Proposition H8

All that Proposition 8 accomplished was to take away from same-sex couples the right to be granted marriage licenses and thus legally to use the designation of "marriage", which symbolizes state legitimization and societal recognition of their committed relationships. Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.

-- Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, writing in a 2-1 ruling that California's 2008 law, popularly known as Proposition 8, violated the 14th Amendment's equal-protection clause by stigmatizing a minority group without legitimate reason, 7 February 2012