Been awhile, anyway, here is a letter to the editor that I accidentally never mailed! Oops!

Congratulations California.

This is indeed a momentous time for our state, we have just had an election in which we were given the option to let our voices be heard as we called out to the world that we will not stand for discrimination, that we will stand by the principles that make this a great land, that we will not sacrifice the rights of some, to appease the bigotry of others.

In this Golden State there is a document considered to be the ultimate law of California, superceded only by the Federal government in authority. The document was written with provisions to ensure that this State would never fall prey to the tyranny that so many governments find they have succumbed to. Since tyranny can be formed in many ways, several sections of this document were installed in order to avoid tyranny from as many sources as possible. One of these sources of tyranny is religion. When talking about the tyranny of religion in the US, we automatically think of strange religions that require human sacrifice, oppress women, encourage suicide bombers, and destroy ancient statues. These are the things we are taught to think of as oppressive, but when it comes to Christianity, it seems that even implying the possibility of its tyranny, is off-limits.

So lets not imply anymore, lets just come out and say it. Christianity is a major tyrannical player in California, which is surprising, given that the California State Constitution states in Article 1, Section 4 that “The Legislature shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”. To my mind, and that should automatically preclude Propositions such as 8 which can only have a religious root. However that requires an argument as to what the origin of Proposition 8 actually IS, which proponents say is not religious, and Opponents say is religious. Obviously there can be no definite answer, since we cannot see into the minds of others and know their true intentions. So even though there hasn’t been a secular argument given in support Proposition 8 that stands up to scrutiny and fact checking, we can not use religion as a reason to prohibit Proposition 8.

What is left to us then? We say it is religious, they say it is not. Stalemate. However there is another section of this powerful document known as the Constitution that prohibits Propositions such as 8. This section was created for the explicit purpose of stopping discrimination at the governmental level. We can safely, secularly, and logically argue that Proposition 8 violates the constitution because it enables a group of people to have rights, granted by the government, that another group of people is denied. As we can see from Article 1, Section 7B of the California State Constitution “A citizen or class of citizens may not be granted privileges or immunities not granted on the same terms to all citizens”. Obviously, Proposition 8, which creates a governmental definition of “Marriage”, and therefore restricts any rights given by the government to, and only to, people who fall under that new definition, is a violation of the constitution.

If you have stuck with me to this point, you have seen two arguments against a Proposition, two arguments that have been backed up by direct quotes of the constitution. The first is an argument that only works if you can prove the intent of the Proposition 8 Proponents, and is therefore, not very useful. However the second argument is indisputable, given that it only has to compare the language of the Proposition to the Constitution to come to a conclusion, one that shows Proposition 8 to be a violation of Constitutional Law. Not only a violation, but because of the manner in which it does violate the Constitution; it is also an attempt at legalizing bigotry.

At this point, you should be coming to, or have already arrived at, the conclusion that it doesn’t matter how you feel about homosexuality. It doesn’t matter whether or not your religion cares about it. It doesn’t matter whether or not Marriage between homosexuals will harm your Marriage. It doesn’t matter whether or not Homosexual Marriage will be taught in school. It doesn’t matter whether or not Gay Marriage will cause you to pay for their insurance. It doesn’t matter whether or not Gay Marriage will affect this state in ANY way. What DOES matter is that this Proposition is very much a violation of the State Constitution, and therefore should never have been approved for the ballot, regardless of the number of signatures. For that very reason, every single person in this state should have voted NO on Proposition 8, and anybody who voted yes, is either willingly or unwittingly supporting an unconstitutional attempt to legalize governmental discrimination.

California, you had the chance to stand up and make your voice heard. You had a chance to tell the world that you don’t condone bigotry; you had a chance to prove that the rights and freedoms of ALL people are more important than the petty prejudiced views of some, regardless of whether they are a majority.

California, you blew it.

I am ashamed to have been born in, and remain a citizen of California.

So again, Congratulations California, you have succeeded in passing an unconstitutional proposition, which should have never made it to the ballot. We can now legally discriminate, both personally, and governmentally.

One foot in the door for Tyranny, one giant leap backwards for human rights.

Sincerely,


Seth B*******