California Prop 8 & Gay Marriage

Although the proponents of Prop 8 stayed away from mentioning religion as the motivating force for their campaign, religion is the reason most people oppose gay marriage. Proponents wanted to declare marriage to be "between a man and a woman" because many religious people believe anything else is immoral based on Biblical teachings.

Marriage happens with a legal license
But marriage is not, and never has been, solely about the religious ceremony. There are religious rites and legal rights, and the two are not interchangeable. You can stand before a priest, minister, rabbi or other religious leader and declare your vows, but that does not make you married according to state law.

Likewise, you can stand before a civil judge and sign a marriage license, but still not have a marriage recognized by your church. For example, in Catholic churches that follow a strict doctrine, someone who is married in a civil ceremony but doesn't have a corresponding religious ceremony is not married in the eyes of the church.

Marriage is a legal status bestowed by the state, not by a church. You become married when you sign a legal document, and that legal document gives you certain legal rights, responsibilities and obligations. The legal status of marriage is not about a religious ceremony. It is about entering into a legally binding relationship.

Nor is marriage simply about love. People do get married when they love each other and want to spend their lives together, but marriage does not prove love or give couples the right to spend their lives together. Marriage cements an existing relationship with a legal bond. It allows two consenting adults to be legally responsible for and to each other.

Marriage is a legal status
bestowed by the state, not by a church.

Think about how many people avoid marriage for that very reason. How many people do you know who have decided to live together rather than get married, at least in the beginning of their relationship? If a couple is in love, why NOT get married? The answer is simple - they don't want the legal rights, responsibilities and obligations of a married couple. They don't want to be legally responsible for someone else's debts or medical decisions. They don't want to share their wealth. They don't want to be legally responsible for another person. And so they don't get married because they recognize that marriage is a legal agreement into which they're not ready to enter.

Separation of church and state
Proponents of Prop 8 didn't want to advertise the religious impetus to pass this measure because our country was founded upon the idea of separation of church and state. But religious views (not legal ones) are the main reason most people oppose gay marriage. Why else would you deny two consenting adults the option to have the same legal rights and responsibilities of any other couple who wants to commit their lives to each other?

State laws cannot change people's belief systems, nor should they. Gay marriage will not change people's belief systems. Those who think the Bible condemns homosexuality will continue to believe it, as is their right. And those who believe two consenting adults should have the ability to join in a legal commitment will continue to believe it, as is their right.

When Prop 8 passed, the California Constitution was altered to include exclusionary language based on a religious belief system.

Marriage as a religious rite would not have been altered by the passage of Prop 8. But marriage as a legal right has now been taken away from same-sex couples throughout California.

"The debate here today is not about whether to change the definition of marriage - it has been changed.

The debate comes down to whether we should override a right that is now in place."

- Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin speaking to the House of Commons in 2005 before nationwide same-sex marriage was approved.

California and other US states are not the only governments to struggle with the issue of allowing or not allowing same-sex couples to marry. In Canada, individual provinces began legalizing same-sex marriage in 2003. By the time the Civil Marriage Act was introduced in 2005 to extend this right across the nation, eight of 10 provinces and one of three territories had already legalized same-sex marriage.

In his speech supporting the Civil Marriage Act, PM Martin made an eloquent argument in favor of same-sex marriage. Part of the speech explained why he favored marriage for all rather than a separate law for gay couples. Here is what he said:

"(Civil unions) would give same sex couples many of the rights of a wedded couple, but their relationships would not legally be considered marriage. In other words, they would be equal, but not quite as equal as the rest of Canadians.

The courts have clearly and consistently ruled that this option would offend the equality provisions of the charter. For instance, the British Columbia Court of Appeal stated that, "Marriage is the only road to true equality for same sex couples. Any other form of recognition of same sex relationships... falls short of true equality".

Put simply, we must always remember that "separate but equal" is not equal. What is more, those who call for the establishment of civil unions fail to understand that the Government of Canada does not have the constitutional jurisdiction to do so. Only the provinces have that. Only the provinces could define such a regime, and they could define it in 10 different ways, and some jurisdictions might not bother to define it at all. There would be uncertainty. There would be confusion. There would certainly not be equality."

