The suicide of a Rutgers University freshman last month and a later attack in the Bronx on two teenagers suspected of being gay stemmed from discrimination and isolation that measures like Proposition 8 perpetuate, opponents of the measure told an appeals court.

"Incidents such as these are all too familiar to our society," wrote Theodore B. Olson, one of the lawyers for two gay couples challenging the 2008 California anti-gay marriage initiative.

"And it is too plain for argument that discrimination written into our constitutional charters inexorably leads to shame, humiliation, ostracism, fear, and hostility. The consequences are all too often very, very tragic."