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In a year in which we elected our first African-American President ...
In a year where a woman was only a few hundred delegates short of becoming the Democratic nominee for President ...
In a year where a woman was on the ballot as the nominee for Vice-President of the Republican Party ...
A civil rights tragedy has taken place.
On March 15, the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples had the right to marry and that bigoted, anti-marriage laws enacted in 1977 and 2000 were unconstitutional. At 5:01pm on June 16, safe-sex couples were allowed to marry in California.
The religious right went into action and Proposition 8 was placed on the ballot for November. The title of the proposition told the story, "Eliminates Rights of Same-Sex Couples to Marry". The battle began.
The religious were out in full force. The Roman Catholic Church, an organization that has historically participated in more murder, plunder and civil rights disasters than any organization currently active in the world, rode their moral high horse into the fray and supported Proposition 8. The Mormons, who only gave up their marital practice of polygamy for political reasons, were enthusiastic supporters. Rev. Bigot Rick Warren and Rev. Bigot Jim Franklin and other evangelical religious bigots led both their phony moral support as well as their money to the cause.
Of course, Republican politicians lined up to support the measure as well, after all, no conservative has ever passed up the opportunity to deny rights to a minority. The most prominent from my vantage point were John McCain and Newt Gingrich. John McCain is, of course, the big loser, the phony maverick, the man who brought disgrace to his party with the most pathetic Presidential campaign ever seen. Newt Gingrich, the thrice-married serial philanderer, is the former Speaker of the House who was run out of Washington by his own party. Obviously, their opinions carried a great deal of moral weight.
It will come as a surprise to many, but not all religious leaders are bigots. All of California's Episcopal bishops opposed the initiative, as did southern California's largest collection of rabbis. Even the Anti-Defamation League opposed the measure. Of course, they were fighting an uphill battle. How do you wage a campaign against an opponent who will lie at will?
Yes, the "men of God" told lie after lie. They claimed that unless Proposition 8 was passed, schools in California would be required to teach that same-sex marriage is the equivalent of opposite-sex marriage. They claimed that churches that refuse to marry same-sex couples would lose their tax-exempt status. It's the usual, right-wing, religious bunk. Any connection to reality is an accident.
It was up to the people of California to step up and make sure that the right to marry was not denied. They failed. Proposition 8 was passed and on November 5th, same-sex couples lost the right to marry.
Yes, the battle is still being waged in the courts of California. There is also the question of whether the marriages that took place between June and November were annulled by the amendment. For now though, the battle has been lost.
It is the Declaration of Independence that declares the very idea of our country, "All men are created equal." Our history as a nation has been marked by struggles, battles and wars to bring about the realization of that idea. As long as we continue to struggle to make that idea our reality, the conservatives will not, and can not win.
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