Is America Ready for Same-Sex Marriage?

To disallow same-sex marriage by claiming that gay couples can have all the same rights under a civil union flies in the face of a plethora of civil and equal rights decisions by the Supreme Court. For example, desegregation rulings declared that "separate but equal" is not equal enough under the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution. To bar same-sex marriages with this logic would open the door for the return of "Jim Crow" laws against minority groups of all types.

Ready or not, America cannot afford to go backwards to an era of "separation".

California's passage of Proposition 8 poses additional concerns going far beyond same-sex marriage. Using the initiative process to modify the state constitution via a simple plurality vote bypasses the court's jurisdiction and responsibility to protect the rights of the minority against the majority. The proposition reverses the change the court made in determining that the rights of the minority had been abridged. The suit filed against prop. 8 with the court seeks not only to throw out the proposition's results, but will have the effect of throwing out the entire process by which the California State Constitution can be modified. It is a landmark state constitutional question that needs to be answered. The initiative process is too easily influenced by outside special interests. Compared to the process required to modify the US Constitution, it is clearly lacking in the protections and oversight necessary to prevent abuse.