Nov 12, 2008

On California’s Proposition 8

The recently held United States election was a bittersweet affair. On the one hand, I’m really, really glad that Sen. Barrack Obama was overwhelmingly elected as President of the United States. On the other hand, I’m extremely saddened by the fact that propositions to amend three state constitutions to ban gay marriage in California, Arizona, and Florida passed or are passing. I’m especially disheartened with outcome in California, perceived as one of the most liberal states in the States. Proposition 8, or the ballot that “Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry,” is currently passing with a little over 52% of the votes; only a simple majority is needed to pass a constitutional amendment and the official result will be released on December 9.

California’s Prop 8 has been said by pundits to be the highest-funded campaign in the United States on the November election next to the presidential race. There’s plenty of ads, posters, and rallies that have been conducted for and against Prop 8. Even Google has released an official company statement against the proposition. There are plenty of videos uploaded to YouTube, but this No to Prop 8 video is the most heartwarming I've seen:

But hope (and love) is not lost. Social trends show (based on past legal-based initiatives in California) that it’s only a matter of time before Prop 8 will be overturned.

As a final food for though regarding this whole gay marriage issue, I’ll leave you with this Slate article titled “Privatize Marriage” by David Boaz, which says that the simple, although hard-to-implement, solution to the gay marriage debate is to make marriages private, like it used to be centuries ago.

5 comments:

Anonymous wrote on November 14, 2008 at 11:45 AM:

52/46 = not overwhelming.

 
Vince (Discreet Manila) wrote on November 18, 2008 at 12:09 AM:

Hopefully in a few years that number will be reversed. :-)

 
Anonymous wrote on November 18, 2008 at 10:15 AM:

Well I'll tell you what, I consider myself a pretty tolerant person and at first I was against prop 8. However, recent events have made me change my mind. Ripping a cross out of an elderly womans hand and then stomping on it was beyond outrageous. That woman had just as much right to protest in her own way that the gays did. And another example of a gay group that invaded a small church in Michigan and disrupted the service by screaming "it's ok to be gay" and kissing each other, and throwing pamphlets into the air. Little by little I have seen more examples of gay groups who want America to be tolerant of them, while they stomp on crosses and disrupt other Americans freedoms to go to church. I'm sorry, but if they feel that bullying people is the right way to go, then they are sadly mistaken.
Until I see other gay groups come out and condemn this type of bullying, I will be 'for' passing prop 8 now and in the future, and I will do everything I can to remind people of this type of behavior until they accept that Americans can feel however they want as long as they do it peacefully. I am not at all for violence, and violence against gays these days is increasingly rare, and that's a good thing. But if things like this keep happening, I can only imagine the backlash and hatred that is going to be taught to young kids whose parents take more offense to these actions then I do.
You reap what you sow, and if this is the way gay groups want to go about changing peoples minds, they're going to find out pretty quick that it's having the opposite effect. Because I've changed my mind, and now I'm 'for' prop 8.

 
Vince (Discreet Manila) wrote on November 20, 2008 at 11:40 PM:

Anon #2, I'm sure you realize that those intolerant gay people are just a vocal minority. I don't condone their behavior and I think that the vast majority of gays and lesbians won't stoop down to that level of rude behavior.

To say "yes" to Prop 8 because of that seems petty. And you probably just need to look around and maybe read some articles where other gay groups condemn such behavior. It's probably all buried under the sheen of sensationalism.

 
Anonymous wrote on November 21, 2008 at 1:52 PM:

Please, I haven't seen one public outcry against this behavior from Gay groups. Come out publicly, on TV and the news outlets to criticize it, not just on some blogs that the majority of Americans don't read.