Human Rights Campaign President Cheryl Jacques made the following statement today regarding the decision by the California Supreme Court that the city of San Francisco lacked the authority to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The court also invalidated the licenses of over 4,000 couples married earlier this year in San Francisco.

“This is not the end of the fight to make same-sex couples safer and more secure. California families will still have their day in court to challenge their exclusion from marriage.

“While we are disappointed that the Supreme Court ruled the city lacked authority to issue the licenses, this case does not speak to the issue of whether California’s discriminatory marriage ban for same-sex couples is unconstitutional. As those cases move forward, we are hopeful that every California family will be able to access the more than 1,000 rights and responsibilities that are only conferred by marriage.

“This fight brought out untold heroes — from the more than 4,000 couples who sought to secure their families, to Mayor Newsom for his leadership, to the organizations fighting for equal rights in California including Equality California, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Marriage Equality California, Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Northern California.”