Two reasons why Prop 8 ain't over yet. Well, three, really.
Okay, I'm pretty fucking disappointed in the state of California right now. But, legal shenanigans abound. Here's what could happen, if Liberals continue to play smart, the way we have all year.
1. Challenge the legality of the prop amending the California Constitution in the first place. While a simple addition to their constitution requires a mere majority, a proposition that actually ALTERS already-existing portions of said document requires a far more difficult 2/3rds majority. The logical contention one can draw is that, given the California Supreme Court ruled that the previous Consitution protected the gay right to marriage, that Prop. 8 did not meet the sufficent voting requirements to actually alter said already existing portion of the Consitution. I expect this will be the first road taken, probably via the local San Fransisco courts up the chain to the California Supreme Court.
2. California's equal protections clause is a tricky, tricky thing. Technically, according to said Constituion, no man or woman can be denied any right that other men or women already have. So, under the phrasing of Proposition 8, not only are all gay/lesbian marriages banned, but all heterosexual marriages (well, technically, new ones, as the previously existing ones remain in place) would also be banned, as no man or woman can have rights that other men or women are prohibited.
This is what people can term the 'nuclear option'.
3. Wait it out. This is the cop-out option, unfortunately, but it's the one guarenteed to work. Demographics are on our side on this arguement. People under the age of 30 support the rights of gays something like 2-1. People between 30-60 are pretty evenly split on the issue. It's people under 60, which remain America's most politically active demographic, that are against the issue, something like three to one.
Wait ten years. A large enough percentage of the bigots will die, and you'll have your victory. It shouldn't come to that, we should be a more open society at the dawn of the 21st century, but know, in the end, we win. That's why the Religious Right has waged a war of hate and fear, trying desperately to win the Culture War before they become completely irrelevant. Obama's win handed them their first dramatic defeat, the eventual triumph of equal rights, regardless of sexual orientation, will be the Yorktown to Obama's Saratoga.
(Who said one can't make spiffy Revolutionary War references in modern 21st century political discourse?)
1. Challenge the legality of the prop amending the California Constitution in the first place. While a simple addition to their constitution requires a mere majority, a proposition that actually ALTERS already-existing portions of said document requires a far more difficult 2/3rds majority. The logical contention one can draw is that, given the California Supreme Court ruled that the previous Consitution protected the gay right to marriage, that Prop. 8 did not meet the sufficent voting requirements to actually alter said already existing portion of the Consitution. I expect this will be the first road taken, probably via the local San Fransisco courts up the chain to the California Supreme Court.
2. California's equal protections clause is a tricky, tricky thing. Technically, according to said Constituion, no man or woman can be denied any right that other men or women already have. So, under the phrasing of Proposition 8, not only are all gay/lesbian marriages banned, but all heterosexual marriages (well, technically, new ones, as the previously existing ones remain in place) would also be banned, as no man or woman can have rights that other men or women are prohibited.
This is what people can term the 'nuclear option'.
3. Wait it out. This is the cop-out option, unfortunately, but it's the one guarenteed to work. Demographics are on our side on this arguement. People under the age of 30 support the rights of gays something like 2-1. People between 30-60 are pretty evenly split on the issue. It's people under 60, which remain America's most politically active demographic, that are against the issue, something like three to one.
Wait ten years. A large enough percentage of the bigots will die, and you'll have your victory. It shouldn't come to that, we should be a more open society at the dawn of the 21st century, but know, in the end, we win. That's why the Religious Right has waged a war of hate and fear, trying desperately to win the Culture War before they become completely irrelevant. Obama's win handed them their first dramatic defeat, the eventual triumph of equal rights, regardless of sexual orientation, will be the Yorktown to Obama's Saratoga.
(Who said one can't make spiffy Revolutionary War references in modern 21st century political discourse?)