Profile of One of the Prop 8 Trial Couples

Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo had hoped for years to get married, but as they watched anti-same-sex marriage campaign material proliferate in their Burbank community, the obstacles facing them became clear. More than a dozen “Yes on 8” signs — supporting the 2008 initiative that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman — cropped up in one neighbor’s yard as the election approached.

“It was a slap in the face every time you left for work, and it was a slap in the face every time you came home,” Katami said. But when the campaigning was over, and the state’s law prohibiting their union was passed, the couple decided to challenge it.

Together with a lesbian couple from Berkeley, the men are part of a federal lawsuit in San Francisco claiming that the same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional because it discriminates against a minority group. Proposition 8, the couple said, was too troubling of an affront on their rights to allow it to stand, particularly after they had built a relationship together and fallen in love like any other couple.

Full Story from the Burbank Leader
Click here for gay marriage resources.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook - just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you'll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We're also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.