Prop 8 sucks

Another post about the foibles of the US of A (Why am I spending so much time on US websites if I constantly pour derision on them? Because I can't read Chinese which kinda limits me to UK and US websites!).

Proposition 8 is a controversial issue for which you can find more details here (wikipedia - the font of all knowledge!). As usual, summary below.

In California, the supreme court previously had a decision that recognised same-sex marriages as being a fundamental right. This was a fantastic decision for which the judges deserve full praise. Subsequent to this, lots of gay people have tied the knot in California (the most prominent being George Takei - also known as Captain Sulu of Star Trek fame). Although I never blogged about it, this was one of the rare things for which I felt the Americans could be truly proud (the other being the fact that they elected a Black president!!).

Unfortunately, the course of US politics is never easy. Subsequent to the court ruling, Prop 8 was introduced which would add to the consitution the line "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California". In other words, they would get around the precedent court case by changing the law itself.

Prop 8 was passed by a majority vote of 52.5%.

Obviously, those in support of prop 8 have various reasons (excuses?) to support it. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any definitive source with all the reasons in support (the official line, albeit brief, seems to be available at this site) but the best way to find out is to run a search for proposition 8 using Google's blog search and read about the various reasons people have posted for supporting prop 8 (you can also read all the blogs posts opposing prop 8 at the same time).

I don't really want to cover all the various points in this blog post as it would make the post too long. To be honest, there are plenty of other blog posts with similar views to my own and which make a case to oppose prop 8 much more eloquently than I could (and yes, I think its shameful that the black community, which voted 70% in favour of prop 8, is being targeted for racial abuse as a result of this).

Personally, after having read several blogs in support of prop 8, I can't help but come to one conclusion - Bullshit. Regardless of how you cut the cake or how you justify the decision, the end result is always the same - voting for prop 8 is a vote for non-equality.