 Ladies and gentlemen, we've started in about a minute here. Just to let you know, you'll be first hearing from Chad Griffin, who's the board president of the American Foundation for People Rights. He will be followed by Chris Perry, the main candidate for the case. Sandy Steer, who is Chris's partner and also planned. Jeff Zarello, also planned for the case. Paul Katami, also planned for the case. Theodore Wilson, lead attorney in the case. David Boyce, lead attorney in the case. And City Attorney Dennis Herrera will also speak. There will also be Q&A, and also on the stage is Terry Stewart, the Chief Deputy City Attorney of the City Attorney of San Francisco. We'll also have paper distributed right after looking at Chad's everyone's name and spelling, all that sort of thing. We'll get started just a minute. I stand before you today in awe of this decisive moment. With hope for the future and promises, and with immense pride in the founding ideals of this nation. Today, the federal court gave hope to millions of Americans across this country who face the steam of official discrimination. Today, our system of justice has said to the nation, all Americans are entitled to the same freedoms. All Americans are worthy of the full weight and protection of our laws. And all Americans are accorded equal rights under the Constitution. This is not our first victory, and it's not our last battle. But today, as we have done at each moment in the long struggle for freedom and equality, we affirm that this is a nation that lives up to its historic promise, a nation of liberty and justice for all. No one is more driven by that principle of justice than the two remarkable attorneys who partnered with the American Foundation for Equal Rights to lead this legal battle, Teddles, David Boyce, and their teams. We would not be here without their extraordinary talents, their patriotism, and their unshakable commitment to this cause. Ted and David, thank you. I am also deeply grateful to our supporters. Those who are with us here today, as well as those joining our celebration online, you realize that everyone has a stake in today's ruling. Because any denial of freedom to anyone undermines the principles on which this country was founded and undermines freedom for everyone, everywhere. We came to this moment because two American families, two loving families, decided to challenge the notion that their commitment could only be second class in the eyes of the law. Paul and Jeff and Chris and Sandy simply want the same thing that millions of Americans cherish as the most important, most fulfilling, and most stabilizing influence in their lives, marriage. They simply want to enjoy the same rights and fulfill the same responsibilities as other American couples. And our government should not and must not stand in their way. That is the promise of our Declaration of Independence, that we are a nation that believes every man and woman is endowed by their creator with inalienable rights. Those rights are guarded and sustained by the Constitution, not by government officials, not by elected officials, and certainly not by ballot initiatives. Our rights are fundamental. They're the birthright of every American. That's why the American Foundation for Equal Rights took up this landmark case. We challenged in a court of law the flawed unconstitutional arguments that long have been used to deny Americans their rights. That gay marriage, the love between two adults is somehow a danger to society. That how we are born, our sexual orientation, not our love or personal commitment, somehow defines marriage. That state-sponsored discrimination is somehow justified and should be institutionalized with respect to marriage. And after a lengthy trial, a fair trial, the court rejected the false logic that has been used for so many years to rationalize that blatant discrimination. But this trial did more than expose that false logic. It embraced the fundamental American values of freedom and fairness. It upheld the notion that the greatness of this country lies in the ability of each successive generation to broaden the scope of freedom, to deepen the notion of liberty, and to strengthen the very principle of justice. Today's decision affirms that under the Constitution, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people cannot discriminate against the people. This decision strengthens marriage by expanding it to include couples that seek it and who would benefit from it. This decision reaffirms the power of marriage to strengthen responsibility and community and to ensure that all Americans in their golden and vulnerable years will be able to live their lives with more security, more dignity, and more love. But there's another powerful consequence of this decision that I hope all Americans take into account. Today, there are millions of gay people across the country. They are your neighbors, your friends, and your family. They see how marriage strengthens the bonds of family and community, and they wonder, can they ever have that same strength and stability? Or will their government continue to say that marriage is not for them? Today's decision gives gay Americans the hope and strength and comfort that they too can have a future filled with love, commitment, and shared responsibility. And so today, we begin the process of saying to the millions of people who are made to feel ostracized, besieged, bullied, and ashamed of how God made them, be who you are, love who you love, and marry who you wish to marry. As gay and street citizens take to the streets in celebration here in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Dallas, and New York, I know there are millions who must celebrate quietly across America. Places where merely taking the hand of a loved one still feels like a revolutionary act. To