Why Proposition 8 should stay dead

The First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; . . ."

On August 5th, a judge tore down the voter approved Proposition 8, a voter created ban on gay marriage.

Finally, homosexuals in California are equal to all other citizens.

Some new arguments are being raised to oppose this new ruling. All of them are nonviable, and all of them originate from intolerance or homophobia. I will now destroy the leading religious argument and the leading political argument against the death of Proposition 8.

Religious Argument

Many of the Christian community believe that homosexual marriage is an affront to the sacrament of marriage. However, this implies an ownership of marriage itself. As marriage exists outside Abrahamic religions, e.g. Hinduism and Shinto, it is plain that marriage does not belong to Christians. Thus, marriage is a general religious issue; Thus, denying homosexuals the ability to marry amounts to religious intolerance and religious persecution.

The U.S. government does not have a role in mandating how religions operate. If one church doesn't want to marry homosexuals, fine. If another church DOES want to marry homosexuals, fine. By making it illegal for homosexuals to marry, the U.S. government is directly limiting the religious freedom of churches and faiths that are willing to marry homosexuals. An act that violates the First Amendment, the core of the American spirit, and ironically, increases the power of the federal government over the private lives of Americans (supposedly what conservatives are against.)

Political Argument


The soon-to-come argument for the revival of Proposition 8 will be centered around the idea of federal invasion on the rights of its citizens. Conservatives will argue that Proposition 8 was a voter created law, and as it received a 52% majority victory, the federal government is in effect acting against the wishes of the people.

However, the U.S. government exists to protect the rights of its individual citizens. Thus, a law that persecutes against a minority group in the society, like Proposition 8, has no place in the country. Just because a majority of the voters in California believe that the state government should persecute homosexuals does not mean that the state can. It just means the state is full of assholes.

A gathering of a mob does not get to decide the fate of a prisoner, and in a similar matter, a gathering of the masses does not get to decide to limit the equal rights of their fellow citizens. America belongs to heterosexual and homosexual alike. Free speech allows opponents of homosexuality to voice their intolerance as much as they like, but they do not get to create laws to the same effect. The First Amendment promises all American citizens freedom of religious exercise, and denying American homosexuals the right to marry is a direct violation of that statute.