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California Supreme Court's Prop 8 decision: Unfortunate, but sadly anticipated
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California's Supreme Court rules in favor of Proposition 8, but are merely performing duties
that they have sworn to fulfill.
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I, like thousands of like minded people - no, like millions of like-minded people - am saddened by the California Supreme Court's decision to uphold that state's passage of their law banning same-sex marriages. I find Proposition 8 at best infuriating and short-sighted, and at worst dangerous and elitist, but the Court's decison is ultimately, albeit frustratingly, sound.
I admit that I'm strongly biased on this issue. Not because of my sexual orientation (if it matters to you, I am not gay), but because of my predilection for, and undying support of, personal freedom, cogent and congruent thought amongst us humans, and my belief in the natural tendency towards evolution, both personal and as a species. Proposition 8 is the result of none of the former, and supports none of the latter of these .
In fact, the decision to saddle the state with the power to decide what is and is not right for anyone in their personal life does more to thwart personal evolution than to support it. As I've said many times before, and will no doubt say again and again, ad nauseum, "the government has no place in attempting to define relationships for all of us, no place at all."
Allowing the government to make personal decisions for us opens up a special type of Pandora's box that will forever grow more difficult to close, setting precedents that will grow impossible to overturn, and that will influence lives for generations to come, in ways that we have no way of predicting now. In the case of California's Proposition 8, these dangerous precedents are the result of a simple majority rule, even though that majority enjoys a difference of a mere 4% (the ballot initiative passed in the 2008 elections by gaining 52% of the vote). Is 4% a large enough margin upon which to base a decision such as this?
Relationships with other human beings are intensely personal journeys that each of us works to unfold throughout our lives, and that in turn help us to unfold our full potential as fully evolved and actualized human beings. In many cases, we seem to align ourselves with a partner that inevitably exposes parts of our own psyches and spirits that need work, that offer opportunities for personla growth and that inspire personal evolution. Granting the government, or any external body, the power to dictate with whom any one of us may form this kind of partnership effectively removes half the field of possibility, in one single, ignorant stroke.
But the blame for this stroke falls squarely on the people of California, noth the Supreme Court. In their ruling, the justices explain that their job is not to address whether or not the ban is wise public policy, but only to decide whether it is valid constitutionally, "setting aside our own personal beliefs and values." I would tend to agree. Their ruling merely points out that Proposition 8, as it was voted upon in the general election, stands constitutionally. The justices have done their duty.
Religious Dogma and Proposition 8
The most passionate arguments against same-sex marriage tend to be based in religious belief, another area in which we can all probably agree that government has no place.
After all, if the government were to be given the power to decide which religion an individual is allowed to believe, then what would happen to those that chose not to believe in that particular brand of deity, or dogma? I suppose they would be labeled outlaws of some sort, and forced to practice their chosen religion in hiding. The government at that point would also be required to create and begin funding mechanisms to enforce the law banning all but the official religion (something which California, in our real world right now, can ill afford to do, by the way). That proposition, of course, seems simply ridiculous of course doesn't it?
But it sure sounds similar to what could grow out of the firm planting of Proposition 8, a path that seems more set in stone now than ever.
