GROSSMONT COLLEGE–For at least the last four years a heated debate has been rampaging through not only California, but the entire country. Proposition 8 has been beaten to death, hopefully it will finally be allowed die, as to whether or not it is unconstitutional to prevent same-sex couples from being “married.”

On Tuesday, February 7, Prop 8 was back in the California court room. This time a three-judge appeals panel declared that denying same-sex couples the right to marry is unconstitutional. In this writer’s opinion it’s about freaking time! Why in the world has it taken this long for California to legalize same-sex marriage when other states have already done so? That’s right, because gay people are not considered “people” enough to get married.

Just months before this horrid proposition was passed back in 2008 approximately 18,000 same-sex couples were married. Those few couples who were allowed to marry during those short couple of months are not and will not be affected by Prop 8, lucky them. For the rest of the gay community, we must continue to fight for the right to be considered human enough to get married.

What’s the next step? There is a waiting period of a few months, which allows the other side of the spectrum time to appeal the decision. If that does happen, which it more than likely will, the next step in this never-ending staircase is an 11-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court. There’s a possibility that those who back Prop. 8 will pass over the 9th Circuit and go straight to the Supreme Court with their appeal.

In the end all that matters is that equal rights have been restored and the realization that a family is a family no matter the sex of the couple. Once that happens, this fight will have been successful.

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Sanders is a student at Grossmont College and a contributor to GC Summit