The Just Thought I'd Share Thread

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by KarmaContestant

Right on! Best news I've heard in a long time.

Liberty and Justice for all.

It means for ALL.

I don't know what is so hard about that for supporters of Prop 8 and other biggoted legal initiatives to understand. Spiritual beliefs and religious beliefs are personal, and the American legal system is designed to prevent us from imposing our personal beliefs and prejudices upon others. We all have the right to worship or not, however we choose. None of us have the right to impose our religious beliefs upon anyone else. This protects all sides from persecution based on religion.

Some would say the legalization of gay marriage is effectively imposing someone else's personal beliefs upon them, but to that I say, marriage equality is a civil right, not a personal belief. Whether or not I marry another dude is not impacting anyone else's civil rights, and that is the issue at hand that will be decided if this goes further.

Speaking of which, supporters of Prop 8 will probably appeal and fight this all the way to the Supreme Court, but even though the court has a Conservative majority, I believe this will be a grave mistake for opponents of marriage equality which will result in the national legalization of gay marriage and the complete overturn of DOMA. Looking back through history, the Court has almost always upheld the rights of minorites when these kinds of issues are presented to them.

There is a lot of grumbling about the courts legislating (and there always has been and will be), but anyone with a rudimentary understanding of civics and American government will understand that that is the very purpose for which the U.S. Supreme Court -and indeed the entire American system of courts - exists in the first place - they are an equal branch of government, parallel to Congress and the President; a check and balance of power put in place by the founding fathers to ensure that the Congress and/or President (elected by the Majority) do not overstep their Constitutional authority and infringe upon the civil rights, liberties and justice of the Minority.

But enough, I'm rambling.

I wish I could say that today's ruling was some kind of major milestone... but it was actually rather narrow in scope. All it really established was that the California ballot initiative (Prop 8) itself was unconstitutional, nothing more, nothing less. It doesn't make any kind of broad motion regarding equal protection under the California state constitution and its applicability towards the rights of GLBT. Really, all it may accomplish is potentially amending the California state constitution so that these kinds of intiatives, which really serve no purpose but to denigrate and dehumanize minorities, are never eligible for a ballot vote ever again. It may get appealed up to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the larger issue of GLBT marriage equality will not really be part of it.