The California Supremes have now spoken and have backed completely away from the spirit of their decision of one year ago—the decision arguing persuasively that the principle of equal rights under law applies to gay people, too.
Now these same justices say that the people of California have a perfect right to decide core constitutional issues via plebiscite. In oral arguments earlier this year, Chief Justice Ronald George—the principal author of the first opinion affirming marriage equality—even said that Californians would have the presumptive right to abolish free speech rights, should that question be put before voters on a statewide ballot.
What happened to send the justices into full retreat from their sound constitutional reasoning of May 2008?
Bad religion reared its ugly head, that’s what. Religious groups, using tax-exempt “charitable” money, spend a small fortune on a successful scare campaign. They bore massive false witness through deceptive and misleading ads claiming that school kids would receive homo-friendly indoctrination in public schools and that California houses of worship would be forced to conduct same-sex wedding ceremonies that violate the teachings of their religious traditions.
Expect them to be spend another small fortune, either next year or in 2012, to hold the line against a certain attempt to undo Prop 8 by means of yet another ballot measure.
These groups—the Mormons, the Catholic hierarchy, and especially the Evangelical road warriors—do what they do. What they do represents a kind of thuggery, but it’s not they I’m worried about.
I worry about their enablers. I worry about those who deem certain Evangelical leaders “good” on other justice issues (climate change, torture, workplace justice) and thus exempt these leaders from any criticism for taking retrograde positions on sexual and gender justice. I am speaking here of leaders who are well known for their deafening silence on equal rights for LGBT people and families or else (like Samuel Rodriguez) well known for their active participation in efforts to consign gay people to a separate and unequal ghetto.
That these leaders have been given a blanket welcome as social progressives is actually quite astonishing.
Enablers: you know who you are. Don’t you have even a tiny twinge of remorse at a time like this?
While I understand the reasoning used by the CA Supreme Court in its arguments, it ignored (on purpose) the fundamental question behind these types of laws: can any government establish a "lesser" class of individuals? In this case, the people of California, took advantage of their lax amendment procedures to impose a tyranny of a small majority of those who voted (which is an even smaller minority of those who could). This established a "lesser" class of individuals: those who cannot enter into a marriage with those rights accorded to others who are allowed in. It has become the "country club" mentality for the new century. Look, I don't care what you call it, I call it a laundry list of more than a thousand immediate and assumed rights which accrue in marriage. I say, get rid of the religious connection to civil marriage. No religious marriage should be recognized for any rights by the state, instead, anyone seeking to marry MUST go through a civil licensing ceremony. If they choose to have a religious one, that's fine by me. Then we see how deeply entrenched the church is within the government. Sigh. This will become the single most important social battle in this nation.
In my opinion, another plebiscite regarding same sex marriage in California only lends credence to the fallacy that "the people" have a right to vote on the basic, Constitutionally guaranteed rights of a specific class of citizens. I feel that it must be done at the federal level, which is frightening, given the current Supreme Court makeup. I certainly agree that civil marriage for everyone, much like in France, would be a good thing, though not a "fix" for the Prop 8 issue.
California seems to nurture extremists. The original Prop 13 has been a latent disaster from the moment someone proposed it. We have to pay for government or do without. I lived in the state briefly and found it the antithesis of its progressive reputation.
The manipulation of prejudice by repressive religious groups such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints does not surprise me. It is delusion to think that the people of California are necessarily progressive or thoughtful. I recall knowing Jewish people in the central state who praised the Soviet Union during some of the most awful persecution of Jews because they liked the clean subway in Moscow.
On the surface, propositions are attractive but, in the long run, they are deadends.
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