 2006, the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, ruled that the state constitution does not explicitly require the recognition of gay marriages but left open the question of whether such marriages could be recognized.
The Alliance Defense Fund argues that Mr. Paterson would need a new law explicitly honoring out-of-state gay marriages in order to issue a directive like the one he made in May….
++++++
Nan Hunter, cross posted from hunter of justice
This clearly is an example of how women’s bodies have become the new battlegrounds for struggles over the proper place of religion and culture within a secular state. As Ayelet Shachar points out in scholarship, in many Western states with large immigrant communities, women are playing an important symbolic role as keepers of their culture. This has been particularly the case with regard to the Muslim community. It is not unusual for immigrants or refugees, living in Western society, to adopt a stricter set of belief systems and practices than they had practiced in their home countries, as a way to insulate members of their community from what they see as the negative effects of Westernization and assimilation, including crime, drugs and the decline of moral values. Shachar describes this tendency as”cultural reactivism”. Also, many Muslim women will tell you that they wear the veil as a form of protection, both in their country of origin and in the host society. The problem is, that these tendencies within immigrant communities are on a collision course with Western liberal values. As Sarah Song would probably point out, the French decision finding that she had not sufficiently assimilated because she had not bought into the core French value of “gender equality” masks all the inequalities of race and gender and class that still exist within many so-called liberal states. Also, what is required by Islam and by an immigrant community’s cultural values is often highly contested. The moral dilemma is that, while it may be dangerous to accommodate certain religious practices, because it may lead to increased isolation of immigrant women within these communities, not accommodating these practices may exclude many women and girls from public spaces, like schools and local government.
New York Magazine reports 
Bloggers at Degrasian comment on Bashir’s gaffe 
rthday to author Isabel Allende, who turns 66 today. In
Dave Zurin at the Huffington Post spoke to 
I couldn’t help wonder if the Kane’s criticism would apply to equally to the bikini shot of swimmer Dara Torres, this week’s cover of Time magazine (European edition). On the one hand, both are pictures of women in swim suits. Both pictures function to sell magazines. Both pictures invite us to contemplate the body of the photographed. But what makes the Time cover different is the absence of dumb props (no need to bring the race car driver’s helmet along on a swim); her pose is completely different; her swim suit is different (uh…there is a reason that you don’t want a white suit to get wet). And the invitations are different. “Look at me. I’m sexy!” vs. “Look at me. My body is amazing!” Or maybe the difference is in the eye of the consumer. My guess is that a 40-something male and a 40-something female respond quite differently to the each photo (let alone the magazines). At least I did. Go Dara Torres!
From the publisher
