Propostion 8 and the Lesson of Electing Barack Obama President

November 7, 2008 on 10:57 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments

I celebrated the victory of President-elect Barack Obama, and later in the evening what should have been a tremendous day of celebration was marred by the passing of Proposition 8 in California – banning same-sex marriage after the California Supreme Court had declared the marriages to be legal.

Whether or not you personally believe that gay-marriage is “appropriate” I hope that you can understand how wrong it is to take a right away from someone.

It wasn’t long ago in our country that inter-racial marriage was illegal in some states. Today, that seems absurd, especially considering that our next President of the United States is the product of a bi-racial couple.

With such a tremendous stride toward progress in the election of Barack Obama, I somehow thought that mainstream Americans were beginning to understand how wrong discrimination was. Unfortunately in California, Florida, Arkansas we were shown that the majority of Americans are still perfectly comfortable writing discrimination into state Constitutions and reducing certain groups to the status of second-class citizens.

I try to find a way to accurately communicate to people what it’s like to be discriminated against for something you truly have no control over. African-Americans understand what this is, but sadly many African-American churches were pushing their congregations to vote Yes on Prop 8 and push the ban. I find that to be the hardest thing to understand.

People want to argue that marriage has been between a man and a woman since the beginning of time.

This argument is completely flawed for a variety of reasons. For starters, humans haven’t existed since the beginning of time. More importantly, modern Christianity hasn’t existed since the beginning of time. On top of that, let’s explore how long humans existed without having moral concepts and social structures like marriage.

Marriages were once arranged, wherein people were forced to marry those they had never met before.

Marriages were once used as a means by which to consolidate political alliances.

Society has moved past both of these uses for marriage, so you cannot argue that marriage has always been the same.

The main argument appears to be that these people who want this discrimination are saying that gay marriage will destroy the sacred union of marriage. They don’t talk about all of the cheating that takes places in heterosexual marriages. They don’t talk about the soaring divorce rates in traditional marriages.

So I have a proposal.

These proposed amendments to state Constitutions are used as weapons against pro-equality individuals in the name of marriage’s defense.

I think pro-equality organizations should therefore start finding ways to propose new amendments as well. I don’t think we need to propose amendments about marriage equality or to fight discrimination, I think we need to take the position of defending the sacred institute of marriage.

So I believe we should propose a proposition to California’s state Constitution, hell to all state Constitutions, outlawing divorce.

I think it should be illegal for heterosexual couples to divorce. Marriage is, afterall, a sacred union and not to be entered into lightly. We should do everything in our power to protect marriage, afterall isn’t that what these “Yes to Prop 8″ defenders were promoting?

So we need to stop divorce if we’re really interested in protecting marriage. This includes revoking division of property and assets that would normally take place upon a married couple divorcing. It also includes revoking the concepts of joint custody of children, because ultimately we need to make sure that children grow up in traditional households consisting of a mother and a father.

I understand that marriages sometimes fall apart, that people fall in and out of love with one another, that violence can sometimes ensue behind closed doors in troubled marriages. And yes there will be consequences. I’m sure domestic violence will increase against women. And, yes, it will probably also increase toward children. And those children will grow up scarred and probably continue the cycle of violence in their own future relationships – but these are obviously sacrifices that are required if we’re to protect marriage in its sacred form.

What? Do you think this sounds completely absurd?

Yes, well, I’m sure that all of those “Yes to Prop 8″ supporters would agree with you. Afterall, it doesn’t make sense to take rights away from people – right?

Yeah.

Something tells me a proposition that would ACTUALLY protect marriage wouldn’t fly.

But despite this set-back in the quest for equality for all people, I can at least look to our new President and know that when our country does make up its mind to take steps toward progress, we do it with style and we do it dramatically.

And that’s one of the lessons I’ve learned from the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States – progress is attainable.