Not to rain on the parade, but...

We knew this was coming, right?

The LA Times reports that gay-rights advocates will be heading to the courts to challenge Prop. 8 (surprise, surprise):

After losing at the polls, gay-rights advocates filed a legal challenge today in California Supreme Court to Proposition 8, a long-shot effort that the measure's supporters called an attempt to subvert the will of voters.

Lawyers for same-sex couples said they will argue that the anti-gay-marriage measure was an illegal constitutional revision -- not a more limited amendment, as backers said.

The legal action contends that Proposition 8 actually revises the state Constitution by altering such fundamental tenets as equal-protection guarantees. A measure to revise the state Constitution can be placed before voters only by the Legislature.

Opponents of gay marriage expressed outrage at the move.

"This is exactly the type of behavior that brought us to this position to begin with," said Proposition 8 co-chair Frank Schubert. "The people voted eight years ago overwhelmingly in favor of traditional marriage and they seem to be saying in pretty strong terms again . . . that they favor traditional marriage, and yet this is not accepted by gay-rights activists."

"Now, if they want to legalize gay marriage, what they should do is bring an initiative themselves and ask the people to approve it. But they don't. They go behind the people's back to the courts and try and force an agenda on the rest of society."

Former California Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin said the legal challenge will be a "tough battle" for supporters of same-sex marriage.

Gay-marriage proponents see it differently. "A major purpose of the Constitution is to protect minorities from majorities. Because changing that principle is a fundamental change to the organizing principles of the Constitution itself, only the Legislature can initiate such revisions to the Constitution," said Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California.

It is a matter of fairness, said Jenny Pizer, a staff attorney with Lambda Legal. "If the voters approved an initiative that took the right to free speech away from women, but not from men, everyone would agree that such a measure conflicts with the basic ideals of equality enshrined in our Constitution. Proposition 8 suffers from the same flaw: It removes a protected constitutional right -- here, the right to marry -- not from all Californians, but just from one group of us," she said.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Equality California and six same-sex couples who did not marry before Tuesday's election but would like to marry now.

The state high court has twice before invalidated measures as illegal revisions, but some legal analysts expressed doubt that the Proposition 8 challenge would succeed. Similar attempts to overturn anti-gay-marriage measures have failed in Oregon and Alaska.

A spokesman for San Francisco City Atty. Dennis Herrera said he would also file a legal challenge.With more than 96% of precincts reporting in the state, the measure leads by a margin of 52% to 48%, prompting The Times to call the race. Opponents of the measure have not yet conceded defeat.

And thus we see why I've refrained from a victory dance of any sort.

(Although I do have to ask - and please, if you have the answer, do tell - but where exactly does the Constitution outline a "right to marry," and where does that so-called right entail the right to change the definition of a word? I'm not being facetious - if someone can give a good answer on that one, I'd love to hear it.)

What a bittersweet victory, too. Although I'm amazed and delighted that Prop. 8 passed, there are such tender hurt feelings on both sides. My heart - and my prayers - really do go out to the gay community, to those who feel slighted with this outcome. I know their sense of loss and anguish is real, and I can empathize with that. Please, everyone, keep them in your prayers, too.

For more information go to http://whatisprop8.com