Proposition 8: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown Oppose Stay on Gay Marriage

• The vote of the people means immensely if it is constitutional. You have to read the judge's opinion to understand that civil or equal rights cannot be put up for a vote. The law grants and protects the equal rights of everyone under the constitution, and such rights cannot be taken away by a vote. Minorities are protected from majority rule under the constitution, which gives equal rights to all and that includes the right to marry. The Court had clarified it before the vote, granting the same right to everyone under the constitution... When you think about it, gay people are products of heterosexual marriages and not of gay marriages. Gay people are taxpayers. They are parents, lawyers, judges, senators, representatives, policemen, firemen, doctors, dentists, nurses, governors, brothers, sisters, cousins, daughters and sons. For all you know, you might end up having gay children and you would want them to have the same rights as everyone else. People would not chose such a lifestyle, one that begets hatred from people like yourself. A gay child can be the loneliest person on the planet and a lot of them end up killing themselves for lack of understanding from their community. WHAT CHILDREN NEED IS THE LOVE, SUPPORT AND UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR PARENTS, FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES... You have to remember that before you become a gay adult, you are a gay child which means dealing with their misunderstood homosexuality, often the hatred of their parents and relatives, friends and schools!

• It is NOT true that a popular vote for a measure that deprives a minority of legal and equal status- no matter how many times it happens- can be deemed "legal" just because a majority wants it to stand. If a group of your neighbors took a vote and asked you to move from the neighborhood ("we had a meeting and a majority of us don't like you"), would you do it? Judicial review is a requirement of our Constitutional protections, preserving minority rights. Nearly 50 years ago, the California Legislature passed the Rumford Fair Housing Act, which banned discrimination against "colored" (read black and latino) property renters or buyers. About 2/3 of California voters overturned the Rumford Act when they passed Proposition 14, which, like Proposition 8, had amended the California Constitution. Proposition 14 said Californians could refuse to sell or rent to anyone for any reason. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Proposition 14 violated the 14th Amendment, and it didn�t matter how many Californians had voted for it -- it was racial discrimination, and unconstitutional. The equal protection clause that Walker cited in his Proposition 8 ruling is part of that same 14th Amendment. It was also passed during a Republican administration.

• The VOTE of the people in the USA is no longer respected or considered. TWICE the people of CA have voted against gay marriage successfully only to have it trumped by ONE judge? These are scary times indeed! The voice and strength of the people is diminishing steadily. Tax payer money shouldn't go to support a chosen, dangerous, and backward life style. Boys and girls shouldn't be raised by two gay men or two gay women. Period. Children NEED the balance of heterosexual parents. Sorry. It's psychologically and sociologically proven. Period.

• The filing of a stay by anti-gay forces, just shows the irrationality of religion because, basically, homophobes use their bible to quote platitudes. They're taught to believe that unconventional love and family is wrong, wrong, WRONG. There's no democracy when freedom to marry when gay, is denied because those people are second-class citizens in the eyes of the "holier-than-thou" masses. If there was room here in Canada for the millions of gays to move, we'd take them. We don't mind. We're more open-minded.

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