Proposition+8

__Sankhya Hirani__

Proposition 8 was a California ballot proposition passed in November 2008. (A ballot proposition is a law proposed to the public able to vote, and then voted on). The proposition itself was that only the marriage between a man and a woman would be considered legal in California. Prop 8 was approved with a very close call of the votes, it was about 52% for yes it should be passed and 47% for no it shouldn't. Certain advertisements and campaigns have been now traced back as the most probable causes of the slight shift in voters so that there were just enough more voters siding with Prop 8 to get it passed. In November 2008 this law was approved and same-sex marriages were no longer legal in California. An interesting fact is that all except 2 of the counties in California who said no Prop 8 shouldn't be passed were all on the coast.

Prop 8 didn't appear out of nowhere, it was prompted by the 2004 San Francisco same-sex weddings in California. For a short period of time in 2004, same sex-marriages were allowed because of the San Francisco mayor at the time. There was so much controversy however, that Prop 8 was created and approved. Prop 8 was //ruled// to be unconstitutional in 2010 but was only confirmed on June 26, 2013. Same-sex marriage is now legal in California. Prop 8 was a very strict court ruling, and only won by a close call. There were lots of rallies and protests in the process. Probably the most powerful argument for the people going against Prop 8 was that it was unconstitutional. This was the same argument that African-Americans used greatly when trying to gain //their// freedom. The constitution says that you can follow whatever religion you please, which dis-qualifies one of the Prop 8 people's big arguments; the Bible says that only a man and a woman can marry and still go to heaven. The argument of the people siding against Prop 8 was that; if we don't follow that religion, and the constitution states that we don't have to follow that religion, then why do we have to base huge life events on a religious belief from the religion that we don't believe in? This was a viable argument, but America is still not adapted fully to same-sex marriage, and was even less back then. Most people's mindsets, even the ones who didn't follow the Bible, were set on the fact that same-sex marriage was weird and not normal. We can see this from all the now-informally and formally banned slang language that was used for homosexual human beings.

Money and power were lost and gained by various people. Some of the major political people involved in this were John McCain, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, all of whom were in agreement with Prop 8. In fact, Mitt Romney donated $10,000 to the National Organization for Marriage in order to support his cause which was for same-sex marriage to no longer be legal or recognized in the state of California. Many non-political, at least directly, people/groups were involved in the rally for Prop 8 too. Some were various Catholic and Christian churches who firmly believed that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. In order to make an actual difference these churches protested and donated large amounts of money and even churches that were not in California helped out the churches in California rally for Prop 8.

Works Cited  //Dictionary.com//. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. .  //Policy Mic//. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. .  //Wikipedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. .  //Wikipedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. .  //Wikipedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. .