Well, I for one, agree with you lilpony. Why did they put it to a vote if the outcome of the vote didn't matter.
I'd also like to say, that just because someone is opposed to gay marriage, it does not make them a bad person or a person who is stuck in a different time period. It simply means they think it is wrong for various reasons. Those who are opposed to gay marriage, should not feel guilty or like they are judged as bad people.
That's the great thing about being an American and a WS member. We can have different opinions and view points on issues.
"They" put it on the ballot because there is a hardcore group of religious fanatics whose faith is apparently so fragile it can't survive unless they can impose their views on my house as well. It is absurdly easy to get a proposition--even one amending the constitution--on the ballot in California. The intention was to make our state more democratic; the result has simply been chaos, as most propositions are written by special interests and then "sold" to the public with disingenuous and deliberately misleading fear campaigns. Such was the case with Prop 8--as the judge pointed out after carefully reviewing the evidence.
Courts strongly resist ruling on "hypotheticals" and declined to rule on the constitutionality of the measure until after it had passed. The California Supreme Court gave in to public pressure and approved Prop 8 by contradicting everything the justices had said in their original ruling allowing same-sex marriage six months earlier. (Unfortunately, California jurists are subject to public recall and were greatly threatened in this case if they ruled any other way.)
No, I don't think people who oppose gay marriage are "bad people" in every way. But let's don't pretend it is virtuous or benign to insist on imposing your personal views on other people. I vigorously defend the right of anyone to believe any arbitrary, even bat$hit craxy thing they want to believe; that doesn't mean they have the right to impose their nonsense in my house.
Personally, I'm not crazy about marriages where it is held that the husband is the "ruler" of the household and the "wife" is to be submissive. (Thankfully, such marriages are not as common as they once were.) But for me to make such unions between consenting adults illegal would be morally wrong, not just a benign difference of opinion.
Prop 8 is a classic example of a slim majority of people imposing their will in an area that doesn't even affect them, all to the detriment of those for whom the issue may literally be a matter of life or death.
And trust me, "being an American" is NOT so "great" when you are held to be a second-class citizen without full legal rights.
(Note: this entire discussion is about marriage as a
civil institution. Nearly everyone--most certainly including me--defends the right of religious institutions to decide who is eligible for marriage as a religious sacrament. Just as they have to right to decide who may be baptized, who may get a divorce, and who may receive Communion.)