in the moderate Aristotelian city

Today, the Californian Supreme Court upheld the horrible, bigoted Proposition 8, which passed in November.

This makes me so angry that I could spit. Twitter is alive with anger - you can check out the #rejectprop8 hashtag for the latest tweets, if you're so interested. It makes me feel slightly better that it's the current number one trending topic over there, that this has such widespread interest and is generating so much rage.

It also makes me feel better that they upheld the 18,000 existing gay marriages in California. But I'm a bit concerned about the two-tiered gay rights thing. Either you are married, or you can't get married? Weird.

But I'm worried that we're powerless, that at the moment there's little a private person can do about this, even if they live in California. For myself, living in the UK, I feel my options are even more limited.

That's why I'm making this post. To express my thoughts. And feel a little less powerless. It's one option that I have.

The arguments for gay marriage are hackneyed and I am probably preaching to the choir to go over them again here. But in our society and culture, marriage is a right, not a privilege. It should be open to anyone, anyone who wishes to make a legal commitment with another consenting adult. It shouldn't be dependent on the sex of the person you wish to marry, any more than it should be dependent on their race - as it has been in the past.

I'm so ridiculously unhappy and angry about this decision. On the other hand, it's unfair to lay the blame for this at the door of the citizens of California, who had nothing to do with this particular bad moment. I'm still angry at the people who voted for it in the first place, but this particular disappointment is not their fault.

A smart friend of mine on Twitter told me today that California is is mourning. It may sound strange - but so am I.