A brief note on California’s mean-spirited Proposition 8

The California Supreme Court is no bastion of liberalism. Quite the contrary. Six of its seven justices are Republicans, and the lone Democratic appointment, made by centrist governor Gray Davis, is equally centrist. There are NO liberals on the court.

Nevertheless, this conservative court found that it was a violation of the principle tenets of the California Constitution to deny the right to marriage to same-sex couples. The opinion was drafted by Ron George, California’s Chief Justice, states that the “equal respect and dignity” of marriage is a “basic civil right” that cannot be withheld from same-sex couples. The court further confirmed that sexual orientation is a protected class like race and gender, and that any classification or discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation may violate the Equal Protection Clause of the California State Constitution.

Right-wing hate-mongers took offense at the decision, and have embarked on a mean, grumpy, spiteful, narrow-minded and retrograde effort to amend the California Constitution to strip same-sex couples of the rights currently guaranteed to them by that same constitution. That effort, called Proposition 8 on the upcoming ballot, would be the first time a constitution within the united states was amended so as to strip rights from a group of people. There is no moral or intellectual basis on which to support these efforts. They are vile, and anyone voting in favor of Proposition 8 had better just hope the rest of the state doesn’t decide to take their rights away as well.

It would seem that the No on Prop. 8 forces should be able to easily muster a majority to defeat the proposition, but the advertising campaign engaged in by the No on 8 forces has been particularly ineffective, bordering on incompetent.

So, unless you’re a right-wing hate-monger, vote No on 8, and convince as many people as you can to vote no as well. A conservative court determined that same sex couples have a right to marry under the California Constitution, and any action to strip constitutional rights from a minority group must be resisted as decisively as possible.