those quiet millions, to the teenager in Bakersfield who bakes for acceptance, to the college student in Salt Lake who only seeks liberty and equality, and to the couple in Topeka who longs to openly share their commitment and love, this victory is for you. Because in ending the public sanctioning of discrimination in our laws, we render unacceptable the private discrimination you must bear. This is not the only victory needed to close that gap between the lives you lead and the lives you deserve, but it's a critical victory, one that honors the principles that define America. The principles that stirred a convention in Seneca Falls, the principles that fueled tireless marches through Selma, Birmingham, and Washington, DC, the principles that sparked the fires of resistance at the Stonewall Inn, and the principles that inspire us in this urgent struggle to uphold the right to life, liberty, love, and the pursuit of happiness. The American Foundation for Equal Rights will continue to stand up and fight for these principles for these founding constitutional rights of all Americans until we truly are one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Sandy and I want to thank our family first. Our children and our parents for understanding the importance of having the right to choose. They didn't choose this relationship for us. They didn't choose this life for us, but they support and understand that having the right to choose changes your entire life. And for that, we're very grateful. I also want to thank Chad and Ted and David and every single person that helped the legal team with this victory because you've changed our lives in a way that I can't quite fully appreciate at this moment. And I want to thank Jeff and Paul because you're changing the world too. With this decision, the system worked. Our courts are supposed to protect our constitutional rights today they did. Today, every American should be proud. For so long, Sandy and I and our family have been regarded as less than, unequal, not worthy of liberty and the pursuit of happiness under the law. But this decision says that we are Americans too. We too should be treated equally. Our family is just as loving, just as real, and just as valid as everyone else's. Today, Sandy and I live in a wonderfully tolerant community surrounded by incredible neighbors and friends. We have solid careers and we own our own home. But I grew up in Bakersfield, California and I know what it means to be discriminated against. I know that feeling firsthand and it's tough. In fact, growing up in a place where you don't get to know your real self is incredibly difficult. And I hope that our effort here will change those children's lives, not only in Bakersfield but across California and across the United States. We want to make a small contribution to that effort. So this decision does make our state better. It makes our nation better. It makes our world better. Today, Sandy and I are truly an odd of what's changing in our lives right before our eyes. And I want to thank Sandy for showing me what it means to be loved and how powerful hope and optimism are in our family and in this case. I would like you to come up for a few minutes. Well, thank you, Chris, what a lovely introduction and everywhere she said resonates with me and I think would resonate with many others as well. Thank you all for being here today. It's wonderful to look out and see such friendly faces. Chad, Ted, and David, thank you for working so hard. We're amazed and awed by your commitment and dedication of what you've accomplished and we know that there is yet more to do. I have to say I will never forget this day. I'll never forget this entire experience. Wow. Chris and I have been together for a long time over 10 years. We've raised children together. We have a home. We do the activities every other family does. We have professional careers. We're very busy. But because of Prop 8, our lives have been incomplete without having access to legal marriage and today's decision does point toward the final piece that we've been waiting for with as much patience as possible. For me, this decision means equal protection under the law which means an equal opportunity to vary the person that I love, the person that I choose, the person that I want to spend my life with and it's what I want for us but everyone else as well. Tomorrow, I will wake up and have a normal day. We'll do things around the house, checking on kids, go to work, just like I do every other day but tomorrow we'll feel different because tomorrow I will have a sense of security that I haven't been able to experience in the past. Tomorrow, because of this decision, I will know that we are treated in the law just like everybody else. Since I've met Chris, I have been waiting for this day, this moment, never could have imagined it, when we could be legally married, not just in our eyes, which is in our friends and family who love and support us but legally a signed, sealed, delivered legal marriage. I'd like to thank you all for your support and while we realize that there are other courts that will have to weigh in on this decision, we do know that tonight, today, we can go to sleep knowing that our hopes and our dreams to build our family and have legal marriage can be realized in our closer to becoming trill. So again, thank you all very much and thank you so much to this amazing group of people that I've surrounded by today. Thank you for being here. I want to start by sending our fearless leader, Mr. Griffin, right there, and our incomparable attorneys, not just taking David, who are a great deal of that incomparability, but also the amazing team that supported him. We'd also like to thank Ather and also we'd like to thank my parents and the family and friends that have supported us. We've had so many