On November 4, 2008, the people of California approved the passage of Proposition 8, stating that "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." The measure passed 52.3% to 47.7%. I must say that I am not a proponent of the ballot initiative, but in cases like this where the issue has this kind of an effect on society as a whole, I believe that putting it to a vote of the people is the best thing that can be done.
Apparently, putting this to a vote of the people is now an unpopular decision. The gay rights groups are protesting this, saying that their civil rights are being taken away. They want this to go the courts, where they believe that they will get a sympathetic court (and being in California, I would bet that they would get just that) to hear their case and strike down this proposition as unconstitutional.
The one aspect of this that I find truly interesting is that California is a very Democrat state. The Presidential race in that state was not even close. Yet they voted for a gay marriage ban. So, how did this happen? Maybe the gay rights people miscalculated and thought all Democrats were for gay marriage. Apparently, Obama must have had a lot of supporters that were against gay marriage. Anyway you look at it, it has to be Obama supporters that helped to pass this.
I guess my question is this: what happened to democracy? If this outcome had gone the other way, these groups would be demonizing anyone trying to protest the results, while saying that the people have spoken. Many times, we do not get a chance like this to have our voices heard in this manner. Our voices are generally heard only through our representation, who we generally cannot trust to make these kind of decisions.
If they want gays to marry, there are other places they can go, like Europe. And while they are there to get married, they can stay there, since they embrace many European socialist ideas anyway. Maybe there is still a hint of morality left in many Americans.
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