Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Sanity starts to return to California

That little bit of idiocy known as 'Proposition 8' in California has been over turned. Sorry Mormons, looks like you went and spent all those millions to sway voters to enact Prop. 8 for nothing. Just like with that whole racist thing you went through quite a few years back, it looks like, once again, the courts have moved in and stomped on all your discriminatory fun.

But the religious 'right' did their best to try and fight this...wait...no they didn't. They were so sure that they were going to win they only had two witnesses. You know, for once, I'm actually glad that fundy conservatives are idiots, it made granting basic freedoms that much easier.

Now, unfortunantly, this isn't a dead win. Those with small minds and large mouths are already appealing the decision. So the judge has held off on enacting equal marriage in the state until the hearings are over. While I would like for things to start as soon as possible, I can see the logic in this. By doing this, he shows that he isn't an 'activist' judge (whatever the hell they are anyway) as well as preventing and dashed hopes in case things go badly during the appeal process. Though, at this point, I think there is very little reason to suspect that this will occur.

The way that this discriminatory law was overturned was simply brilliant. Instead of trying to argue that same-sex marriage should be allowed, they put forth that by denying same-sex couples the ability to marry, the state effectively was upholding negative stereotypes and discrimination for which there is no evidence to support. And this is exactly what such laws do. They make it ok to make a certain group of people second class citizens. Something that flies right in the face of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution (The 14th Amendment, infuriating bigots since 1868).

One can only hope that this will be the turning point leading to equal marriage laws being passed in other states that used similar arguments. This sets precedent and that was one of the biggest things holding back such laws. Part of me actually hopes the angry peons defending the 'sanctity' of marriage push this to the supreme court only to have the ruling upheld and turning a state concept into a national one. Now wouldn't that be a bit of wonderful irony?
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3 comments:

Buffy said...

My wife and I have double the reason to celebrate this year, our second anniversary. The ongoing explosions of bigot heads is icing on the cake. It must be so hard for those first-century troglodytes to be thrust into the 21st century.

Lorena said...

I think here in Canada issues like gay marriage are not decided by vote, because the masses wouldn't have the interests of a minority group in mind.

Under that idea, the discrimination tactic makes a lot of sense.

Cyc said...

Congratulations on two years Buffy. May you have many more to celebrate. And I know exactly what you mean, you would think that after a day or two out in the sun they would stop throwing their spears at the sun and just grow up.

That is a good point Lorena. That was exactly what the founding fathers of my country had in mind when they realized that putting key freedoms to a vote was a bad thing. They called it the 'rule of the mob' and knew not to trust that majority to give any minority anything but grief and suffering. Too bad modern Americans cannot get this simple message through their overly dense heads.