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Rally for Prop 8 decision

A rally in response to the overturning of Proposition 8 was set for 6 p.m. in downtown Mountain View, shortly after the Voice went to press. Go to www.MV-Voice.com for coverage of the "decision day" demonstration.

The Santa Clara County chapter of Marriage Equality USA planned the rally to coincide with the day a federal judge in San Francisco issued a decision in a lawsuit challenging a state ban on gay marriages. On Wednesday, Aug. 4, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker overturned Proposition 8, California's voter initiative prohibiting same-sex marriage.

"We're expecting a peaceful and positive rally," said chapter spokesman Ray Hixson. "We want to be the change we want to see. We stand for equality and peace and love."

Judge Walker said Proposition 8 violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection. Supporters of Proposition 8 have already announced that they will appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Walker ruled in a lawsuit filed last year by two same-sex couples. The case, which the judge decided without a jury, was the nation's first federal trial on a challenge under the U.S. Constitution to a state ban on gay marriage.

==I Bay City News Service contributed to this report.==