Why I Voted NO on PROP 8

Monday, November 3, 2008 3:10pm "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." These are words of one of the foremost renowned Americans of the twentieth century, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As an African-American minister who was literally thrust onto the stage of history by racial injustice in the south, Dr. King was most clear about the insidious nature of hate and discrimination. Throughout the pages of our history we have seen time and again how the small-minded ideologies of one group of human beings have been allowed to oppress the lives of others. This is unfortunate. In California, there is such a proposition on the 2008 election ballot. Proposition 8 seeks to amend the Constitution of the State of California to exclude homosexuals from the right to choose and marry the person they love and enter into civil contract. (One group of human beings, in their small-minded ideologies, has set out to oppress the lives of others). Those in support of this proposition have framed the conversation in “defense of marriage.” My question is: Why does marriage need defending? The idea that marriage has been an unchanged tradition in the human experience is not supported sociologic- or anthropologically. Marriage has evolved from our earliest understandings of the agreement. These evolutions have followed the pattern of human progression in expanded thought and insight for centuries. Long gone are the days when 12 year old little girls of ancient times (and recent modern times) were bartered off in exchange for goods & familial reputation. No more do we experience in civilized society the occurrence of women, though “married,” being considered property and having their rights apportioned into their husband’s trust. No longer is it illegal in this country of expanded freedoms for members of differing races to enter into loving relationships and later marry, as it was some short forty-one years ago (Loving v. Virginia, 1967). We are grateful for evolution in human understanding. Now, we who love justice and equality have another battle to fight. It would be easy to base this decision on fear. The supporters of this proposition have offered us a heavy dose of that medicine. Even easier, may be the notion to decide based on religious beliefs. However, we’re a country of laws and principles and one such law is the separation of church and state and one of the founding principles of this country is the notion that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, THAT THEY ARE ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR WITH CERTAIN UNALIENABLE RIGHTS; THAT AMONG THESE ARE LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PRUSUIT OF HAPPINESS... Proposition 8 is discriminatory and discrimination is beneath humanity.