California is not so progressive - Amending the Constitution to take away rights

The L.A Times and KTLA conducted a poll to get Californians’ opinion on our Supreme Court giving same-sex couples the same right to marry (get sick of, then grow old and miserable with each other) as everyone else. I put about as much stock in the average marriage as I do in the average poll. A wise man once said there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics. That’s basically the way I look at polls. Pollsters only call people with land lines and they only get the opinions people who have nothing better to do than talk to pollsters. This survey revealed the existence of a California schism around same-sex marriage – a statewide cognitive dissonance when it comes to gay and lesbian couples that could threaten our status as the hippest state in America this November.

Historically, California has been ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to individual rights and freedoms. Sixty years ago our state’s Supreme Court struck down anti-miscegenation laws designed to prevent interracial marriages (almost two decades before the United States Supreme Court) and now, in 2008, I don’t have to worry about getting the chair for having sex with white women. That’s progress. So is making sure that one person in a couple isn’t denied visitation in a hospital or survivor’s benefits just because they happen to be the same sex as their partner.

This progress could be undermined in the fall. Opponents of equal rights for same-sex couples will get a question put on the ballot asking voters to support a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Usually, a Constitution is amended to give people rights, not take them away. But apparently when it comes to gay couples, the mission seems to be to stop them from saying “I do” by any means necessary.

I respect ballot questions as much as the next guy, despite the fact that it’s the same process that got an Austrian bodybuilder with only a rudimentary ability to speak English elected Governor. But the California Supreme Court’s decision to grant equal rights to same-sex couples wasn’t made on a whim. It was based on a case that was heard by a trial judge who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, then by an appellate court which overturned that judge’s ruling. So some of the sharpest legal minds in the entire state have had a chance to hear the evidence and weigh in on the case and they say it’s a civil rights issue. In that case, it’s morally wrong to deny these couples their rights, even if a majority of California voters want to. After all, do we really want the average uninformed voter to be making these kinds of decisions? Shouldn’t a question of this magnitude be left to the experts and not to conservative voters in the Central Valley and southern California suburbs to answer? I’m sure the good people of Modesto and Laguna Beach mean well, but do we really want them messing around with our state Constitution?

I won’t blame conservatives if the amendment passes. If these people were the only proponents of the amendment, there wouldn’t be a problem. In the Bay Area alone there is enough opposition to the amendment to cancel out the Republicans who would support it. The problem is there are some Democrats who would vote in favor of the amendment, despite their agreement with the Supreme Court ruling. According to this poll, some male Democrats, specifically.

Apparently, there are a number of men who call themselves Democrats and who agree with the Supreme Court’s ruling, but would still vote in favor of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. The most interesting statistic in the survey is that almost half of the people who have a personal relationship with a gay person approved of the ruling and less than a quarter of those who don’t have a personal relationship with a gay person approved of it.

I think one full day in Provincetown, Massachusetts would do go a long way toward changing these men’s minds. Spending the day browsing the shops and eating in restaurants where 99% of the people they come in contact with are gay, super nice, and not even remotely interested in them sexually would be a real eye-opener for the average straight guy. Or they could travel to San Francisco for the Pride parade. Watching the “dykes on bikes” ceremonially start the parade with thirty minutes of roaring motorcycles ridden by proud, happy lesbians (some defiantly and unashamedly displaying their naked breasts to the world) would be like immersion therapy for undercover homophobia. If enough of these male Democrats see that, they’d be changed forever and there is no way that amendment would pass in November.