Palm Springs launches wedding destination website hours after Prop. 8 ruling
Within hours of the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulingtoday that cleared the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California, thePalm Springs Bureau of Tourism unveiled a website touting the area as a weddingdestination.
The website, www.weddingsinpalmsprings.com, includes information abouthotels and inns, vacation home rentals, lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgenderresorts and wedding locations, according to tourism bureau spokeswoman HillaryAngel. Some of the photos on the site are of same-sex couples.
From August to November 2008, Palm Springs officials performed more than600 civil same-sex ceremonies. Thirty-four same-sex couples were married indowntown Palm Springs that year in an event called “Palm Springs Celebrationof Marriage,” organized by the city, Angel said.
Many of Palm Springs’ gay and lesbian resorts offer packages and on-siteceremonies. The city has the most gay and lesbian resorts in the UnitedStates, with about 30 gay and lesbian-owned and/or operated resorts andguesthouses, Angel said.
In a 5-4 ruling, the nation’s high court found that backers ofProposition 8 — which was approved by California voters in 2008 and bannedsame-sex marriage — lacked legal standing to challenge a lower court rulingthat found the measure unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court today also struck down a key portion of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which was enacted in 1996 and defined marriage solely as a union between opposite-sex couples. The court ruled that the act was unconstitutional by denying federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples.
