Proposition 8: Discrimination in Disguise

On November 4, you will be asked to vote on Proposition 8, a Constitutional Initiative of just fourteen words: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”  It seems simple enough, right?  In reality, your vote will determine whether we still believe in our founding principles.

That’s why we all must vote NO on Proposition 8.

“All people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable rights.  Among these are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.”

No, these words are not from the Declaration of Independence—although, they certainly are inspired by them.  Actually, these words make up the first lines of the California Constitution.  For many of you, it may be the first time you’ve even read them.  Go ahead: read them again.  They form the basis for everything that we, as Californians, hold dear.

On May 15th of this year, the California Supreme Court struck down a law banning same-sex marriages, ruling that the California Constitution affords the legal right to marry regardless of gender.  You might be thinking to yourself, “Since when do people have a right to get married?”  The people at Protect Marriage, a group supporting the proposition, certainly believe you don’t.

However, California has consistently upheld a right to marriage.  In 1948, the California Supreme Court overturned a law banning interracial marriages grounded in the principle that laws limiting marriages “must be based upon more than prejudice and must be free from oppressive discrimination.”  Basically, the court ruled that there must be some overwhelming public good in order to justify a limit on who we can marry.  Saying that a marriage doesn’t conform to a belief or religion just doesn’t cut it.

Of course, advocates of the initiative try to claim that there is an overwhelming reason to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.  Protect Marriage points to an article by Frank Pastore which uses Europe as evidence that same-sex marriage leads to higher divorce rates, declining marriages, babies born out of wedlock, etc.  Besides the fact that Europe and the United States have different cultures, Pastore’s article is flat-out wrong.  A study conducted by Dr. M. V. Lee Badget, a Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, found that these social trends were on the rise well before gay marriage was legalized.  It seems advocates want to scapegoat same-sex couples for all of society’s problems, but the facts just don’t support it and neither should you.

In a final, flawed attempt at justifying this poor excuse for a proposition, advocates say that same-sex couples already have access to the same rights as married couples, so limiting marriage won’t really matter.  If this were true, why are they spending so much money on something so unimportant?  The truth is: it does matter.  Proposition 8 is about deciding whether it is acceptable for California to have separate sets of rules for certain groups of people.  Passage of this proposition would not only mean unequal treatment, it completely goes against everything California stands for.  It would entrench bigotry and prejudice into our Constitution and deny fellow citizens their civil rights.

Please, on November 4, vote NO on Proposition 8.