arizona proposition 102
ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE PROPONENTS - GIVE UP NOW AND SAVE THE MONEY AND EFFORT
Ever wonder how much money and effort will be spent trying to prevent gay marriage? Supporters of the anti-gay marriage propositions in California (Prop 108) and Arizona (Prop 102) recently beat back opponents by votes of approximately 52/48 and 57/43, respectively. In California, reports peg spending in favor of the measure topped 35 million dollars while opponents of the measure spent over 37 million dollars trying to defeat it. In Arizona, supporters of Prop 102 spent $6.9 million according to the AP.
Given the history of anti-gay sentiment in this Country, some could argue the margins of victory were relatively small but not altogether surprising. Anti-gay sentiment is, after all, still much more widely accepted than its racially based counterpart. While appealing to religious doctrine to support racism is no longer mainstream, religious dogma continues to prop up anti-gay crusaders. This explains the widely discussed black vote in support of California’s Prop 108. The movement appeals to one’s moral sense of what is natural or ordained. It speaks of unions between a man, woman and god. It tells us that one man and one woman is tradition and cannot be watered down by recognition of homosexual unions.
Apart from overlooking the varying forms of marriage, its development and level of sanctity over time and cultures (such as women as chattel, polygamy and soaring divorce rates), or that heterosexual spouses engaging in open marriages or bi-sexual encounters as part of their “loving relationship” can’t take moral (religious) high ground over monogamous, gay spouses, has anyone considered that we can’t stop the tide of history and intelligent discourse in a pluristic society?
If anything, America should have taught us Americans that arguments based entirely on tradition or religious inspired views cannot prevail in a pluralistic society. They didn’t with woman and voting rights, they didn’t with separate but equal doctrines. Just consider the vote in California and Arizona if the year were 1900. What would the spread have been – 90/10? What about if the year were 1950 – 80/20? 1975 – 70/30? You get the idea.
So, you may not like the idea of sharing the state recognized alter with those of “questionable” sexual orientation, but you ought to get used to it now and put your money and time to more productive efforts and causes. Like actually supporting something — such as education, your favorite cause or charity, alternative energy research, your local youth sports organization. Countless possibilities exist for expanding the lives of others, as opposed to efforts and money spent to prevent another from obtaining some right. The time will come when gay marriage is a cemented right, the only question is how much will we waste and forego in trying to hold off the inevitable.