Many people were thrilled today after hearing that Proposition 8, the ban on gay marriage in California, was found illegal during a court ruling. I've read and heard a few frightened people talk about how today's ruling is itself illegal or wrong because it goes against a previous vote for Prop 8 ( illegal for gays to marry).
Yet, per LA Times article: Wednesday's ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed last year by two homosexual couples who argued that the marriage ban violates their federal constitutional rights to equal protection and due process.
It is the individual's and people's rights to question laws, rulings, appeals, etc. As it has been throughout all of Democracy. Yeah for second responses and everyone's right to question!
The reason America is so hard to understand, yet so beautiful, is that we don't have to agree, we can be diverse, believe diverse things. Lately it's seemed as if this is impossible. We all must agree 100% on everything happening in Washington DC and in our local governments to agree with or vote for a politician or understand a group.
The point is, it doesn't matter if you think it is immoral, evil, a sin, etc... you may offend someone or many, but the point isn't that you believe in the lifestyle, the point and the law is for the ability to LEGALLY marry, and for all the accompanying rights a spouse is granted. It is not the government's job or our job to determine the truth in religion or how people live their lives,... instead we the people and we the government, need to ensure that our laws, our rights, and amendments are tolerant and equal for all citizens. Whenever the situation isn't obvious, it is complicated and worth working through: see our history with women's rights, minority rights, etc.
I'm so proud of our country, not for blinding trying to follow the same laws or beliefs that we had fifty years ago, but because we are fighters, constantly trying to ensure that we and our neighbors and our cousins and our cousins' neighbors have the same rights that we have, that our parents' have. It is a messy process. Sometimes we fail, sometimes things don't work out according to our specific belief system or how we want America to appear, or what we think is a sin, but no matter what, it is our system. Just because we don't believe in it doesn't mean it's no longer a Democracy. UNLESS someone or group actually has BROKEN THE LAW, but it is time to take a step back and breathe,... just because things don't go our way doesn't mean we throw down the plate and yell unfair and unlawful.
In this situation, I am in complete agreement,... I can't understand how gay marriage could possible threaten or end heterosexual relationships or marriages. That "theory" is built on hearsay, fear, and a weird hysteria.
Congrats Judge Walker, who kicked down the first of many dominoes propelling the issue of same sex marriage into a larger discussion of what is equal and right for EVERY individual in America.
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