At least nine gay activists were
arrested Thursday morning in San Diego protesting California's
continued enforcement of its gay marriage ban.
A federal district court judge struck
down Proposition 8 as unconstitutional two weeks ago, but supporters
of the ban convinced an appeals court to put the order on hold. The
three-judge panel is expected to hear oral arguments in the case in
December. Gay weddings would have resumed on Thursday had the court
not intervened.
About fifty members of the gay rights
group San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality (SAME) protested
Proposition 8 by demanding that the country clerk issue marriage
licenses to gay and lesbian couples.
“We believe that county officials and
the attorney general have the authority and obligation to allow
marriage licenses to proceed based on both the federal court findings
and that Prop 8 is unconstitutional and the governor's filings in
Prop 8 cases,” Tyler Dylan-Hyde told the San Diego
Union-Tribune.
County spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said
the activists were removed because they were blocking entrances to
the county building.
In staging its sit-in, the group
shouted: “We shall not be moved. Gay, straight, black, white;
marriage is a civil right.”
In a posting at its website, SAME
called for an emergency rally in front of the San Diego jail on Front
Street to protest the arrests.