incredible new friends on this journey and we want to thank them for their support as well. I grew up in New Jersey and was blessed to have a family that loved and supported me. I was raised to believe in the American dream that if you worked hard and you played by the rules, everyone got an equal shot. Well, today, nowhere is that American dream more real than in the state of California. It was really devastating for Paul and I to be viewed unequally in the eyes of our fellow citizens and our government. But we're not here to change the world. Equality is something that our nation has always been about. We've read about it in school. Our ancestors came to this country in search of it. Well, this decision today brings Paul and I and so many others like us closer to that equality too. We understand that this decision is just the beginning and we're on our way to the Supreme Court. But we know that we have the law, the incredible people you see behind you and so many more on our side. Thank you. And I'd like to introduce my soon to be husband, Paul. Thank you, Jeff, for setting me up for a cry fest. It's gonna be fun. I've already labeled the emotional one so why not continue that? Today is a very good day. Jeff and I have been together for almost 10 years and like any other couple that has been that long, together we desire to be married. But under the law of Proposition Eight, although it recognizes and honors the marriages of our friends and our neighbors, it puts us in a different category. Now I believe that we live in a nation of equal laws and today's decision affirms my belief. Jeff and I are blessed to have families and friends and neighbors who support us. And it's still difficult for us to describe how it feels when the law and your government tells you that you're unworthy or you're unequal. And I can't help but imagine the people whose families are not like ours, whose communities are less tolerant. And I just wanna say that this case is equally about them as it is about us. We want them to know that they're not alone, we're working for them, and that countless people across the country have come together through this case to advance equal rights, to ensure that every single American is treated the way our founders wanted us to be treated, that we are all, all of us created equally. So we're waiting for that day where you don't have to go to court to fight for your constitutional rights. We're waiting for the day when we can be married. It's as simple as that. And Jeff and I firmly believe in our constitution and we believe that our rights will be vindicated once and for all. But none of this would have been possible without the amazing work of David and Ted, Chad and the entire team that so firmly believed in equality. So I wanna thank them for their hard work and for the hard work ahead to get this through the Supreme Court, which I firmly believe we will prevail in. So along this ride, we've met so many people. There's so many people out there across the country that have been supporting us and some of those people are listening to us right now. And we just wanna say thank you for your support. We need that support and we need that community. And based on that, we have today's victory and we will continue our fight to Washington and to the Supreme Court. Thank you so much for being here. And without further ado, one part of the duo of the Dream Team, Ted Olson. Come up to the level that you've already earned from Chad and the emotional content of the experience that we've been through since we began this case, not too much more than a year ago, cannot be described, but you can see and feel some of it today. I thank each of you for being here today because you are the press. You are the ears and the eyes and the voices for the American people who would not have been at that trial. Many, some Americans, didn't were able to come, but your cameras would not have been there. And we felt from the beginning that it was unfortunate that every American would not have seen this trial, seen the experts talk about the value of marriage, the history of discrimination, the value of equality and all of the things that this case involves, including love and commitment and respect and decency and honor the things that our clients have been fighting for and not just fighting for themselves, but for fighting for so tens of thousands of people in this state and around the United States. It is great that this happens in San Francisco, that propositions overturned by a federal judge in San Francisco. It really means a lot because San Francisco has always been there fighting for gay and lesbian individuals and the city of Cali in San Francisco you will hear from in a moment. Fought with us all the way to attain this result. This is a victory for the American people. It's a victory for our justice system when our individual rights are taken away when the majority decides that an unpopular group of individuals should be treated differently. And they can't succeed at the ballot box because they are unpopular because they are minority because they are viewed differently by a number of people in the populace. They turn to the courts of the United States and we have spectacular constitution that values equality and values fundamental rights and values of independent judiciary to protect and vindicate those rights. I have to say that this case has been phenomenal because the chief judge of the federal district court of the northern district of California, San Francisco Chief Judge Von Walker, handles his case with meticulous care, with sensitivity, with concern about the rights of every party in that courtroom on both sides. Listen to the evidence. Many of you were there during the course of the trial. Many of you have in your hands 138 pages of analysis of all of the evidence, the