right now

Please help and sign the pledge to repeal California’s Proposition 8, which overturned the recently won right of gay couples to marry in CA, and made same-sex marriage illegal in the state, as of the 11/4/08 election.

We have to come together right now to say that we refuse to accept a California where discrimination is enshrined in our state constitution.

I have tried so many times to write on this subject and it keeps on stopping me – I feel so strongly that gay people should be allowed to marry that I am getting all tangled up in the emotions and not finishing the essay. But here are the notable anti-Prop 8 arguments, from ballotpedia.org.

- “Our California Constitution–the law of our land—should guarantee the same freedoms and right to everyone. No one group should be singled out to be treated differently.”
- “Equal protection under the law is the foundation of American society.”
- “Traditional Marriage” is a misleading term. Various marriage traditions, since abolished, have included: only allowing members of the upper class or nobility to marry; having marriages arranged by families without the couple’s consent; only allowing white people to marry; only allowing people of the same race to marry; and allowing one man to marry multiple women.
- Current statistics show roughly 50% of heterosexual marriages end in divorce. So-called “traditional marriage” is doing more to degrade the institutional of marriage than any expansion of marriage could ever do.
- Voter initiatives to amend the constitution should not be taken lightly; using them to take away rights from one group could open the door to voter initiatives to take away other rights, including religious freedoms and civil rights.
- The institution of marriage conveys dignity and respect to the lifetime commitment that a couple makes. Proposition 8 would deny lesbian and gay couples the opportunity to that same dignity and respect.
- “The freedom to marry is fundamental to our society, just like the freedoms of religion and speech.”
- When domestic partnerships are held out as an acceptable substitute for marriage, this is misleading. Domestic partnerships are not a substitute for marriage. The doctrine of “separate but equal” has failed throughout American history.