In 2007 Edie Windsor married Thea Spyer after already being together for 40 years. When Spyer died, in 2009, their home state of New York recognized marriage equality, but because of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the federal law that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, the federal government did not. As a result, Windsor was faced with paying more than $363,000 in federal estate taxes because Spyer had left her estate to Windsor.

Had the federal government recognized their marriage and given it the same status as opposite-sex married couples in the state, Windsor would not have to pay any estate taxes.

Local priest-guy Salvatore “Big Sally” Cordileone who was recently called up by by capo di tutti capi Ratzinger to take over the San Francisco family after his fine work kneecapping the gheys when they tried to muscle their way into a piece of the California marriage racket, was down in San Diego this weekend, uh, partying. As in DUI partying.

I do want to congratulate Judge Vaughn Walker on snagging Brad Pitt as the actor playing him, as I had thought they’d use Brad to play that intrepid front-row Firedoglake liveblogger….

RSVP to AFER here to set up a window to watch the reading. This live Los Angeles production includes such stars as Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Martin Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Matt Bomer, Campbell Brown, Chris Colfer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Vanessa Garcia, Cleve Jones, Christine Lahti, Jane Lynch, and Matthew Morrison.

The Ninth Circuit Court just held, 2-1, that California’s imfamous anti-gay Prop 8 was unconstitutional. “Proposition 8 served no purpose, and had no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California,” the court said.

A panel of the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled today, unanimously, that the videos made during the Perry v Schwarzenegger trial by then-Chief Judge Vaughn Walker of the proceedings in his courtroom and ordered released by his successor, Chief Judge James Ware, will remain sealed and not viewable by the public, in order to “preserve the integrity of the judicial process.”

Whatever that means.

The cast for the West Coast one-night production of Dustin Lance Black’s “8″ has been announced, and it’s rather hottie-intense.

I wanted to share these two families’ best wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving. I think their very simple wishes for this holiday illustrate how all families are the same: our hopes and dreams, and our rights and responsibilities.

Between last night’s marvelous happening in New York, the clear cut and admirable new policy by the Obama Administration, and the ever enlightened movement of society, I think the writing is on the wall for the California Supreme Court, and I think they will indeed find that the D-Is have the requisite standing, the 9th will roll with that and away we go to the United States Supreme Court. I truly believe the New York passage will leave such a marker that will carry all this through, and that is a beautiful thing.

Yesterday was a low point in the federal justice system: it was offensive and heinous that a petitioner could come in to federal court to argue that a judge’s sexual orientation, and relationship status, deprives that judge of the ability to rule impartially. Happily, Judge Ware did not take long to discard this odious argument, made by bigots as a last gasp against the arc of justice.