[quote=afx114]Just think of all the revenue the state would have gotten from thousands of gay marriages…[/quote]

And used to pay for the new Monorail! (which, if we’re lucky, we’ll get to ride on once before we leave this world).

[quote=ralphfurley]Out of curiosity, can you be libertarian and against gay marriage?[/quote]

Yes. And while you cannot enact laws to preclude others from doing it, you are certainly free to express your disapproval in a non-invasive way.

Libertarianism — at lest the way I define it — is the ultimate personal freedom tempered by the ultimate personal responsibility. You are free to live your life however you wish with no interference from the state so long as your exercise of those freedoms do not impact on others ability to do likewise. It is a philosophy based on mutual tolerance and respect. We’ll never agree on everything, but we can respectfully disagree and leave one another be.

This is at the very heart of the opposition to Prop 8. No one is seeking your blessing or endorsement of same-sex marriage. If you’re against gay marriage then don’t go! I promise not to burden you with an invitation. But please don’t tell my fellow tax-paying partner and I that we do not have the “right” to a civil marriage with all the proscribed benefits and societal recognition. And certainly do not modify something as fundamental as the state constitution to do so.

California, ca. 2008, could not be more opposite than this ideal. What we have instead is the epitome of a fascist nanny state; a perfect example of Tocqueville’s “Tyranny of the majority”. For meadendale it’s a beer on the beach (a right which I firmly believe should be elucidated in the state constitution!), for me it’s the freedom to marry. For smokers, it will soon be the freedom to light up a cigarette in their own car with the windows rolled up. Where does it end?