Hatred and Bigotry Defeated

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker overturned California's Proposition 8, which voters approved in 2008.

In addition to citing the obvious violations of US Constitutional right to equal protection, the judge also blasted the defenders of Prop 8 for their lack of research and their substitution of opinions for facts. American citizens should not have their constitutional protections subverted by appeals to religious prejudice nor by pandering to the intolerant.

(Citations from Judge Walker's decision.)

"Race restrictions on marital partners were once common in most states but are now seen as archaic, shameful or even bizarre. When the Supreme Court invalidated race restrictions in Loving, the definition of the right to marry did not change. Instead, the Court recognized that race restrictions, despite their historical prevalence, stood in stark contrast to the concepts of liberty and choice inherent in the right to marry."

"Moral disapproval alone is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and lesbians.The evidence shows conclusively that Proposition 8 enacts, without reason, a private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples."

"Our deepest quarrel with fundamentalists in this country, then, is not about Iraq, health care, abortion, or gay rights. It’s about the very possibility of trying to be true without needing the truth. It’s about being able to commit to a truth while always remembering that this truth could be partial, incomplete, and provisional—a steppingstone forward, not an edifice of certitude."

Nick Bromell, Scooter and Me