The California Supreme Court ruled this afternoon that the ballot initiative to amend the state's constitution to ban same-sex marriage will go forward as planned. Numerous gay rights groups were involved in the litigation trying to stop the initiative. The decision of the court was unanimous.

Of course this is a huge disappointment, but that should not detract from acknowledging the brilliance, creativity, and courage of the lawyers who filed this suit, especially lead counsel Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. How fitting, in fact, that the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association just announced that Shannon will be one of the recipients of this year's Dan Bradley Award for his contribution to the struggle for LGBT equality.

Legal creativity has brought enormous advances for LGBT people. Sometimes it just doesn't work. LGBT Californians and their allies now have the hard work ahead of defeating the anti-gay forces at the polls. The work is being spearheaded by Equality California. And the whole world, literally, will be watching.

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