I hate the political threads but I’m jumping in at my own peril because I have decided that prop 8 bothers me on a few levels.
This is just about telling people that they aren’t good enough, that pisses people off. If it was an option and had been one for years, it probably wouldn’t be that prevalent. There was a time that the voters wouldn’t have approved of interacial marriage, times change, most people change, some church people are the last to change.
For the most part, marriage is horrible institution, why should gays be spared the pleasures of divorce, alimony and legal fees. If that’s what they want, have at at, you’ll be sorry but in this country we all have the right to ruin our own lives, who am I to stand in their way. In fact, I’d love to switch with them, let’s have heterosexual civil unions, I’d love to say that to my girlfriend “hey babe, I’d love to marry you, but it is illegal, so until the law changes, we have sex and you get none of my stuff.”
All of the threats from the yes 8 commercial are faulty, the cases of being sued or losing tax exempt status were exceptions. One case in particular was a pavillion, affiliated with a church, that was available for rent to the public for any function except for gay weddings. That example is being used to scare churches. Actual churches can make whatever rules they want but once you rent to the public (outside the church members) you cannot discriminate, with or without this prop. That misleading ad is the biggest reason I’m against it, I hate the lies.
I do have to give credit to the mormons, even though they have supplied more than a third of the funding for yes on 8, they have been vocal about how some of the ads and e-mails are false. This website, mormons for marriage desribes some of the lies being spewed, kudos to them for being honest.