Proposition 8

California voters approved Proposition 8, which changes the California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California, and provides that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

According to several newspapers and television news teams, evangelical Christian denominations, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and the Roman Catholic Church spent money on air and print media advertisements to encourage voters to approve the ballot initiative.

One of the arguments to approve the proposition was the idea that all churches, regardless of their beliefs, would be forced to marry gay and lesbian couples. That is a lie.

Ever since the California Supreme Court approved gay and lesbian marriage, not one clergyman has protested that he was forced to marry a couple against his will and beliefs. Nor have any Roman Catholic priests been forced to marry gay, Jewish, Protestant, or atheist couples. A church, with or without Proposition 8, may keep anyone from holding a wedding ceremony on its premises. It may keep its clergy from holding the ceremony anywhere.

But here is core of the controversy. The state’s interest in a couple seeking a marriage license—and it is a secular interest—is limited to their health and ages. Thus we have in most states the requirement of proof that the participants have reached the age of consent or their parents’ consent. And thus we have blood tests that both participants must undergo to show they have no venereal diseases. However, no state has a legal interest in the religious beliefs of the couple applying for a marriage license. Nor in their sexual orientation.

And consistent with the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, no religious organization has the right to determine whom the government may approve for a marriage license. They may practice their own beliefs as long as their practices do not infringe on the rights of their fellow citizens. The Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and many evangelical Christians denominations spent money to influence a political issue, thus overstepping their role in our secular state and breaking the rules of conduct of not-for-profit charitable institutions.

Proposition 8 infringes on the interests of the State of California to determine its own secular interest in the issuance of marriage licenses. Its presence on the ballot is due to the political organizing and fund-raising of religious organizations who want to see their beliefs become the standard for state government. That is a frightening prospect.

Our secular state must be protected, and Proposition 8 must be repealed, nullified, cancelled. By any legal means necessary.