A Voice Against Proposition 8

When the Proposition 8 campaign was going on, one of the most effective weapons in their arsenal was children's education; "Same-sex marriage will be taught in public schools." The proponents of Proposition 8 blasted this all over TV and radio, and in newspapers, trying to convince people that if Proposition 8 failed to pass, the next day the teachers would be in schools teaching kindergarten students on up about homosexuals getting married, and what a terrible thing this is. They also claim that homosexuals are incapable of being monogamous or of giving a child a stable home; (From Contraries, by Margot Schulzke on August 13, 2008)

Lest anyone suffer the illusion that any equivalency between the sexual practices of homosexual relationships and traditional marriage exists, the statistics regarding sexual fidelity within marriage are revealing: In Sex in America, called by the New York Times “the most important study of American sexual behavior since the Kinsey reports,” Robert T. Michael et al. report that 90 percent of wives and 75 percent of husbands claim never to have had extramarital sex. …

While the rate of fidelity within marriage cited by these studies remains far from ideal, there is a magnum order of difference between the negligible lifetime fidelity rate cited for homosexuals and the 75 to 90 percent cited for married couples. This indicates that even “committed” homosexual relationships display a fundamental incapacity for the faithfulness and commitment that is axiomatic to the institution of marriage.

Where do they get this garbage from??? Who are these heterosexual husbands and wives claiming to have never had extramarital sex? How many was it 90% and 75% of?

Here is an article from someone that we rarely heard from during that whole Proposition 8 campaign: one of the children. This is the kind of thing we should have been hearing more of!

"My moms are amazing."

A 16-year old supports her parents' right to marry.
Wed, 02/11/2009 - 9:34pm by Jeff

Adrienne is a student at The Urban School of San Francisco, and is a reporter for The Urban Legend. In the online PBS NewsHour Extra: Student Voice, Adrienne writes that same-sex couples like her parents should be allowed to get married.

My parents have been married twice and may have to get married a third time. I don't come from a broken family, my parents love each other and always have. The only problem is, they're lesbians.

In May of 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples could wed. More than 18,000 same-sex couples, including my parents, were married.

In the November elections, however, voters passed Proposition 8, which amends the California constitution to "eliminate [the] right of same-sex couples to marry." Now a legal battle is being fought to determine if voters can alter the state constitution in such a drastic way.

'Misleading methods'

It is not only the attack on civil rights that is offensive to me, but also the misleading methods the supporters of Propisition 8 employed. Supporters of Propisition 8 used children's images in campaign videos without permission, and argued that same-sex marriage would be taught in schools. They used children, highlighting them continuously, but giving them no voice.

In reality, "nothing mandates teaching [same-sex marriage]," says Kate Belcsak, co-president of Urban High School's Gay-Straight Alliance. Unfortunately "there was no [public] response to the scare tactics," said Boone Epstein, GSA co-president. He added that children of gay parents need to "come out and say they are regular human beings, and not some devil's spawn."

Demonstrating against 'Prop 8'

After Proposition 8 passed, outrage generated demonstrations across the country. I went with my family to a rally in San Francisco. Protesters carried signs with slogans such as, "Don't mess with Dumbledore's rights," or "No more Mr. Nice Gay," and "Get your church out of my state." Members of Urban High School's Gay-Straight Alliance were at the rally. They came out on a Saturday for an issue that is more important than a day off from school.

Many families brought their children. I talked with a lesbian couple who are raising a child together and their love for the child was clear. Another heterosexual couple talked about the anger they felt that their gay and lesbian friends could have this basic right taken away. Their ten-year-old son called the Propisition 8 campaign "lies."

Urban High School Spanish Teacher Esteban Speier agreed, saying, "It was a scare tactic used by the right that we were going to teach gay marriage as a unit in social studies."

My moms are amazing, and I know how much it hurts them every time people are homophobic. I see this issue as simple. It's a civil right. My parents love each other, and they want to marry in a country that says everyone is equal under the law.

As their daughter, I am standing up and saying that there are no reasons that could be argued in a courtroom that could stand against the undeniable fact that we are a family, like any other.