Imagine being told that, despite your great fortune in finding the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, you were not allowed to marry them. In the past, this issue affected minority groups such as African Americans and targeted interracial marriage specifically. Today, there are some who want to treat yet another group as a bunch of second class and unworthy citizens.


This is what California wants to do. After giving gay people the right to marry, they want to take it away from them.


If you live in Cali and can vote on this issue, please vote no. You don't have to be gay to support gay marriage. And if you don't want to support gay marriage, just think about not being allowed to marry the person of your dreams, even though you found each other.


If someone tried to tell me that I was forbidden to marry Theron or whoever it is that I'll end up with, I would do all that was in my power (and quite a bit beyond) in order to get my right to marry him set in stone. How incredibly unfair it is for us to deny a minority group the right to marry when every other group's right to do so is protected in the constitution. My perfect dream of the future is not just living with someone and sharing my life with him, but to have it legally documented that I commit myself to him for the rest of my life, that I love him enough with all of my heart to forgo all other potential mates and simply choose him. Without that piece of paper, I just love him - not saying that is not good enough, but it isn't the same.

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What Is Prop 8? (borrowed from votenoonprop8.com)

The following information will be included in the November ballot materials.


Ballot Title and Summary
Proposition 8:

ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME-SEX COUPLES TO MARRY.

INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

Changes California Constitution to eliminate right of same-sex couples to marry. Provides that only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.


Fiscal Impact: Over the next few years, potential revenue loss, mainly sales taxes, totaling in the several tens of millions of dollars, to state and local governments. In the long run, likely little fiscal impact to state and local governments.


On August 8, 2008 Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley ruled that the Attorney General’s Title and Summary of Proposition 8 is accurate.


Ballot Argument

OUR CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION – the law of our land – SHOULD GUARANTEE THE SAME FREEDOMS AND RIGHTS TO EVERYONE – NO ONE group SHOULD be singled out to BE TREATED DIFFERENTLY.


In fact, our nation was founded on the principle that all people should be treated equally. EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW IS THE FOUNDATION OF AMERICAN SOCIETY.


That’s what this election is about – equality, freedom and fairness, for all.


Marriage is the institution that conveys dignity and respect to the lifetime commitment of any couple. PROPOSITION 8 WOULD DENY LESBIAN AND GAY COUPLES that same DIGNITY AND RESPECT.


That’s why Proposition 8 is wrong for California.


Regardless of how you feel about this issue, the freedom to marry is fundamental to our society, just like the freedoms of religion and speech.


PROPOSITION 8 MANDATES ONE SET OF RULES FOR GAY AND LESBIAN COUPLES AND ANOTHER SET FOR EVERYONE ELSE. That’s just not fair. OUR LAWS SHOULD TREAT EVERYONE EQUALLY.


In fact, the government has no business telling people who can and cannot get married. Just like government has no business telling us what to read, watch on TV or do in our private lives. We don’t need Prop 8; WE DON’T NEED MORE GOVERNMENT IN OUR LIVES.


REGARDLESS OF HOW ANYONE FEELS ABOUT MARRIAGE FOR GAY AND LESBIAN COUPLES, PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE SINGLED OUT FOR UNFAIR TREATMENT UNDER THE LAWS OF OUR STATE. Those committed and loving couples who want to accept the responsibility that comes with marriage should be treated like everyone else.


DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIPS are NOT MARRIAGE.


When you’re married and your spouse is sick or hurt, there is no confusion: you get into the ambulance or hospital room with no questions asked. IN EVERYDAY LIFE AND ESPECIALLY IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS, DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIPS ARE SIMPLY NOT ENOUGH. Only marriage provides the certainty and the security that people know they can count on in their times of greatest need.


EQUALITY UNDER THE LAW IS A FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONAL GUARANTEE. Prop 8 separates one group of Californians from another and excludes them from enjoying the same rights as other loving couples.


Forty-six years ago I married my college sweetheart, Julia. We raised three children – two boys and one girl. The boys are married, with children of their own. Our daughter, Liz, a lesbian, can now also be married – if she so chooses.


All we have ever wanted for our daughter is that she be treated with the same dignity and respect as her brothers – with the same freedoms and responsibilities as every other Californian.


My wife and I never treated our children differently, we never loved them any differently and now the law doesn’t treat them differently, either.


Each of our children now has the same rights as the others, to choose the person to love, commit to and to marry.

Don’t take away the equality, freedom and fairness that everyone in California – straight, gay or lesbian – deserves.


Please join us in voting NO on Prop 8.