I’ve spent a lot of time these past few weeks fighting against Prop 8 and it’s recent passage.  I’ve had a lot to say and made a number of points against Prop 8 and have even thrown out a, though light hearted, potential solution.  On November 10th Countdown’s Keith Olbermann made the following statement in regards to the passage of Prop 8 in California.  I found it moving and was happy to hear that he made a lot of similar points that I have made.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, and I hope those of you who voted Yes on 8 or were on the fence about the issue find some value in this.

This issue is far from over and with as much support as the No side is getting after the election I am hoping things can change.  My only hope is that things can change in such a way that there is a compromise that will prevent this from going back on the ballot in 2012 if it gets overturned somehow.

Ever since Prop 8 passed here in California there has been a lot of anger, hurt, and outcry spread on the internet about the issue.  With that in mind I decided to write a bit of a more light hearted post on the subject that while not the most serious in nature, has what I feel is a valid proposition.

Following the passage of Prop 8 here in California the streets of Los Angeles became a breeding ground for angry No on 8 supporters.  The protests have raged on almost daily since the passage of Prop 8 and I have seen a lot of outcry from those on the Yes side of 8 calling the No on 8 supporters the haters.  So I’ve decided to throw something out the for both Yes and No supporters of Prop 8.

Obviously for 2008 this issue is dead.  We can fight it until we’re blue in the face, but we know that even if it does get overturned at some point it is going to be right back on the ballot.  To the Yes on 8 supporters who don’t understand WHY all of the gays and supporters in Los Angeles are angry I want you to consider this.  What would you do if your right to marry someone was taken from you simply because your lifestyle wasn’t the “norm”.  Wouldn’t that piss you off a bit?  Honestly…think about it.

For the No on 8 supporters, I feel ya’.  I was right there alongside you last Saturday at the No on 8 Protest in Corona, but unfortunately our efforts weren’t enough.  So what if WE are the ones who take action for the next election and get our measure put on the ballot.  What if we do it in such a way that it gives gays what they want in their unity of marriage, but we do it in a way that will either make the Christians look like liars and hate mongers or will hold them true to their words.

There are a lot of Christians out there right now that are claiming their Yes on 8 vote was not based on hate, instead they are claiming they did it based on the belief that the word “marriage” should only be used between a man and a woman.  So here is my proposition for the residents of California; if you don’t like the word marriage then why don’t we write a new proposition that will give homosexuals every bit of the same rights as a “traditional marriage”, but we come up with a cooler name for it…How about “rainbow connection”? (Again I am injecting humor here because I want people to start healing and start thinking about what can be done to better the situation)

If you’re Yes on Prop 8 because you don’t want homosexuals to be “married” then can they have a “rainbow connection”?  We’ll give them all the same rights the rest of us get, but we’ll call it a rainbow connection.  Then you can have your “marriage” and it won’t step on your Christian rites and terminology.

If something like this didn’t pass then clearly we could call the Christians, Mormons, and everyone else opposed to it hate mongers and be right.  I think it’s brilliant, but that’s just me.  And again I wrote this in a very light hearted fashion because I am tired of all the serious posts about this attacking each side for being wrong.  Stop arguing and start coming to a solution.  If the church is afraid of you using “marriage” then come up with something better than marriage, seriously.

Dear California,

First off I want to thank you; well at least thank those of you who took time out of your day to vote yesterday.  I also want to thank those of you who helped bring “Change” to America by choosing Barack Obama as our next president. You made history by aiding in the election of the first African American president and have helped set this nation up for what I hope is 4 years of positive change.

However, I am also disappointed in a number of you.  Disappointed because you have decided the rights of the animals we eat are superior to the rights of our fellow human beings.  You see yesterday you gave the chickens, pigs and various other animals we eat the freedom to roam and live in more healthful environments.  Yet you took away the right of your fellow Californians to marry the ones they love simply because they don’t love someone of the opposite sex.

Understand that I too voted to let our food live a bit more humanely, but I also voted to let other human beings share the same joy I was fortunate enough to experience just over 4 years ago.  I recognize that having the opportunity to celebrate your love for someone and dedicate yourself to them, whether it lasts a lifetime or not, is something incredible and is something that if I had taken from me would be devastating.  You felt strongly enough to give animals that we eat certain basic rights and freedoms, yet you robbed other human beings of theirs.

Sure they can live together for the rest of their lives.  Sure they are eventually entitled to certain rights, though not the same rights granted to a married couple.  Sure they could technically exchange rings and go through the motions as though they were married, but sadly they will never be able to truthfully say, “We’re married”.  It’s too late to change your mind now, however if you said Yes to Prop 8 and you are married, or have been married, I want you to take a moment to seriously think about how you would feel if you could never marry the person you love or loved.  Would your relationship with that person be the same?  If you could NEVER be married to that one person who you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, how would that affect you?  Think about that for a moment…

At this point I don’t care if you said Yes, or why you said Yes; be it procreation, religious reasons, hate, it really doesn’t matter.  The fact is you have told a percentage of your fellow Californians that their love for another person, a person they want to commit themselves to, doesn’t matter nearly as much as those who chose “traditional marriage”, and therefore under the California constitution they can no longer be married.

For a state that once embraced the hippie movement and is also home to the pornography capital of the world, I must say I am quite disappointed in you.  For a state that for so long has been seen as free and as liberal as it is, you were sure pretty closed minded this election.  But hey, at least our food will have room to roam and we’ll have a super cool $9.95 billion high speed rail system sometime in the future.  Who needs human rights when our food is happy and we can travel?

Sincerely,

Your Dishearted Voter
Mike Wilton

Please note at the time this was published only 95% of the precincts in California had reported their election results.  Prop 8 lead with 52%  of the votes being Yes and Prop 2 lead with 63% of the votes being yes.