SSM PROPONENTS DECRY OPPONENTS' CLAIMS IN CALIF. CASE: From the Associated Press

Proponents of gay marriage told a judge that arguments over whether marriage is designed to foster procreation and whether gays make good parents are irrelevant to their case.

Twelve couples are suing to get California to overturn its statutory ban on gay marriage, a response to legal claims of two Christian groups.

In briefs filed Friday, the couples' lawyers pointed out to Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer that California's Legislature and Supreme Court have already settled the procreation-parenting question by allowing gays to have children through adoption or reproductive technology.

"California's public policy unambiguously rejects the notion that families headed by same-sex couples provide a harmful or inferior environment for children, and unambiguously has embraced the premise that same-sex children and their children should be treated equally," they wrote . ...

The Christian groups, the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund and the Campaign for California Families, adopted Lockyer's reasoning and took it a step further, arguing that the state should maintain the status quo because "children do best with both a mother and a father."

The couples, who are represented by lawyers from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, said the groups' claim amounts to gender discrimination.

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posted by Eve at 3:19 PM VOTE

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