Proposition 8: Why It Is Wrong

It is truly astounding how afraid of change we are in this country.

On the same night that a black man was elected to the highest office in the land, Californians allowed an amendment that would ban gay marriage to pass. What's even more ironic is that it was California's electoral votes that help clinch the election for Obama.

I'm not going to lie and say that gay marriage is something I find as normal. Truthfully, considering how I was raised, it is a bit odd when the marriage ceremonies roll across my TV screen. That being said, who am I to say that its wrong? What gives me the right to declare a person's right to love whomever they choose as indecent or immoral?

What gave the right to those who voted for such a hateful act?

I'm sure people will claim religion as their influence.

Think about it like this. God, as I have been taught, loves every person unconditionally. This means that he is not someone who condones hatred and bigotry.

Proposition 8 is bigotry, plain and simple.

When a person claims that God says gay marriage is wrong, they are essentially saying God is a supporter of bigotry.

Since God is not a bigot, that person is lying about God. That person is committing slander against the Creator. They are defaming the entity they claim to adore so much.

So, by using God as a reason/excuse/cop-out for supporting Proposition 8, you are slandering God's name and defaming his character.

Also, the "golden rule" of doing unto others as you would do to yourself was derived from the Bible, the word of the Lord. By voting for Proposition 8, you are disobeying that rule, a rule that maps out basic human decency.

So, by voting for Prop 8, you are slandering and defaming God, and deliberately disobeying his word.

So, for every devout Christian who supported this amendment, please don't be surprised when your judgment day arrives and God doesn't receive you into his kingdom. I'm sure He doesn't appreciate people misinterpreting and outright lying about him.

Finally, to the overwhelming number of African-Americans who supported this proposition, I'm very surprised at you. How easily do we forget the racism that we still face? As an African-American myself, I cannot imagine perpetuating the same kind of bigotry that my family was forced to deal with. It's outrageous that we can look back at American's checkered racial past, see the casualties of our fight for equality, and yet deny it from others. What does that say about us as a race? Have we learned nothing from the last 200 years?

Proposition 8 is more than just an amendment to the California Constitution. It is a precedent that threatens to unleash a new wave of intolerance after we defeated an old one in the same day. Regardless of your views of homosexuality, you would have to be blind to see what Prop 8 means.

It means everything God has taught us to fight. It means everything the civil rights leaders taught us to fight. It means everything the Founding Fathers fought when this country declared its independence from the suppressive Britain.

It means hatred, it means bigotry, and it means inequality.