Last Wednesday, while most of us were either still wasting away at work or in the process of making our escape, something big (read: HUGE) happened in California.

At around 2PM on the West Coast, Proposition 8, the law that defined marriage in California as valid only when it’s between a man and a woman, was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court judge.  The ruling basically restored a civil right that had finally been recognized for gays and lesbians by a California Supreme Court decision in 2008, then stripped away again in November when the (dangerously uninformed) voters in California passed it with 52% of the vote (on the same night we elected our first African American President, mind you).

If you’ve ever been discriminated against or love someone who has been discriminated against; if you believe in justice or have any interest at all in the idea of equality, this is a victory for you, too.  So, CHEERS!

What happened on Wednesday was the FIRST court test in the U.S. of a state’s right to prohibit same-sex marriage.

And right now, the good guys are winning.

Here are the basics:

Back in May of 2009, the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) challenged the legitimacy of Prop 8 in a federal court on behalf of two same-sex couples: Kristin Perry and Sandra Steir, a lesbian couple that is raising four kids together and just celebrated their 10^th anniversary, and Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo, a gay couple who have been together nine years.  These brave souls, the heroes of this story, basically volunteered to take on the huge responsibility of being the plaintiffs that could make it or break it for gay marriage.

Lawyers for the couples include Ted Olson and David Boies.  If you’re into politics, you may recognize these guys as the lawyers who fought on opposite sides during the Bush v. Gore case that decided the 2000 election.  Olson, who represented George W. Bush in that trial, is widely considered one of the top conservative attorneys in the U.S. (who reeeeally hated Clinton, by the way), so the fact that he took on the enormity that is this case on the behalf of the same-sex couples goes a long way to show that this is not a partisan issue and it’s not a liberal or conservative issue.  This is about constitutional civil rights.  Human rights.

The suit was technically filed against a couple of county clerks and state officials, including the Governator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Interestingly, Schwarzenegger and his Attorney General REFUSED to defend Prop 8, saying it was up to the courts to decide. [We found out later that Arnold was really against it the whole time, but needed to stay neutral for the sake of same tired, bullshit politics.]  This left the defending of Prop 8 up to the people who came up with it in the first place:  insane, religious Conservatives.

Attorneys for the couples set out to prove three things:

1. Marriage is a fundamental right.
2. Depriving gay and lesbian citizens of a right to marry harms them and harms their children.
3. Depriving gays and lesbians of a right to marry could not, in any way, help heterosexual marriage.  (AT ALL. EVER.)

(SPOILER ALERT:  They proved all three.)

Olson, Boies and the rest of the team presented a total of NINE expert (including psychologists, philosophers, and historians) and EIGHT non-expert witnesses.  The mound of evidence these 17 testimonies created involved everything from politics and economics to the history of marriage and personal experiences with discrimination.

These guys obviously came to win.

The defendants, on the other (crazier) hand, took the position that their opponents were the ones responsible for making a case against Prop 8, so they didn’t have to do much in the way of “work.”  They ended up only calling TWO witnesses.  [This is where it gets hilarious.] One of these witnesses (essentially 50% of their entire defense) was David Blankenhorn, whom was presented as an “expert.”  What makes him an expert, one might ask?  Well he’s the founder of the Institute for American Values who has written not one, but two(!) books on marriage and has a “master’s degree in the history of labor relations with particular focus on 19th century Britain.”  Not only has this man NOT conducted any research of his own, but he spent seven hours  on the stand trying to explain how gay marriage would result in higher rates of divorce, one-parent homes, and alternative family forms (including polygamy), at the end which he admitted that he had NO EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT ANY OF THIS.  I shit you not, folks.

The icing on the hypocritical cake:  A few months after the conclusion of the trial, Mr. Blankenhorn admitted that he had used George Rekers’ “work” as research in prepping for his testimony.  You may remember Mr. Rekers from a sexy little story that the Miami New Times broke and eventually ended up splashed across publications all over the world .  Rekers, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, was the “scientific advisor” of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuals, an organization that offers gays and lesbians “conversion therapy” to “change” them into heterosexuals.   Rekers and his buddies believe homosexuality is a mental disorder and their therapy includes vomit-inducing drugs and electric shock to the genitals.  Yes, you read that correctly.

Here’s George and his Rentboy, minutes after arriving at MIA from a ten day European vacation filled with tons of “special,” sensual massages and (of course) sight-seeing!

After months of going over the evidence and hearing closing arguments from both sides, Judge Vaughn Walker finally announced his ruling last week.  In 138 pages of some of the best, most scathing writing you’ll read all year, Walker completely dismantled the defense’s case.  He tore apart every single assertion presented by the proponents of Prop 8, obliterated the credibility of their witnesses and concluded that there was NO JUSTIFICATION OR RATIONAL BASIS for the unequal treatment of gay and lesbian individuals with respect to marriage.  NONE.  NADA.

And this is exactly what the cause needed.  In order to survive the appeals process, Walker needed to put out powerful, thorough opinion… and dude DELIVERED.

Awesome.  Now what?

This was the first step in a really long process.  Because the stakes are so high, each side is pretty much vowing to keep taking it farther if they lose.  The Prop 8 side had already filed with the appeals court by the end of the day on Wednesday.   Once it gets through the appeals process, the only place left to go is the U.S. Supreme Court, which would force our justices to finally address the issue and decide once and for all whether same-sex couples have the right to marry.

So in about a year or two, our gay and lesbian family and friends are going to get their day in court.  It may not sound like a big deal to most of us down here in Miami right now, but real change is officially on its way.  Last Wednesday was one of those days that kids are going to get quizzed on in History in a few years; the first part in the story about how gay and lesbian citizens of The United States of America finally got their government to recognize them as equals.