The rights of the minority cannot and should not be legislated by the opinion of the majority. Yes on 8 goes against the fundamental tenant and purpose of the constitution, which was created to protect minorities from majorities. In fact, Brown v. Education cemented this very basic value by granting civil liberties to a segment of the population that has been denied of them.
Furthermore, the court legislated in Brown v. Education that separate but equal is unconstitutional. Hypothetically, even if civil unions are granted all the legal rights that marriages enjoy (which they do not currently), the mere fact that there are two separate categories is unconstitutional because you are creating a chasm within the population. The underlying message here is that gays and lesbians are second class citizen and that only one group can stake a claim to the institution of marriage.
I had a discussion with a Mormon friend yesterday about this issue. She was shocked to learn that state and church recognition of marriage is two distinct processes. This means that while the state may recognize that a couple is married, the church does not and vice versa. My boss was a Mormon and was married in the Mormon church. She has since gotten a legal divorce but has not declared the couple's separation in the Church. The Church still recognizes her as being married while the State does not.
In terms of process, the petition process is invalid because the initial process was improperly used to undo a fundamental right the constitution's core commitment to equality for everyone by eliminating a fundamental right from just one group – lesbian and gay Californians. Proposition 8 also improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities. According to the California Constitution, such radical changes to the organizing principles of state government cannot be made by simple majority vote through the initiative process, but instead must, at a minimum, go through the state legislature first. ACLU and others are bringing this case to the court.
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Hey Tuan,
I finally found the time to read your message and I can assure you that I understand you very well. I am actually in kind of a dilemma myself because the prop 8 referendum showed the limits for justice that democray involves. A majority decides about the rights of a minority, that's what democracy means, that's what minorities all over the world, including the biggest minority, women, btw, suffer from. Is it fair, is it legal, are there any alternatives - issues that nag a lawyer like myself, as you can imagine.
When it comes to religious beliefs, we must differentiate. Nobody can be told to change their own personal moral beliefs, it is an individual right of each of us to have them and to act according to them as long as no laws or rules of society get breached. But we must also be vigilant that no false statements are being made: Religious people regularly do not tell the truth which is that their personal guess is as good as any others but instead claim that certain facts indicate that their belief is the true and right one. The radical Christians for example usually allegate that the bible tells this and that, especially that gay sex is an abomination. This is not only silly because the bible is nothing else but a man written book which has to be read and understood in its historical context, it is also wrong and misleading. I couldonly read ancient Greek at some point, never Hebrew, but I believe those who say that the whole gay sex thing was introduced into the bible only about 100 years ago and had never been mentioned there before. Either way, the bible itself only expresses the personal views of its authors, nothing more, but of course many Christians claim that it is God's word and a direct message from God to the world which gives it an undisputable authority. This is worng, misleading and a dangerous means of manipulating people. If someone thinks that his religious belief forbids them to practise sex of some kind, that is fine. If the religious belief tells them that the sex practiced by their neighbors is wrong, that's fine, too. But they must be truthful and admit that it is nothing but their own personal belief and that they like nobody else don't know anything about God's point of view on that mater. Consequently, it is wrong to go out there and urge people to vote in a certain way because God or some other higher instance tells them so. That is where they overstep the border of their own personal right to freedom of belief and opinion, in the US morally, here even legally. And this is where you are morally entitled to fight them, I think. We do not want to force anyone to act or speak against their own personal moral (religious) beliefs, but we are entitled to and should stop them from doing wrong, and urging other people to do their will in the name of God is wrong. Every person's guess as to what is God's will is as good as any others, the very essence of our freedom of religious belief is the understanding that there is no right and wrong in religion. The moment someone tells others to do as they personally se fit in the name of God, they overstep the borderline of religious freedom and violate, in our instance, the rights of others.
After all, I think you are entitled to battel the (radical) religious groups in teh name of justice and equality as long as you focus on their claim to be right, to know more than others and their attempt to influence others. At least that is what I am doing myself.
There is one wonderful thing about California: people are still passionate about these things. Here everything and everone is emotionless. I wish I was still there. I gave a presentation last week and included some personal experiences from Berkeley. Afterwards, lots of people approached me and told me how obvious it had been how much I was missing my life there. And I am. Anyway, just want to tell you that I fully support your being passionate about the issue and that i wish I could be there and help.
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