Well, when questioned on their assertions that Gay Marriage Will Do Bad Things, one proponent of Prop8 said "I don't know" and the other said, "I read it on the internet."
Um. Yeahhhhh... You're supposed to have your Google-searches done before you walk into the courtroom. Or at least whip out a smartphone and ask for a moment to look things up.
Meanwhile, there are 18K married couples of the same gender, who got married before Prop8, who were trundling along and disproving that they were terribly disruptive. (Or, if they were disruptive, that the proponents of Prop8 were unable to dig up any dirt about them to bring into the courtroom.)
Meanwhile, the lack of same-sex marriage was promoting... Sex outside of marriage and child-rearing outside of marriage, the very things that the people in question professed to want to reduce. It was also making for More Paperwork (marriage certificates and domestic partnership certificates), which does have an impact on the state's bottom line, and therefore it was within the state's interests to repeal the proposition. (Not to mention money on same-sex weddings was not being spent in the state, and -- because same-sex partners were often not legally married, the insurance burden was being placed on the state and not one partner or the other's work insurance.)
Basically, from a purely monetary standpoint, Proposition 8 was only harming the State of California, and with no provable benefit.
I'd figure that if one wanted to repeal laws against animal cruelty, one would have to go up against the various well-accepted links between cruelty to animals, and violence/cruelty towards humans. (Google animal cruelty facts child abuse site:gov for various governmental sites' beliefs on this. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16600374 is a particularly good site. http://ag.arkansas.gov/newsroom/index.php?do:newsDetail=1&news_id=205 is another.)
Furthermore... what ban on same-sex marriage would make sense that has not already been tested and found wanting in the case of inter-racial marriage, or coverture? Bans on inter-racial marriage have already been found to violate the United States' Constitution. Judge Walker -- aware that the Federal Government had once overturned California's inter-racial marriage ban -- may simply have wished to reduce the costs for domestic partnership papers early. A clear benefit for the state's budget!
It's still too early to know what's going to happen with the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell thing. I suspect that one's going to linger on for another generation (since joining the military is not a fundamental right, as you mention above), until a critical mass of people are not squicked by the idea that someone of their own gender might find them attractive.
no subject
Um. Yeahhhhh... You're supposed to have your Google-searches done before you walk into the courtroom. Or at least whip out a smartphone and ask for a moment to look things up.
Meanwhile, there are 18K married couples of the same gender, who got married before Prop8, who were trundling along and disproving that they were terribly disruptive. (Or, if they were disruptive, that the proponents of Prop8 were unable to dig up any dirt about them to bring into the courtroom.)
Meanwhile, the lack of same-sex marriage was promoting... Sex outside of marriage and child-rearing outside of marriage, the very things that the people in question professed to want to reduce. It was also making for More Paperwork (marriage certificates and domestic partnership certificates), which does have an impact on the state's bottom line, and therefore it was within the state's interests to repeal the proposition. (Not to mention money on same-sex weddings was not being spent in the state, and -- because same-sex partners were often not legally married, the insurance burden was being placed on the state and not one partner or the other's work insurance.)
Basically, from a purely monetary standpoint, Proposition 8 was only harming the State of California, and with no provable benefit.
(http://kathrynt.livejournal.com/550632.html is a very interesting thing to read, regarding the Findings of Fact, BTW.)
I'd figure that if one wanted to repeal laws against animal cruelty, one would have to go up against the various well-accepted links between cruelty to animals, and violence/cruelty towards humans. (Google animal cruelty facts child abuse site:gov for various governmental sites' beliefs on this. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16600374 is a particularly good site. http://ag.arkansas.gov/newsroom/index.php?do:newsDetail=1&news_id=205 is another.)
Furthermore... what ban on same-sex marriage would make sense that has not already been tested and found wanting in the case of inter-racial marriage, or coverture? Bans on inter-racial marriage have already been found to violate the United States' Constitution. Judge Walker -- aware that the Federal Government had once overturned California's inter-racial marriage ban -- may simply have wished to reduce the costs for domestic partnership papers early. A clear benefit for the state's budget!
It's still too early to know what's going to happen with the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell thing. I suspect that one's going to linger on for another generation (since joining the military is not a fundamental right, as you mention above), until a critical mass of people are not squicked by the idea that someone of their own gender might find them attractive.