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With gay marriage approved by the California Supreme Court, most people at PCC expressed their support for the long awaited approval. Paulo Rodriguez, Associated Students vice president of internal affairs, felt that approval of gay marriage has taken too long. Supporting the decision, he said, “I think they were involving the church and state affairs too long.”

With a gay brother to be married, AS Vice President for Academic Affairs Connor Lewis strongly supported the decision.

Lewis said that having gay relatives, including his brother, helped him gain more awareness of the issue.

“It also helped that when I interned for Sen. Jack Scott the person I was the assistant for was also gay and handled the gay rights issues for the senator. So I also gained a little bit more awareness working for him,” he said.

Similar to Rodriguez, Lewis also believes that it has taken too long for approval to take place, however, he does understand that things are conducted within the framework of the law.

“It makes me very optimistic that it was approved by a court that the majority of justices sitting on it were appointed by Republican governors,” he said.

“I think that there can really be no argument that it wasn’t interpreted strictly within the bounds of California’s constitution,” he added.

Further speaking of his personal connection to the issue, Lewis said that, when talking to others, he is generally a little bit more aware of the issue and invested in the discussion.

Also supporting the decision was 20-year-old student Matthew DeBlasis.

“I support [gay marriage] 100 percent. My cousin is getting married in October. Now they can legally be joined,” he said. “They can have the title of being married.”

Irene Guerrero, 18, said, “I think gay marriage is great because straight people have the chance to get married and take it for granted. If straight people can have it, why can’t they?”

Sitting beside her, Yudith Vasquez, 19, child development, asked, “why should it be such a big deal as long as they are in love?”

While many at PCC support this new level of approval, some express ambivalence toward the issue, possibly also disapproval.

“I don’t really support it but I’m not against it either. It doesn’t affect my life situation. If they are pushing it, they should have it,” said 21-year-old psychology major Jeffrey Uy. “I’m more for it than against it.”

Student Orlando Diez believes that gays should have the opportunity to be happy. “If they have to pay taxes, they should have the right. I’m not really pushing for it, but I’m not against it,” he said. “As long as one of them doesn’t propose to me, I’m good.”

Lewis added something that he has yet to find the answer to. “I’ve never quite had it explained to me to my satisfaction as to how allowing gays to marry in any way hurts anyone. I think that the argument that somehow family values need to be protected is absurd.”

Concluding with a final comment, he said, “essentially, there is really no secular justification for a ban on gay marriage.

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