legal arguments. This is what American justice is all about. When a judge, an independent judge tries hard to listen to all of the evidence, analyze the issues and comes to a conclusion and vindicates the rights of a minority of our citizens to be treated with decency and respect and equality in our system. We are so grateful for the justice system that brought us to this moment today as others have said before me. We have other battles ahead of us but with this decision, carefully analyzing the evidence, we are well on our way toward an ultimate victory and that nothing could be better for the American people, the people of California, in particular the people of San Francisco. We'll be answering your questions. Just a system, right? And I want to begin by commending Chuck Cooper and his team who represented the defendants in this case. They were able and energetic advocates for their cause and Ted and I appreciate the professionalism with which they brought to this task. It's also, I want to commend our trial team. Ted and I and Terry who were up front a lot of the time could not have been there without the many, many people that gives none in culture at Roy Schiller and Flexner and at the office of the city and county of San Francisco. All of them devoted enormous time and effort and commitment. Ted and I are also particularly conscious of the fact that we have an opportunity to be here because of years and indeed decades of sacrifice and commitment of many people who went before us who fought a lot of the hard battles and things were even more difficult, who made the kind of accomplishments and made the record that we could build on. And here in San Francisco, I can't celebrate today without mentioning the mayor, Gavin Newsom, took a courageous stance but it's not nearly as easy as it is today. The people that are really the heroes here, Jeff and Paul and Chris and Sandy, your love for each other, your courage and commitment and bringing this lawsuit, the passion and clarity in which you testified impressed everybody in the courtroom. This is your victory and your victory more than anything else. Ted and his closing gave what I think was the best oral argument I ever seen or heard but he said something in that argument that was really true. He said, the best argument that I could give is simply to let you read again and hear again the testimony of our plaintiffs because they made the case for marriage equality with greater clarity and greater passion than any lawyer could. We said at the beginning of this case that we would prove three things. We said we would prove that marriage was a fundamental right. We said we would prove that depriving gay and lesbian couples of the right to marry seriously harmed them and harmed the children that they're raising. And we said we would prove that depriving gay and lesbian couples of the right to marry had no redeeming social value, no contribution to heterosexual marriage, no legitimate state interest. We proved all three of those things. We proved them not only from our experts who were the leading experts in the world but our cross-examination proved it out of the mouths of the defendants' own witnesses. The defendants' own witnesses ended up admitting that marriage was a fundamental right that could hardly have done elsewhere since the United States Supreme Court's health app as Ted has pointed out a number of times for more than 80 years. Second, they admitted as our experts demonstrate that depriving gay and lesbian couples of the right to marry seriously harms them and seriously harms their children. And the judge found those facts today and their witnesses ended up admitting that they had no evidence that permitting gay and lesbian marriage in any way harms the institution of marriage. And indeed, the contrary as our witness has demonstrated, permitting marriage equality strengthens all marriage and strengthens the stability of that relationship for everybody in this country. And the judge found those facts today. At the beginning I want to just end by expressing my appreciation for the careful, thoughtful analysis of time in the court games. You might think we would always do that when you win, but we would have done that even if we'd lost because as Ted and I said before we knew what the opinion was, we were very grateful for the time and attention that this court paid to this very important issue. And that is what, together with the plaintiffs, together with the cause, together with the law, together with the facts have made this justice system work today. There is much more to do to eliminate discrimination in this country. But today, we eliminate the last official area of discrimination. Gay and lesbians are the only part of our citizenry that is today subject to official government sponsored government-enforced discrimination. And we take an enormous step to eliminating that with this decision to do it. The city and county of San Francisco and government officials from San Francisco to San Diego, I want to say thank you to Christian Sandy and Jeff Paul for your courage and to Ted and David, I can't imagine a better legal team for the city and county of San Francisco to partner with than these two legal giants. Now, you've heard Christian Sandy and Jeff Paul talk much more eloquently than I or any lawyer could about what discrimination means to them now and what it has meant for them throughout the course of their lives. Well, the city attorney's office has had the good fortune to be involved in this marriage and poly battle for six years in the state courts now in the federal courts working alongside this wonderful team put together by Chad Griffin and April, taking it to the next level. But why we have been involved and why it has been a continuing passion is something that David preferred to, the state