Prop 8 a big blow to equal rights

On 4 November, history was made when the United States of America elected its first African-American president. I was among the millions worldwide who cheered on Obama’s victory, but was soon disappointed when I learned that Proposition 8, an amendment that eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry, passed by a narrow margin in California. Currently, same-sex marriage isn’t recognized federally, but is legal in Massachusetts and Connecticut—and until last Tuesday, The Golden State.

In May, the California Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional not to allow same-sex couples the right to marry and, almost immediately, a number of religious groups and other supporters of “traditional” marriage began gathering the signatures required to add the proposition to the November ballot.

Despite vocal condemnation from Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger, Prop 8 opponents were doomed from the beginning. Any time you ask a majority of people to vote on the rights of a minority, especially when religion is involved, the minority doesn’t stand a chance. And the especially unsavory thing in the case of this amendment is that gays and lesbians aren’t only being denied a fundamental right, but nearly 18 000 couples who were married legally might even be stripped of that right.

The wording of legislation against same-sex marriage is tricky and often suggests that denying a fundamental right to gays and lesbians is somehow protecting or defending marriage. If you want to protect marriage, then you should prevent people from getting divorced, not from getting married in the first place.

Granting a same-sex couple a “civil union” isn’t equal, and isn’t enough. If segregation has taught us anything it is that “separate but equal” doesn’t work. I feel an incredible sense of pride that I live in one of the few countries in the world where loving same-sex couples have the same rights as loving heterosexual partners.

To put things into perspective, more than 60 per cent of Californians also voted to pass Proposition 2, an act that would prevent cruelty to farm animals and livestock and enact harsher penalties against offenders—more people voted for fairer treatment of chickens and pigs than for equal rights for their fellow human beings.

One of the main arguments against granting same-sex marriage comes from the Bible, which calls homosexuality an “abomination.” Seems there are more Christians than queers in California. But it is unfair and a violation of the separation of church and state to impose a constitutional amendment rooted mainly in religious beliefs on a diverse and not entirely religious population.

However, even if it had failed, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act allows individual states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages from other states and the federal government to refuse any benefits of those marriages, such as tax benefits or green cards for foreign partners.

Even with the election of Democrat Barack Obama, it’s going to be a tough road ahead for American homosexual men and women who want to marry their partners. Alhough Obama has expressed interest in repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, he has also stated that he doesn’t approve of same-sex marriage; only civil unions. The global economic crisis will conveniently draw attention away from the issue, keeping Obama from having to make any difficult decisions soon.

There’s still a long way to go for both Canadians and Americans before both racial and sexual equality are achieved. Though Obama’s victory is certainly a huge step towards racial parity in the United States, we can’t forget that true balance won’t exist until all minorities are granted the same rights that many of us take for granted.