Prop 8
With just over one week left until election 2008 I find myself wishing I was still a California resident. My vote for Barack Obama here in New York means no more than my vote in California. Both states will carry all their electoral votes to Obama by a strong margin. There are no huge referendums, propositions or local elections here in NY/NYC where my vote will really matter. Aside from the presidential election, my attention is on proposition 8 in my home state.
For those of you not aware, proposition 8 would legally define marriage as being between a man and a woman in the state constitution of California thus reversing the ruling by the state supreme court which finally gave homosexuals the same rights as heterosexuals.
I'm disheartened to see how divided my fellow Californians are on this issue. The polls are close, but the margin once held in favor of allowing same sex marriage to continue is now near a statistical dead heat.
Many people forget what happened in the 2000 election cycle. Prop 22, aka the Knight initiative proposed defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. It passed with over 60% of the vote! It was this law which the state supreme court overturned as being unconstitutional earlier this year. And now it's back in another reincarnation.
I dream and prey that my fellow Californians see the civil rights struggle going on right now and stand up again oppression. It took 8 years for prop 22 to be overturned. Are we really going to let it come back and suppress our State and ultimately, our nations march to marriage equality?
I find myself getting more and more emotional over this issue. Maybe its because I see more and more of my fellow classmates from college and high school becoming engaged and getting married while the option still isn't available to someone like me. Maybe its because it took California 8 years to stand up again intolerance and bias to finally make a stride for our continuing civil liberties march. And if this is overturned in a sate like California, what hope do we have as a nation for equality?
Maybe it's because this election cycle I'm 24. And in 8 years I'll be at the age of when my parents were married. So if California votes to regress its liberties to people like me now, what hope do I have in my lifetime for a national movement for marriage equality?
I nearly cried at work today when I read how strong support was growing for prop 8 in California. It broke my heart to read that my home state, the state I love so much, is on the verge of stepping back from progress.
I wont tell anyone how to vote. But to all my Californian's out there, please think about the ramifications of prop 8 and what this vote is really about. It's not about teaching homosexuality in schools or forcing religious institutions to adopt same sex marriage into doctrine. This vote is about civil liberties and equality among human beings.
For those of you not aware, proposition 8 would legally define marriage as being between a man and a woman in the state constitution of California thus reversing the ruling by the state supreme court which finally gave homosexuals the same rights as heterosexuals.
I'm disheartened to see how divided my fellow Californians are on this issue. The polls are close, but the margin once held in favor of allowing same sex marriage to continue is now near a statistical dead heat.
Many people forget what happened in the 2000 election cycle. Prop 22, aka the Knight initiative proposed defining marriage as being between a man and a woman. It passed with over 60% of the vote! It was this law which the state supreme court overturned as being unconstitutional earlier this year. And now it's back in another reincarnation.
I dream and prey that my fellow Californians see the civil rights struggle going on right now and stand up again oppression. It took 8 years for prop 22 to be overturned. Are we really going to let it come back and suppress our State and ultimately, our nations march to marriage equality?
I find myself getting more and more emotional over this issue. Maybe its because I see more and more of my fellow classmates from college and high school becoming engaged and getting married while the option still isn't available to someone like me. Maybe its because it took California 8 years to stand up again intolerance and bias to finally make a stride for our continuing civil liberties march. And if this is overturned in a sate like California, what hope do we have as a nation for equality?
Maybe it's because this election cycle I'm 24. And in 8 years I'll be at the age of when my parents were married. So if California votes to regress its liberties to people like me now, what hope do I have in my lifetime for a national movement for marriage equality?
I nearly cried at work today when I read how strong support was growing for prop 8 in California. It broke my heart to read that my home state, the state I love so much, is on the verge of stepping back from progress.
I wont tell anyone how to vote. But to all my Californian's out there, please think about the ramifications of prop 8 and what this vote is really about. It's not about teaching homosexuality in schools or forcing religious institutions to adopt same sex marriage into doctrine. This vote is about civil liberties and equality among human beings.