by HRC Staff •
An op-ed in the August 8 LA Times urges voters to reject Proposition 8, which seeks to rescind the equal right to marry guaranteed by the California Supreme Court's historic ruling last May. The op-ed presents a ringing and well-articulated argument for equality, noting that the proposed constitutional amendment would actually strip existing rights (unlike Proposition 22 in 2000, which was voted on at a time when lesbian and gay couples could not marry in the state). The Times points out that denying lesbian and gay couples the continued right to marry would relegate them to second class status-separate and unequal. In an apt rejoinder to tired attacks against "activist judges", the Times correctly observed that it is, in fact, the court's duty to strike down unconstitutional laws, as it did with Proposition 22 when it declared that marriage equality is a fundamental right, and as it did 60 years ago when it struck down a ban on interracial marriage.
There's a stark choice in November: voters will decide whether to uphold equality or whether to take away an existing right. As the Times rightly suggests, the state constitution should not be used to discriminate.
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