Prop 8 = No

[marta]

I was going to write about my other cat, Balthasar, today. But election and politics season is here, and I'm going to write about that for today and tomorrow. I couldn't ignore it even if I wanted to, which I don't.

I'm not from California, but a lot of my friends are. Prop 8, a state constitutional amendment titled Eliminates Right of Same-Sex

Comments

[arie]

Very well said. I couldn't agree more. It's ridiculous that in the day and age where we've written laws about how it's illegal to discriminate based on age, sex, race, religion or sexual orientation so many local and state governments are doing (or attempting to do) just that.

It saddens me that our leaders have almost universally accepted that it's wrong to discriminate based on race (took us long enough, didn't it?) but in the next breath state that it's okay to discriminate based on sexual orientation. I just don't understand how people can claim one is bad and the other is not just okay, but something that we must actively stop. Discrimination is discrimination and there is no form of it that is acceptable. It is wrong to deny basic rights to one class of individuals that are afforded to all citizens of this country and guaranteed in our own Constitution.

I've made the argument many times that if "marriage" is a religious term, let the church have it and let's truly separate our church and state and talk about the legal rights aspect of a "marriage" as civil union. That said, I like your version much better. Marriage is a dual term. It represents both the religious and civil aspect of the union. A marriage may not necessarily be religious, as it can be performed by a Justice of the Peace and others, but it is always a civil union as represented by the legal rights earned by each partner with respect to the other.

It's time we stopped letting the fears and bigotry of a few dictate the laws that govern us all.

[elyssa]

+1 to both of you.