The California Supreme Court has agreed to rule on whether the California Constitution allows the state to prohibit same-sex couples from marrying.

Last week, the city attorney of San Francisco, Dennis Herrera, filed an outstanding opening brief in the case. In short, the brief states that laws against same-sex marriage represent another way in which states have pursued the “shameful persecution of gays.” There’s no need to repeat here the obvious arguments to this audience.

The brief is available online at www.sfgov.org/cityattorney.

Herrera expects West Hollywood and Los Angeles to file briefs in support of San Francisco’s position. The question I raise here is whether the city of San Diego will join them.

The city of San Diego, the city attorney and the district attorney should all support the rights of same-sex couples and their children, and the San Diego Democratic Club and our candidates for City Council should push them to take a stand in support.

New data published by the Williams Institute, a GLBT think tank at UCLA School of Law, reveals that there are 900,000 self-identified same-sex couples in America, and at least 27 percent report raising children. That number will continue to climb. Many local same-sex couples not only have one child, but two, with many others currently in the process of conceiving, adopting and fostering.

Under current law, children of same-sex couples suffer because married parents receive a host of federal financial benefits that federal law has yet to extend to same-sex couples (e.g., tax relief and credits). According to the Williams Institute, data shows that kids of same-sex couples are more likely to be racially diverse and have physical and learning challenges. These are the very kids who need support, not indifference.

The U.S. Supreme Court will rule someday that children of same-sex couples shouldn’t be treated any differently than children of married couples. The court did something akin to this in the ’70s when it held that children born out of wedlock are entitled to the same rights as children born in a marriage.

Some feel it’s going to be the children of same-sex couples who cause the court to require states and the federal government to treat same-sex couples the same as straight couples. This is because economic benefits should go to couples who produce children, or, put another way, who produce future taxpayers who will fund our health care and security in old age.

It’s time for California to join Massachusetts and recognize same-sex marriage. And San Diego should voice its support. We can expect Councilmembers Toni Atkins and Donna Frye to be in full support of the San Francisco position, but if Jim Madaffer and Brian Maienschein truly support non-discrimination, they, too, should vote in support of same-sex marriage.

Mayor Sanders has indicated that “marriage” should be reserved for a man and a woman, but “civil marriage” is something he supports.

And whether the council even votes in support of the city of San Francisco’s position, Mike Aguirre, as “the independently elected city attorney,” certainly has the power to file a friend of the court brief before the end of July deadline.

Most of us expect Atkins, Aguirre and Dumanis to take an active lead on this issue. If not, come election time, some GLBT folks may simply spend money elsewhere, perhaps buying baby clothes at Style Child.