interest. As Judge Walker found, there is no legitimate government interest in fostering discrimination against anybody in this country. And it's important that individuals, not just the 18,000 couples that were married, not just people here in California, but millions of people across America that they know that their government and their elected officials will stand by them to say that there is no interest, that there is an interest in government standing up for the equal rights of everybody in this country, irrespective of sexual orientation or anything else. And that's why I'm particularly gratified that Judge Walker was extremely clear in his opinion when he found that there is no legitimate governmental interest in discriminating on the basis of sex or sexual orientation. And then he went even further and said to allow that discrimination, there is a cost, a cost to the government, some of it quantifiable in terms of dollars, but also something much more deep, something more subjective, something that people expect out of their government, that they will be there to fight for the equal rights of all of their citizens. And that's why the city and county of San Francisco got involved in this case in the beginning and why we were proud to work with others from across the state to ensure that people know that their government will stand by them and protect their equal rights under this constitution to make sure we have the fairest system and most equal system that we can have. So it's been our privilege and our honor to work alongside this great team and everybody's alluded to the fact that there's more work to be done. I can tell you after six years of this, it always seems like there's more work to be done. But we're all up to the task because it goes to the very basis of what our court system and our justice system is all about. Thanks very much. We'll take questions and there are microphones in the audience, so just raise your hand and stand, the microphones will go to you. Hello, Jim Crawlton with the Wall Street Journal. Congratulations. Question for Mr. Royce and Mr. Olson. What gives you the confidence that you can win in Supreme Court given the fairly conservative make-up of that one? Ted and I have a deal. He's gonna get the five justices that voted for him and Bush v. Gore. And I'm going to get the four justices that voted for me and Bush v. Gore. In addition to that, one of the things that the judge, Walker, makes clear in his opinion is this does not ask the courts to establish a new right. The fundamental right to marry is already established by ample Supreme Court precedent. And this case does not ask the courts to establish a new right for gay and lesbians not to be discriminated against. That right has already been established in the United States Supreme Court precedent over the last 10 years. All this case asks, is it the court look at three facts? Is marriage a fundamental right? The court has already held it. Does depriving gay and lesbian citizens of the right to marry harm them and harm the children? There is no dispute on the record that that is true. And does depriving gay and lesbian citizens of the right to marry advance any legitimate state interest? The defendants could come forward with none. We know of none. The evidence is to the contrary. In light of that, we believe the constitutional violation of depriving gay and lesbian citizens of this fundamental right is very clear. And we believe that that will be held by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and by the United States Supreme Court. We're getting reports that Ben Dufty is trying to marry a couple right now at City Hall. And as I understand, the judge has put a stay on this decision for two days. So what is the likelihood that marriages can occur right now at City Hall or tomorrow or the next day? And would you two go, you four, go get married in that timeframe? Well, what the judge apparently did, as I understand it, is stayed the effect of his decision until he could hear an opposition from us to the application for a stay. We don't know what the judge will decide. We don't pretend to predict what the judge will decide about that. The case is going to go up to the Court of Appeals. I will say this, we are going to fight hard so that the constitutional rights vindicated by the 138 page very careful, thoughtful, analytical opinion from this judge will be brought into fruition as soon as possible for the citizens of California. We will also say to the extent that a Court of Appeals wishes to stay the effect of the decision until there can be an appellate court determination of the validity of this opinion, we will say that this judge has found after the most exhaustive trial that you could imagine that the constitutional rights of these individuals are being violated every day. To take away your constitutional rights to equality is an irreparable, irremediable, destructive injury that happens to you every minute of every hour of every day. And the longer that goes on, the more damage that's done to more numbers of the citizenry of California, all citizens of California, not just gay and lesbian people, but all citizens of California who value the principles that are under our constitution. So we will say to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals if there will be any delay at all, it should be exceedingly short. We've briefed the issues that could not be a more thorough analysis of the facts. We're ready to go. We need to have a public court decision right away and we need ultimately a Supreme Court decision right away. So I don't wanna, David I'm sure doesn't wanna predict when anything is going to happen next, but we're going to fight to vindicate these rights, constitutional rights as quickly as we possibly can and we now have the confidence that all