"The essence of the right to marry
is freedom to join in marriage
with the person of one's choice."

- Quote from Perez v. Sharp, the 1948 CA Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage in California nearly 20 years before the U.S. Supreme Court followed suit. California was the first state in the union to allow interracial unions.

This is a partial list of organizations supporting the No on 8 campaign. For a complete list, please visit the official No on 8 site.

Civil Rights Organizations
ACLU Northern California
ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties
ACLU Santa Barbara Chapter
ACLU of Southern California
Anti-Defamation League Southern California
Asian Pacific Islander (API) Equality
Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California
Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA)
California NAACP
Equality California
Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD)
Greater Sacramento Urban League
Japanese American Citizens League
Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF)
NAACP - Oakland Branch
Organization of Chinese Americans - Orange County Chapter

Labor Organizations
AFSCME California PEOPLE
California Federation of Teachers
California Labor Federation
California Nurses Association
California Teachers Association
Communication Workers of America District 9
San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs' Association
SEIU California State Council
United Farm Workers
UNITE HERE!
United Teachers of Los Angeles

Community Based Organizations
AIDS Emergency Fund
API Equality LA
API Equality SF
Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice
Asian and Pacific Islander Family Pride
Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom
Billy DeFrank Lesbian & Gay Community Center - San Jose
Black AIDS Institute
Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry
Chinese Rainbow Association
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of LA (CHIRLA)
ElderHelp of San Diego/Aging As Ourselves
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
Family Equality Council
Freemont Alliance for a Hate-Free Community
Gay and Lesbian Alliance of the Central Coast (GALA)
Jordan/Rustin Coalition
Justice Matters
Latino Coalition for Justice - LA
L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center
Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association of Los Angeles
Mexican American Concilio of Yolo County
National Council of Jewish Women Los Angeles
Network on Religion and Justice for Asian and Pacific Islander LGBT
Pacific Center
Pacific Pride Center - Santa Barbara
Sacramento Gay and Lesbian Center
San Diego LGBT Community Center
San Diego LGBT Pride
San Diego Psychological Association
San Francisco Human Services Network
San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center
Sonoma County Pride Committee
Sonoma State University Academic Senate
South Asian Bar Association of Northern California
South Bay LGBT Center
Southern California HIV Advocacy Coalition (SCHAC)
Southern California Lambda Medical Association
Southern California Psychiatric Society
Stanislaus PRIDE Center
The Center Advocacy Project San Diego
The One Love Campaign
Trans Equality
USC Medical Gay and Lesbian Organization (USC MedGLO) LA
Ventura County Rainbow Alliance
The Wall Las Memorias

Statewide Organizations
Bienestar
California American Academy of Pediatrics, California
California Faculty Association
California National Organization for Women (NOW)
California Psychiatric Association
California Psychological Association
Gay-Straight Alliance Network
Lambda Legal
Latino Issues Forum
League of Women Voters of California
Liberty Hill Foundation
National Association of Social Workers, CA Chapter
National Council of Jewish Women California
Pacific Coast College Health Association
Women's Foundation of California

Newspapers
Contra Costa Times
Los Angeles Times
The San Francisco Chronicle
The Palm Springs Desert Sun
The San Jose Mercury News
The Napa Valley Register
The New York Times
The Press-Enterprise
The San Diego Union Tribune
The Sacramento Bee
The Tracy Press
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Orange County Register
La Opinión
La Prensa San Diego
The San Francisco Bay Guardian
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Redding-Record Searchlight

Google co-founder Sergey Brin posted the following message on the official Google blog on Sept. 26:

As an Internet company, Google is an active participant in policy debates surrounding information access, technology and energy. Because our company has a great diversity of people and opinions -- Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, all religions and no religion, straight and gay -- we do not generally take a position on issues outside of our field, especially not social issues. So when Proposition 8 appeared on the California ballot, it was an unlikely question for Google to take an official company position on.

