Words on CA’s Prop 8 from my friend and former Stanford RA, Li Han Chan. She put this in an email and I asked her permission to quote it:

Some people say the right to domestic partnership is enough, but really, it isn’t. While domestic partnerships, in law, grant same-sex couples all state-level rights and obligations of marriage — in areas such as inheritance, income tax, insurance and hospital visitation, every step requires extra documentation to prove the union is legit, and that domestic partners in fact do have those rights (e.g. if you want to visit your partner in the hospital, you’ll have to do much more than just show a small credit card sized marriage license.) This is what the 21st century LGBT version of “Separate but Equal” is like. We’re not even talking about federal rights yet, such as immigration.

Please help and sign the pledge to repeal California’s Proposition 8, which overturned the recently won right of gay couples to marry in CA, and made same-sex marriage illegal in the state, as of the 11/4/08 election.

We have to come together right now to say that we refuse to accept a California where discrimination is enshrined in our state constitution.

I have tried so many times to write on this subject and it keeps on stopping me – I feel so strongly that gay people should be allowed to marry that I am getting all tangled up in the emotions and not finishing the essay. But here are the notable anti-Prop 8 arguments, from ballotpedia.org.

– “Our California Constitution–the law of our land—should guarantee the same freedoms and right to everyone. No one group should be singled out to be treated differently.”
– “Equal protection under the law is the foundation of American society.”
– “Traditional Marriage” is a misleading term. Various marriage traditions, since abolished, have included: only allowing members of the upper class or nobility to marry; having marriages arranged by families without the couple’s consent; only allowing white people to marry; only allowing people of the same race to marry; and allowing one man to marry multiple women.
– Current statistics show roughly 50% of heterosexual marriages end in divorce. So-called “traditional marriage” is doing more to degrade the institutional of marriage than any expansion of marriage could ever do.
– Voter initiatives to amend the constitution should not be taken lightly; using them to take away rights from one group could open the door to voter initiatives to take away other rights, including religious freedoms and civil rights.
– The institution of marriage conveys dignity and respect to the lifetime commitment that a couple makes. Proposition 8 would deny lesbian and gay couples the opportunity to that same dignity and respect.
– “The freedom to marry is fundamental to our society, just like the freedoms of religion and speech.”
– When domestic partnerships are held out as an acceptable substitute for marriage, this is misleading. Domestic partnerships are not a substitute for marriage. The doctrine of “separate but equal” has failed throughout American history.

Dear Dara,
This has been an incredibly difficult week for Californians who are disappointed in the passage of Proposition 8, which takes away the right to marry for same-sex couples in our state. We feel a profound sense of disappointment in this defeat, but know that in order to move forward we must continue to stand together as one community in order to secure full equality in California.

Geoff Kors
Executive Director
Equality California