Prop 8 is clearly unconstitutional, one of the simplest cases ever, and I hope it is overturned, either at the ballot or in court, with swift vengeance.
Moral hatred aside, the constitutional issues are incredibly simple. Marriage is either a secular designation or a religious one. It CANNOT be both, or it violates separation of church and state, plain and simple. If marriage is secular, then the equal protection clause means everyone must be allowed to marry the partner of their choosing. The state cannot extend secular benefits to some couples and deny them to others. A simpler civil rights issue there has never been.
If, on the other hand, marriage is religious, then the state cannot
legally marry anybody (Hey, Church get the hell away from State! I
thought I told you you couldn't play together). All the state can offer
are civil unions to all couples, and marriage is what you do with your
minister, rabbi, Imam, priest or preceptor, not with City Hall.
Gay marriage needs to be legalized as soon as possible. In addition to being a moral embarrassment, it's a legal embarrassment.
Gay marriage needs to be legalized as soon as possible. In addition to being a moral embarrassment, it's a legal embarrassment.
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in may of 2008 the CA supreme court struck down the ban on Gay marriage.
"The California Supreme Court struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage Thursday, saying sexual orientation, like race or gender, "does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights."
In a 4-3 120-page ruling issue, the justices wrote that "responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation."
"We therefore conclude that in view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship, the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples," Chief Justice Ronald George wrote for the majority."
source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/15/same.sex.marriage/
so it does seem like a bit of a betrayal that the courts would change take away the rights of "certain People" just because a majority wishes to discriminate based on fear, ignorance and plain old hatred.
Sofia,
How is my being gay equivalent to my choice of food or a TV show?? And, please, a little more thought-out of an answer other than, "Well, they're all choices!!" Being gay is not a choice. It is biologically, chemically, and physiologically-based. Just as you are hardwired to be attracted to men, I am hardwired to be attracted to women. It is no more correct to say I "choose" to be with a woman over being with a man, than it would be to say you "choose" to be with a man rather than a woman. You don't choose to be with men rather than women, as you are not attracted to women, so there is no choice. The same holds true for me.
==Being gay...==
You SAY you are homosexual. We don't know THAT you are other than your saying it.
==... is not a choice.==
You chose to say that you are homosexual cuz you have chosen the homosexual, alternative-lifestyle orientation option for you.
== It is biologically, chemically, and physiologically-based. ==
There is no objective, scientific, uncorrupted evidence to show that.
==Being gay is not a choice.==
Actually, what happened is that you accepted your choice to encounter homosexuality, and, with each encounter, you reinforced that choice, and, over time, you became conditioned to that choice, and it looked to you as though it's natural.
Who knows what, exactly, triggered consideration and, then, to make that first choice from among all the alternatives. It could have been that opposite sex people didn't like you and you turned to somebody who claimed to be homosexual who offered you "comfort," and, then, you were off and running. Your first choice was reinforced by succeeding choices.
==...the courts would change take away the rights of "certain People" just because a majority wishes to discriminate based on fear, ignorance and plain old hatred. ==
You're a man, or a woman. The law that defines "marriage" says that a man is the husband and the woman is his wife. If you are a man, you are not excluded. If you are a woman, you are not excluded. If you are a member of a third sex, you are excluded.
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