Next Tuesday, Americans will be voting for more than just a new administration. In some states, there are a few ugly little ballot measures that will be voted on at the same time. One of these is "Proposition 8", a California proposal to ban same-sex marriage. Prop 8 has gotten a lot of attention and support from the usual religious right suspects -- in spite of the fact that it's a state initiative, money for the campaign to convince Californians to vote "Yes" to Prop 8 has been pouring in from bigots across the land.There's some pretty paranoid and hateful propaganda being disseminated by Prop 8 supporters, the latest being the claim that equal marriage somehow undermines religious freedom and free speech. No, don't even try to understand the tortured logic needed to draw such a conclusion -- a more straightforward interpretation of what Prop 8 proponents are really saying is offered up by Ann Althouse:
"I think he means to say that if same-sex marriage remains a legal right, enshrined in state constitutional law, then homosexual relationships will come to be regarded normal and good, and, consequently, anyone who objects to them will start to look like a bigot who should not be permitted to have his way. Thus, in order to preserve the right to discriminate against gay people and to keep schools from teaching children that gay couples are perfectly nice and so forth -- all things Broyles wants -- it's important to outlaw gay marriage, because it will be a powerful force in changing perceptions about gay people and those who think gay people are doing something terribly wrong."Bigots!? Who knew!!???
UPDATE (Nov.1st): Still hideously close, but the good guys seem to be winning (50-47).
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