Today the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment passed by voters last Election Day that bans gays and lesbians from marrying. Hopefully you already knew that. If not, stop reading this blog and turn on CNN, then read The Onion. Anyway, the court said (and I'm paraphrasing) that voters had the authority to amend the state's Constitution. And in order to find Prop 8 unconstitutional, there needed to be a law passed or an amendment added revoking the right of voters to alter the document.
So okay, fair's fair. They fought, they won; they were counter-attacked, they lost; they fought again, they lost. Really brings home the meaning of "you win some, you lose some". The political analysis in November was that Barack Obama's presence on the ballot increased the black voter turnout (duh), a group that is typically conservative in its regard toward homosexuality, giving supporters the victory. But seriously, this is the time of change. This has, for 8 long ass years, been a country that claims to be spreading freedom, equality and democracy around the globe. But then we restrict those things here. And while we're quite far from the barely industrializing nations of the world, or anywhere in the Middle East, we're falling behind other industrialized countries at an equal (or lesser) advantage than ours. (And not just in gay rights or other civil liberties, but it falls behind at least one other country in its treatment of prisoners, environmental impact, overall quality of life, sane drug laws, health care, education, treatment of the unemployment, violent crime, sexual crime, obesity, homeless population, and the list goes on.)
There are claims that the change in demographic for this vote impacts the validity of the vote itself. But let's face it, that doesn't matter. Our democracy is founded on the principal of majority rule, the majority of which comes from the population as a whole, but only if they choose to vote. Choosing to vote or not choosing to vote, choosing to stay home some years when you don't care and casting a vote when there is an doesn't change how you actually voted. It's something we have to accept.
The only thing that really pisses me off is when you hear someone on NPR or another forum where people are trying to have an honest debate about the issue and the person that is speaking in the 'defense of marriage [sic] keeps referring to Christian beliefs as their reasoning for the legal eradication of it. Okay, listen: This. Is. America. You can't say that something is illegal because God says so. It's not allowed. That was in the first Constitution. Stop.
But there is hope. Advice for gays: The gay characters in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist are awesome, very sweet and not all that stereotypical. One of them has his moments, but they're subtle. And they're basically just awesome and everyone wants to be them. So I think we should promote the DVD as heavily as possible in California, and really any state with a ballot initiative or an overwhelmingly large cattle farming community. Another idea is to draft a ballot initiative to repeal Proposition 8 and have a bunch of people from the Northeast (minus New Hampshire and Maine, Connecticut too because fuck Joe Lieberman) move to California in 2010-2011 to ensure its passage. Then after it passes, lobby the legislature to amend the constitution further to disallow voters from being able to alter it. Then we'll get the final say.
Or just keep fighting.
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