Rally Celebrates Gay Marriage

Hundreds gathered Wednesday afternoon at the Mountain View Caltrain station to participate in a celebratory march to City Hall on Castro Street due to today's historic U.S. Supreme Court's decisions striking down the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8.

Organized by the Marriage Equality USA Santa Clara County Chapter, the demonstration began on Evelyn Avenue and proceeded peacefully with participants holding signs and chanting.

The placards read, "Marriage equality," and "Marry who you love," and the crowd repeated in unison, "Yes, we can," "With liberty and justice for all," and "Gay, straight, black, white, marriage is a civil right."

Raymond H. Hixson, the leader of the group holding a loudspeaker, said the event was meant to celebrate a huge day in civil rights' history due to the two major rulings handed down by the highest Court in the land.

One of them struck down section 3 of the DOMA, which means same-sex couples now have equal rights under federal law.

In that case, NY resident Edith Windsor would have had to pay $360,000 in state taxes based on inheritance from her spouse who died in 2009 after they had been together since 1963.

"This also affects immigration rights. It affects whether you're able to be buried next to your spouse in a military cemetery. It affects over 1,100 federal law rights," Hixson explained, who works as an employment attorney.

"Now there's equality for married same-sex couples under federal law," he said.

Also, Proposition 8, which was struck down by a federal district court judge in 2010, was once again dismissed when SCOTUS ruled today that there's no standing for an appeal. The decision reinstated the judge's original ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

"Marriage equality will be returning to California," he said.

After arriving at the steps below City Hall, the crowd heard from a variety of speakers such as Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, Abigail Schairer, a minister with the Center for Spiritual Living in the Peninsula, and other political and spiritual leaders as well as members of the public.

Hixson said he grew up in Tennessee and was inadvertently harmed by his parents when they made him attend a church where he was "brainwashed" into thinking that "being gay was evil. Somehow it was my choice. That set me back quite a bit. Because of that homophobia I absorbed, it took me until I was 37 years old to come out of the closet."

Hixson said many years of his life "were not lived to the fullest potential because I was hiding in the closet until I overcame that."

The law, he noted, had a lot to do with the challenges he faced growing up because it intimidated people. "I was terrorized to come out. I finally did it in 2006."

Erin McGauley-Hebard said the rulings meant that 30 percent of Americans now live in a place where they can marry the person whom they love. "I'm celebrating. A lot of my friends will now be able to get married. They haven't been able to, or their marriages will be recognized."

McGauley-Hebard added she was rallying with like-minded people "because 70 percent of Americans are still waiting for the right to marry the person they love."

The San Jose teacher said many gay couples can't marry because they live in states where same-sex marriage has not been recognized or have laws banning it.

Matthew SeyMour, who also teaches in San Jose schools, said he was openly gay and a devout Christian.

"I've been out for about five years, since 2008. I was at a rally when Proposition 8 was overturned and my photo was posted on NBC without asking me. I was outed to my family then," he said. "I've been fighting this fight for a long time. I know it's not over yet, but I will celebrate the victories when they come."