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November 5th, 2009, a day after the anniversary Proposition 8 was passed in California, advocates for marriage equality for LGBT people launched a new fund raising campaign to get the issue back on next year's ballot. I applaud this act of moving forward.
http://www.restoreequality2010.com/
Interestingly enough, according to the article found in the link below, a poll shows slightly over half of the majority of California voters supports the right of gay couples to marry. However, a much larger portion of voters opposes efforts to place the issue back on the ballot next year.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/11/voters-opposed-new-gay-marriage- ballot-measure-timesusc-poll-finds.html
If slightly more than half of people polled agree that marriage equality for LGBT is right, I don't quite understand why they would not support putting the issue back on the ballot next year. My best guess is that a significant number of those people who agree with equality aren't directly affected by Proposition 8 and just don't have the desire to fight.
Speaking now about my home state of Florida, here is the verbiage of Amendment 2, the discrimination written into Florida's Constitution in November of 2008 as a result of allowing the masses to vote on denying the rights of a minority:
SECTION 27. Marriage defined.--Inasmuch as marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.
History.--Proposed by Initiative Petition filed with the Secretary of State February 9, 2005; adopted 2008.
Why is it OK for the majority to vote on whether a minority is allowed to have equal rights? It is obvious to me that the Supreme Court needs to rule that everyone, meaning every single human being that is a citizen of this country, is allowed the same rights as everyone else. This has been done before. In 1967 the Supreme Court deemed that the anti-miscegenation laws some states had to ban blacks and whites from marrying each other were unconstitutional. If that issue had been left to the popular vote in those states, it seems likely they would still be banning blacks and whites from marrying each other. However, now it is a non-issue. People have seen that it does not affect them, their children, or anything else it their lives. It only affects the people involved
Until the legislators and the Supreme court do the right thing and put a stop to allowing majority votes to deny rights to a minority, LGBT people will have an uphill struggle to achieve marriage equality.
Giving up just isn't a choice I will settle for.
I would like to propose a petition for another amendment for the state of Florida:
All persons are equal before the law and have inalienable rights, which includes the right to marriage. Marriage shall not be denied to same sex couples. This Amendment shall render Amendment 2 null and void.
