While I am most certainly in awe of the truly history making event on the national stage, representing the ultimate culmination of the Civil Rights Movement, with the election of Barack Obama I find my joy tempered by the failure my own state to squelch a new tide of codified discrimination. The passage of Proposition 8 represents the first time a states electorate has moved to limit and strip the rights of a defined group of people through a state constitutional amendment. This move equates to little more than Jim Crow laws for gays by constitutionally acknowledging their status as second class citizens.
I have heard all the arguments in support of Proposition 8 but what they really boil down to fear and bigotry. One of the chief supporters of Proposition 8, Bill May, even said on Forum that he does not want to legally be considered a bigot by saying that gay marriage is wrong so he wants to amend the California constitution to agree with his position. I have news for you Bill, codified discrimination is still discrimination and that means you’re still a bigot. Furthermore, history shows us clearly that separate but equal is inherently not equal and civil unions functionally are not equal to marriage as well as being socially not equal to marriage.
Another thing history does well is judge and I am confident it will not judge us, as Californians, well for the passage of Proposition 8. This proposition puts a deep stain on a day where many of the stains of past inequality have seemingly washed away. Those of you out there who voted in support of limiting the rights of your fellow citizens, fellow Americans, have a deep stain on your hands.
No amendment, bill, law, or ordinance limiting the rights of a select and defined group should ever pass in today’s America but one has and for that I cannot rest easy.