However, while there are many objections to this proposition -- further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text -- it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 -- we should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.

These ideas are taken from 5 Things You Can Do to Defeat Prop 8 from the the official No on CA Prop 8 site, and I've added a few thoughts of my own.

1. Give. - Recent reports show that the Yes on 8 camp is raising more money than the No on 8 camp. You can help by donating to the No on 8 campaign.

2. Volunteer. - The official No on 8 campaign needs volunteers to hand out information at local events and make phone calls to voters educating them about defeating Prop 8. Sign up to volunteer.

3. Spread the word. - The official No on 8 site encourages you to talk to others and to write letters to the editor of your local papers, and those are great. But there's another way Web users can help, and since you're reading this on the Web, this is where I'm going to throw in my own suggestions.

As I write this, if you search for "proposition 8" or "ca prop 8" or "california proposition 8" on Google, the Yes on 8 page comes up first. Google has officially come out in support of the No on 8 effort, but they don't change their algorithm to support their political views. You, however, can use their algorithm to help move the official No on Prop 8 page higher up in the search results.

How? Bookmark it. Digg it. Stumble it. Save it on Deli.cio.us, Mixx, Furl, Mister-Wong and JumpTags. Google gives higher rankings to sites that have more links pointing to them. So get started right now. Go to this page and Digg the official No on Prop 8 homepage.

Then go bookmark it at all the sites I mentioned above. Not only will this help the No on 8 homepage come up higher in Google search results, it will also make it easier for people using all those sites to find it and learn more about the proposition and why they should vote no. And if you have a blog, post an entry and put a link there, too.

You can also reprint the article above from this page or email a link to this page to others.

Information is power, the web is the information portal of our age, and the web is democratic. He who has the most links wins. So go link to No on Prop 8 and help people get information that will allow them to make an informed decision about their vote.

4. Vote. - This one is obvious. If you don't vote, nothing else matters.

Vote no on Prop 8.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee, the Yes on 8 movement is receiving significant amounts of money from out-of-state conservative interests, especially the Mormon Church.

Between July 1 and Sept. 30, Prop. 8 supporters raised $22.8 million.

According to the Chronicle, "Some of the largest contributions to the campaign include $450,000 from philanthropist John Templeton Jr. of Pennsylvania, $400,000 from Fieldstead and Co., a foundation run by conservative activist Howard Ahmanson, and $300,000 from Focus on the Family, a Christian organization run by James Dobson."

In another article in the Sacramento Bee titled, "Mormons lead the way in financing Yes on Prop. 8 efforts," the newspaper reported:

"Church members have donated about 40 percent of the $22.8 million raised to pass the initiative since July, according to Frank Schubert, campaign manager for ProtectMarriage.com, the primary backer of the "yes" campaign."

In the United States, each state has the ability to make its own laws about marriage. Three states, Massachusetts, California and Connecticut, have legalized same-sex marriage, but California's same-sex marriage rights were taken away with the passage of Proposition 8.

In other parts of the world, however, entire nations have struggled with this question and granted legalized marriage to same-sex couples, including our northern friends in Canada, the largely-Catholic nation of Spain and even a country once known for denying rights to many - South Africa. Many other countries offer legalized domestic partnerships.

Here is a list of countries that have legalized same-sex marriage as of this writing:

The Netherlands - 2001
Belgium - 2003
Canada - 2005
Spain - 2005
South Africa - 2006

California is not the only state that has a ballot measure that would discriminate against same-sex (and in some cases opposite-sex) relationships. These websites can tell you more.

Arizona - Proposition 102
Arkansas - Initiated Act 1
Florida - Amendment 2

The following letter has been widely circulated on the Internet. It was purportedly written to Dr. Laura Schlessinger, though it may or may not have actually been sent to her. It is widely regarded as a humorous way of attacking the argument that homosexuality is wrong "because the Bible says so."

There are strong feelings on both sides of the Prop 8 argument, so I hope this might provide some levity while also serving as a catalyst for thought.

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them:

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15:19- 24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?

Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your fan,