Another argument the Right makes is that gay and lesbian people are not being discriminated against because they have the right to marry, just not to one of the same sex as they. Yet the courts have ruled in opposition. The California Supreme Court stated, "[b]ecause a person's sexual orientation is so integral an aspect of one's identity, it is not appropriate to require a person to repudiate or change his or her sexual orientation in order to avoid discriminatory treatment." The fact is that being gay cannot be changed; and therefore, the right to marry is denied based on sex. How could a same-sex marriage fit the arcane definition without a man and a woman?
The right to marry is a fundamental right of all Americans. Yet the right to marry someone of your own sex is denied in most states and only recognized as marriage in a handful of others. But the Right provides a solution, domestic partnerships, because that is not marriage. This is yet another form of discrimination. Domestic partners have no rights as do married couples under most state laws and certainly not federal.
Ah, but the Right argues that opening the door for same-sex couples to marry brings into play polygamy and incestuous marriages while ignoring the compelling interest of the state to not recognize those relationships. Laws preventing a father from marrying his daughter are the same for two brothers marrying.
The trial in California over Prop 8 provided evidence that the Right used threats and intimidation for those in favor of same-sex marriage. The Catholic Church and LDS joined forces to finance a campaign using those tactics. Even though only 2% of Californians are Mormon, the financial contributions from out-of-state and the volunteer force they brought with them worked in unison with other religious organizations to bring the vote to repeal the law by 4.6%. This, in effect, had established a number of marital statuses within the state. Of course, there are those opposite-sex couples who were/are free to marry before and after Prop 8; 18,000 same-sex couples who married between 17 June and 4 November 2008 but cannot remarry if that marriage is dissolved by death or divorce; and those same-sex and opposite-sex couples that marry legally outside the state.
The Right used the people of California for their own purposes, to keep the woman and traditional marriage in place. They have campaigned to stigmatize the gay and lesbian population as being undesired and less deserving of recognition of the status of a civil marriage. They fail to recognize that gay and lesbian individuals have relationships that mirror that of the straight population. They want to refuse the right of marriage and the state and federal benefits enjoyed by that right. To exclude gay and lesbian individuals from the institution of marriage in order to promote traditional marriage is nothing more than a new coverture wrapped up with a pretty bow. Women have fought for their rights, racial minorities have fought for their rights and gays and lesbians are now fighting for theirs.
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