Why I fight Proposition 8

By Kristen Baslee

I have friends who are gay, straight, Mormon, Catholic, black, white and Hispanic. On Nov. 3, I sat comfortably on my couch naively thinking Proposition 8 would never pass.

I refrained from becoming vocal on the issue for fear of angering my nearest and dearest friends.

On Nov. 4, I sat on the same couch stunned. My elation over Barack Obama’s victory was painfully tempered. Disappointment burned in a wound I didn’t even realize was open.

I vowed on that day to get up off the couch and take part in an equality battle that will most surely define a generation.

In just a few days I’ve been involved in the fight.

I have received criticism from those nearest and dearest. Confused, they wonder openly why a straight, white woman is involved in a push for legalizing gay marriage.

 I respond back that it is my obligation as a U.S. citizen to advocate equality. In the case of Proposition 8, this veil of equality has been breached and I can no longer literally sit on the couch and hope in vain for Californians to return to the progressivism for which they are so well known.

The entire argument for Proposition 8 is built around an archaic definition of marriage.

A union will be recognized by the law only if that union exists between a man and a woman. The idea that the government can tell anyone who they can and cannot openly love and spend their lives with stings of the same arguments surrounding interracial marriages just a few decades ago.

No legalized civil union can provide the same sentiment, emotion or symbolism as a legalized marriage.

Separate was not equal 40 years ago, and it still is not equal today.

Proposition 8 addresses the right of one person to marry another. Nowhere does it state any moral implications regarding the adverse effect on family values.

The push to pass Proposition 8 was filled with ads about protecting marriage and teaching homosexuality in schools. All these ads convey is a fear of discussing sexuality. If Proposition 8 supporters want to keep their families protected and in the closet about a minority group, then that is their choice, but forcefully taking away rights from that same minority group will not keep children from questioning “Adam and Steve.”

It is troubling government allowed religious institutions to engage in lobbying at all. Even more staggering, less than 2 percent of Californians are Mormons but the Mormon Church and followers funded nearly half of the Proposition 8 campaign.

The vast majority of Christians in this country are gentle and kind people. They go to work each day, pay taxes and raise families. Interestingly enough, homosexuals follow the same routine.

We are not as different as a vocal few make us out to be and we are each entitled to our beliefs and lifestyles. Degrading equality in this state and country is not a means to protect any institution, be it marriage or church.

(Baslee lives in Napa.)

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