He asserted that, “The court just considered the interests of and benefits for adults. And it was surprising that they found no compelling reason to restrict marriage to people who engage in reproductive acts, i.e. men and women.”
Maggie Gallagher, the president of Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, went a step further by commenting, "California's supreme court has just ruled that the 62 percent of Californians who voted for marriage as the union of husband and wife are just bigots. But thanks to the 1.1 million Californians who signed petitions to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot this November, activist judges will not have the last word in California, California voters will."
She added that, "Most Americans understand that marriage is not bigotry. It is common sense -- unions of husband and wife have a unique status in law and culture because they really are different from other kinds of unions including in this way: they are uniquely necessary because they are the unions that both make new life and connect those children to their own mother and father."
The Catholic bishops of California also emphasized the need to defend the family, writing, “Catholic teaching maintains that marriage is a faithful, exclusive and lifelong union between one man and one woman joined in an intimate partnership of life and love — a union instituted by God for the mutual fulfillment of the husband and wife as well as for the procreation and education of children."
California’s bishops expressed their “disappointment in the California Supreme Court decision.”
“That statute reflected the wisdom of the voters of California in retaining the traditional definition of marriage as a biological reality and a societal good. Unfortunately, today, the Court saw fit to disregard the will of the majority of people of California,” the bishops said.
Noting that domestic partnerships are already legal in California, the bishops said that, “Today’s decision of California’s high court opens the door for policymakers to deconstruct traditional marriage and create another institution under the guise of equal protection.”