Gay marriage at the Supreme Court: A ‘real couple’ behind Prop 8 challenge

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gay-marriage-at-the-supreme-court-a-real-couple-behind-prop-8-challenge/2013/03/09/39dd12f0-869e-11e2-98a3-b3db6b9ac586_story.html?hpid=z3


Bret Hartman/For The Washington Post - Jeff Zarrillo, left, and Paul Katami with their French bulldogs Gracie, left, and Gordy.

n BURBANK, Calif. — At the center of the Supreme Court’s preeminent case of the term — the one that holds the potential for redefining marriage in America — are a couple whose chief attribute is how conventional they strive to be.

Jeff Zarrillo, 39, manages the big multiplex movie theater in downtown Burbank, and Paul Katami, 40, is a fitness instructor. They have lived for nine years in a small but handsome house just past the second speed bump on a quiet, suburban street. It is a neighborhood where American flags are plentiful and interest in the school board election appears high.

When the Supreme Court hears the men’s challenge to California’s ban on same-sex marriage on March 26, there is a good possibility that their names will not even be mentioned.

What the court is interested in, among other things, is whether the constitutional guarantee of equal protection contained in the 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, requires extending the right of marriage to those who want to wed someone of the same sex.