TheProposition8Disaster

Many of you won’t know what a Proposition in California means. It usually equates to the ultimate in American statewide democracy. If enough of the electorate agrees on a political proposal it can be forced on the ballot and then be voted on by everyone.

Usually this means that some grass roots, populist ideas can be enacted and generally has been a force for political freedom in the best traditions of the country. But, at the same time Barack Obama was being elected President there was a new Proposition 8 being voted upon which changed the state Constitution to restrict the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman and eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry. The proposition does not affect domestic partnerships in California.

The opposing campaigns raised $35.8 million and $37.6 million, respectively, becoming the highest-funded campaign on any state ballot that day and outspending every other campaign in the country in except for the presidential contest. The proponents insist the law should recognize exclusively heterosexual marriage and claimed that failure to reverse the May 2008 Supreme Court ruling that recognized the right of same-sex couples to marry would damage society, require changes to a school curriculum to discuss same-sex marriage, and threaten the free exercise of religion. The opponents argued that eliminating the rights of any Californian and mandating that one group of people be treated differently from everyone else was unfair and wrong.

As far as this writer can ascertain there was no such school curriculum to change as marriage, of any kind, was not and is not taught in California’s schools.

Just as the electorate of the American West were congratulating themselves on the success of their liberal tendency for electing President Obama the State of California was simultaneously taking an amazingly retrograde step. It is a great shame on the backers of Proposition 8 that they consider only heterosexual partnerships should have legitimacy and on any logical basis this argument has no merit. The sexual gender of your bed partner has no bearing on how you run your public life.

I am not gay, and have never been a public campaigner on this or related issues. But it must be obvious to everyone that every adult should have the right to choose his or her partner, and for that partnership to be recognized in law. How you can argue against this is a question that boggles my mind, but let’s voice what this is really about. People who consider themselves devout followers of various religions have interpreted their scriptures to mean that the Lord above does not permit such partnerships, but as they can’t enforce this, they’ll make do by stopping such partnerships being legal.

This is made worse because there are many people in California who waited many years to be able to enter into legal partnerships in their home state, and then did so, only to now find that these partnerships have been unraveled.

Surely we have reached a stage in our civilization where we understand that it cannot be considered a sin for two adults to fall in love with people of the same sex and then commit to a legally binding partnership between them. Such retrograde laws as Proposition 8 will inevitably be overturned but a great many people will suffer more and for no good reason.