The latest polls show support for Prop 8 increasing in California, going from an 8 point lead in August for opponents of the amendment to, most recently, a 4 point lead in favor of the amendment. Sadly, the the greatest shift was among younger voters. Obviously I am disturbed and disheartened by these numbers, not only because I am living outside of California and feel like there is little I can personally do, but also because I am feeling more and more like my native state and my peers are turning their backs to equality in favor of ignoring the equal protection clause of the California Constitution and, in that same document, creating a distinct second-class citizenry. Please take a few minutes to read this note while I therapeutically vent about the situation.
First off, I think it might be helpful to view this issue keeping in mind the 1948 California Supreme Court ruling that recognized the right of interracial couples to marry, which occurred just before many of our parents were born. The parallels are striking. In Perez v. Sharp, the court ruled that "...marriage is a fundamental right and that laws restricting that right must not be based solely on prejudice. The court held that restrictions due to discrimination violated the constitutional requirements of due process and equal protection of the laws" (source: wikipedia). At the time, Californians complained about activist judges who ignored the will of the people. They said that interracial marriage was immoral, that it was against God's will. These SAME EXACT ARGUMENTS were flung from the right after the California Supreme Court handed down its ruling in favor of gay marriage in its decision, In re Marriage Cases, earlier this year. Back in 1948, opinion polls showed 95% of Californians opposed to interracial marriages. To me, that seems disgusting. How were those who were not in an interracial marriage even remotely affected by this? It simply affirmed the right of people who had been the victims of prejudice to live in an equal state of marriage to others. This was nearly 20 years before the U.S. Supreme Court made the same ruling as California, in favor of interracial marriage.
Fast forward to 2008, where we have a chance to make a statement that we are not a state ruled by ignorance and religious dogma. It disturbs me that so many people want to put a purely religious issue--a discriminatory one, at that--into law. When religious authorities, like the Church, control lives through the state, you have a theocracy, just like in countries such as Iran. Proposition 8 is something I'd expect approved in Iran, not California. The fact of the matter is that marriage, in the sense that it is dealt with in Proposition 8, IS NOT a religious issue, but a legal issue. Long ago, when the government decided that it would treat married couples differently from the unmarried, marriage became not a religious contract, but a LEGAL CONTRACT. The legalization of gay marriage had NOTHING to do with the Church. The pro-Prop 8 crowd is trying to argue that churches will lose their tax exempt status if they oppose or do not recognize same-sex marriages. When was that last time that the Catholic Church was sued because it wouldn't recognize a Jewish marriage, or Atheists sued because their marriage wasn't recognized by the LDS Church? THE ARGUMENT HOLDS NO WATER! Since the state is not controlled by the church and vice versa, neither should have a say in the other's affairs!
