prop 8

What a controversy!

I think I might have two minds with regards to the California court upholding of prop 8 (the proposition against legal gay marriage in California).

First, what a travesty! It is so disheartening to get so close to something so cherished only to have it snatched back by people who don't like us. Feels like high school.

Second, what developed today (5/26) is a true testament to the fact that democracy is alive and well and the courts are sound.

It doesn't mean it's right.

First, I cannot think of anything that makes us (the GLBT community --Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender) more irritated and frustrated than watching states allow same-sex marriages only to recind the privilege later.

There was a sweet little caveat. California's court upheld proposition 8, but they did not dissolve those marriages that were officiated during the short legal window before the upholding today.

Still, the old switch-a-roo does feel a little sophomoric and high school'ish.

I remember high school all too well, unfortunately. I remember how, no matter how uninformed the rumors, a person's high school experience was determined almost entirely by his/her reputation (i.e. what people WANTED to believe). I didn't experience anything like that (that I know of!), but I sure participated. This really isn't much different. That is not democracy and yet in some cases that is exactly how our democracy works. Amazing. Need I build this illustration any further or did some of you go to high school in foreign countries?

Secondly, our democracy is alive and well. By upholding proposition 8 the court, in essence, upheld the voice of the democratic majority. Our democracy is working like a charm. I'm glad to know that, even in the face of passions on both sides, the court heard the people. The majority...I think that's the way it works in the justice system? Ummm...

Maybe not. I think that the decision, both by the people and the court, upheld injustice.

I have to remember that the mind of the country has yet to change. YET.

So, in essence, again, injustice IS justice in the courts of this land (in this case). The majority still do not see sexual minorities issues as civil rights issues. We, as a country, have not accepted the GLBT (Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender) community as being part of a long history of groups treated unequally unjustifiably.

"Liberty and justice for all." Remember citing that in school?

I took that picture of the nation's Supreme Courthouse just last Fall. In huge letters above it's massive marble columns it says, "EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW."

"Justice" is ambivalent in this circumstance. Yes, justice was upheld when the court listened to the people. Yes, somewhere in the law it is pronounced that gays cannot marry (I don't know where to find it). Thank God we don't see interracial marriage like we used to, or voting rights for women and other minorities.

However, the term justice also means that the court could have done what the court has been given lawfully to do --change the minds of the people by demonstrably correcting unjust laws, and thereby societal behavior and beliefs.

Changing the laws isn't about popular vote. Changing the law is about serving justice. Entirely different in cases such as this one.

Let me correct myself on my second point above:

"Politics" is what we have experienced today, not "justice".

What do you do?