A Beverly Hills police officer cycles past flags during a rally outside the Beverly Hilton hotel, where U.S. President Barack Obama was attending a Democratic party fundraiser, in Beverly Hills, California May 27, 2009. California's supreme court backed a ban on gay marriage on Tuesday, upholding the voter-approved Proposition 8 defining marriage as between a man and a woman, but said the marriages last year of 18,000 same sex couples were still legal. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni (UNITED STATES POLITICS)