Today Justice Vaughn Walker of the US District Court of Northern California has reached a decision deeming Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that nullified gay marriage in California, unconstitutional.

This is truly a victory for marriage equality, but merely a small battle in a struggle that has no end in sight. The decision will be appealed by supporters of the unconstitutional measure. Since our judicial system is divided into geographic zones (kind of like county level -state level -federal level but the geographical organization is different), the case decision will be appealed by the supporters of Prop 8 to the 9^th circuit.

Then the decision that the 9th makes has the possibility to be appealed as well. If that happens then the highest court in the land will weigh in, the Supreme Court, and make a final decision on the matter. Therefore, this will prove to be a long, hard campaign that has an uncertain course.

However, one thing is for certain, if the case were to go to the Supreme Court tomorrow, it would fall apart and Proposition (H)8 would be the law of the land in California. Besides the fact that the members of the Court aren’t very socially progressive, the strongest indication that the law would be upheld is that the Court rarely, if ever, makes decisions that the overwhelming majority of American would not endorse. Unfortunately, most Americans still do not support gay marriage. So it really is an uphill battle from here.

This victory had been long predicted and the Gay Community must not let it cloud their judgment of the two lawyers who took up the marriage equality position. Most gay rights organizations only reluctantly agreed to support the stubborn lawyers in their bid. Ted Olsen and David Boies have taken a great risk with this case that has and will gather much publicity (not to mention considerable historical prestige for the courtroom victors).

They have taken possibly too great a risk. While I guess I should not presume to know their true underlying motivations for initiating Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the truth of the matter remains that the cards are definitely stacked against Olsen and Boies. The risk is probably too great because it would be disastrous for the Supreme Court to rule against marriage equality, since any unjust court decision takes agonizingly long to fix. The prospect of waiting decades for a future court to overturn a bad ruling would be utterly tragic for gays and the integrity of the United States as a whole. At this point, the Gay Rights Movement cannot afford a legal defeat of that magnitude. It would set everything back decades at least.

The opponents of marriage equality have used many tricks in the past, including scare tactics, they have monetary resources that regularly surpass the resources of those who fight for equality, and they have well entrenched political allies-especially on the Supreme Court. Yet they lack the one special weapon that is the most important factor in any campaign: time.

Attitudes in the US are changing towards Gays and Gay Marriage. The younger generations are already greatly accepting of gay marriage and as the “Greatest Generation” and older “Baby Boomers” slip into senility or die out, their political influence will also. Yet the political influence of the younger generations will only increase. Hopefully by the time the Supreme Court hears this case, if it indeed gets that far, public opinion will have decisively turned towards marriage equality. So the key is not how fast things go for homosexuals and their families, but rather how slowly.

Whatever their underlying motivations, Ted Olsen and David Boies are now the true defenders of marriage in all its forms. Today’s victory in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger was a limited one, but one that made tomorrow, Aug 5, a better day than today.