0
0
By Cloie Swain / Staff Writer
By Cloie Swain / Staff Writer
There is very little that people can’t argue about.
The fact that the Boston Red Sox are just as awful as the Yankees now, the age old parents versus children debate of driving speed or the flow of traffic, or if Lady Gaga is a complete hack or the most brilliant entertainer of the last decade (totally the latter, just in case you were wondering).
Unsurprisingly, gay marriage is also something that can incite battles on par with the third “Lord of the Rings” war sequence (Orcs are pretty good stand-ins for whatever your personal opinion dictates for your opponents).
On August 4, Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative to ban anything but heterosexual marriage in the state of California, “[failed] to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license…does nothing more than enshrine…the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians…the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.”
For those who enjoy having several hierarchical caste-like systems of citizen, this was an event cataclysmic enough to be considered in an outtake for the recent “2012” movie about the fabled doomsday.
However, for the rest of California who voted the right way to forbid the legal version of flipping the bird to every gay or lesbian Californian, it was a day on par with getting a free car from Oprah: completely awesome.
But, as what always happens with things that get righted and make sense, there was a court filing lodged, and now those celebrating couples are currently in limbo in finding out if they can join the rest of humanity in entering an ancient, symbolic right of passage in declaring love and commitment to a single person.
The current state of the case aside, a closer look is owed at the ruling itself. Opponents say it is a disgrace and blatant disregard of the wishes of the states’ voters.
And to some degree they have a point.
It is completely disregarding the 52 percent of the voting population that passed it.
The power behind that lone point essentially dies right there (Read: That being due to the lack of rational reasoning behind the proposition to begin with).
Unfortunately, considering how Proposition 8 (funded by such politically savvy entities such as the Church of Latter Day Saints, some varied construction companies, and other insightful individuals) is a blatant violation of fundamental human rights.
That’s what it boils down to at the most basic level.
No matter your opinion, if you have been educated in the United States there is a great chance that you have learned of the massive civil rights reform in the latter part of the twentieth century, famously making it illegal to discriminate based on race.
There is always going to be opposition to living what some have dubbed “alternative lifestyles.”
Two women walking down the street holding hands as a couple has the possibility of evoking hateful words. Same goes for two men. To believe that a single ruling from a judge can change the cultural view on homosexuality would be naïve.
But there is a movement forming in our society. Even in Riverside, where more “Yes on 8” signs littered front lawns than their opponents’ even days after it passed.
More people are beginning to see that being in a committed gay relationship is, stunningly, not as different from a heterosexual one.
With legal recognition of a relationship comes a sense of place in the community.
Belonging with someone is essential to some people, and having it recognized in the place you reside only reinforces that.
Taking away someone’s rights to officially create a legal marriage due to something as trivial as who they want to be married to is behavior reminiscent of a knuckle dragging early human: uneducated and primitive.
The whole point to the whole “freedom” shtick is that nobody should be forced into or banned from something.
As long as it does not bring harm to others, it should be an individual choice and absolutely nobody else’s business.
Religion, personal preference, and the “good ‘ole way I was brought up” have no business in anyone’s life but your own.
Proposition 8 legalized meddling, and it was the right call by Judge Walker to overturn it.
The only way to prevent something like this from occurring again is by observing and learning from the saga that is Proposition 8.
If we dare claim to be a free nation, we must defend the most essential part of our humanity.
Being allowed to legally bind ourselves to whomever we love instead of idly watching it be put to a vote is what Judge Walker understood, and he made the right call in restoring rationality to the Golden state.