of the facts that could be presented by the proponents of Proposition Eight, that all the facts that they could bring forth gave us no, gave the judge no single reason to continue this discrimination. The judge found that the constitutional requires equality now and there's no basis, no rational basis or any good reason to prevent this continuing damage from going on. So we're gonna fight hard to get this done as quickly as possible. When from the moment we started this case, which was just over 14 months ago in May of 2009, we've moved as fast as we possibly can. We've moved the justice system as fast as we possibly can. We're not going to let it down. More of a personal answer, but I would wanna be surrounded by my family and friends and want us to be able to celebrate that with our immediate families. And I need the time to order a cake. Did the judge rule on the issue of suspect class and could you discuss your thinking on his rationale on that issue? The judge ruled that this was a suspect class. The judge ruled that strict scrutiny was therefore required, but the judge also ruled that even if it was not a suspect class and strict scrutiny was not required, there was no rational basis for the discrimination, no rational basis for depriving gay and lesbian couples of the right to marry. So yes, the judge held it as a suspect class, but he held even under the most differential standard of review this legislation, this initiative was unconstitutional. Hello, Michael Metrellus, a gay blogger. I've got a question for Chad and it has to do with any influence you hope that will come out of this decision that will affect both the other professional gay advocacy groups and do you have any hopes that this decision and all the fights that you've been waging through the decision are going to influence the activist groups, many of which you know, sprang up after we lost in November of 2008 and just wondering what your feelings are about how the professional groups and the activist groups can use this whole fight and the decision for the betterment of America. First of all, you know, today's victory is not our victory, just those of us on the stage. It's the victory for everyone. And as David said, we wouldn't be here today whether or not for the advocates, some of whom are still with us and some aren't over the decades that have brought us to this decision today and without them we wouldn't be here and those organizations who've been fighting this battle for so long who are supportive of us in this case, we look forward to working with everyone until we have full and complete equality under the law and gain straight people alive advocates and knowledge can celebrate in this decision today because it is the utmost of American decisions. You've mentioned several times that this is one step on many in a legal fight. What would you suggest, and I'm right back here, what would you suggest that the folks who were pursuing putting this on the battle in 2012 or California today, saw how it should be continued? What's your advice to that? I can only talk about what this organization is going to do and the millions of people who've signed up online and on our website and are following this organization and our mandate and our goal is very clear. And I don't want to be in the position of suggesting what others could or should do. As you know, this is a victory. It is said that it was unconstitutional. And I think we should celebrate that victory and we should move forward and do what's necessary in the higher courts, as was just discussed. But I for one don't believe that a fundamental constitutional right should ever be put before a vote of the people or be before politicians. This is the place that it should have been decided and that's in a federal court of law where the constitution protects every single American. I want to say one more thing with respect to that. This trial has helped to educate the people of this state and the people of the United States. People who have watched this trial and listened to the witnesses and the people of the United States who will read this opinion and who will teach this opinion in law schools and civics classes will gradually and continuously, I think rapidly begin to appreciate the damage that we've done to our citizenry, to our nation by this discrimination. I feel attitudes changing rapidly in the direction against discrimination and against measures like Proposition 8 throughout the United States. So we're not giving any advice to any political group or any organization that wants to bring something to the ballot, but we feel very good about the fact that people who have watched this trial have said, oh, that's what it's all about. Why would we withhold the opportunity for loving people to be married? Why would we do that? People are changing and it's changing rapidly. A question for Dennis Herrera, Margie Shavo of KCPS. Just the interpretation of the stay and then San Francisco's response to the stay. Margie, I think you heard David and Ted talk about the importance of expediting things as quickly as possible while also recognizing what Judge Walker has done with respect to the stay and how he wants to proceed. From our perspective, I would agree with Ted and David 100% that we want to do whatever possible within the confines of the order that Judge Walker has issued to make sure that the decision is expedited both through the District Court and through the Ninth Circuit as quickly as possible because we are talking about people's fundamental rights and that is something constitutional protections are not something that we should delay something that we should try and rectify as quickly as possible and we are gonna work within the confines of the order that Judge Walker issued to make sure that we get this dealt with as quickly as possible.