Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi

US TV show host, Ellen DeGeneres, was deeply displeased to find out about the results of the California gay marriage voting.

DeGeneres, who married to actress Portia de Rossi in August 2008, does not know what to say about this law. After America has just chosen its first Black president, they put a ban on same-sex marriages, although they had allowed it in the past.

The TV host is happy that she did manage to legally get married with her life partner, but she is sad when she thinks of all the other gay couples out there who had planned their wedding for this year.

She had given 100,000 dollars to the gay rights movement who was fighting against Proposition 8, but all their hopes were gone yesterday, when the Court amended the state constitution and prohibited same-sex marriages.

Same-sex Wedding Cake Toppers

The judicial situation of the almost 18,000 married gay couples in California has turned quite complicated since a few days ago.

This past 4th of November it has been approved – with a majority of 53% – a law that is to modify the State Constitution and not allow gay coupled to get legally married anymore.

It is the second time when this issue comes under discussion. Last time it got to a voting issue was in 2000, when Californians defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but the Supreme Court declared that law unconstitutional in June, 2007.

Now the voters have decided to change the fundamental law; for all the gay movement freedom fighters it is the end of a long and painful legal battle.

For the moment, gay couples will not be able to legally marry in the State of California; but the issue is what will happen to those who already have a marriage certificate.

Same-sex Married Couple

After months of legal battles, the gay and lesbian couples in the state of Connecticut have won the war – the Supreme Court of Connecticut has ruled that they do have the right to get married.

Taking Massachusetts and California as precedents, eight same-sex couples have asked for the right to say “I do” in Connecticut as well. This sentence only comes to recognize what the American constitution stated in the first place: the right of citizens to be treated equally when they apply for marriage license, not depending on their sexual orientation.

The court said it was only the right decision, as ruling against it would have meant applying different set of rules to gay people and to all the other.

But things are not as bright as they may seem; gay and lesbian couples in Connecticut may have the right to get married, but The Defense of Marriage Act (1996), does not allow the federal recognition of their union, and does not give them the same treatment when it comes to Social Security, taxes and immigration issues.

Ever since 2005, civil unions have been allowed in Connecticut, but also in Vermont, New Jersey and New Hampshire; but Connecticut has now taken a step forward and legally allow same-sex marriages.

Eight couples have sued the state for same marriage rights as all the others, and the suit was called Kerrigan and Mock v. the Connecticut Department of Public Health, after the couple which was most strongly involved in this initiative.