Legalized discrimination

In the past week, I’ve been eager to soak up news coverage of the aftermath of the election- Obama’s transition process, possible candidates for the cabinet, and D.C. gearing up for inauguration day. This is an exciting time for the country and I’m looking forward to being a part of it. I am bothered, however, by the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which reverses a ruling by the state Supreme Court and bans gay marriage in the state’s constitution. This casts a pall over what has otherwise been an exhilarating several days.

It is a shame that gay marriage is an issue at all, but doubly upsetting that it’s now been banned in liberal, open-minded California. Barack Obama carried the state by a wide margin, so this cannot be blamed on right-wing fundamentalism. Instead, it reflects a troubling mainstream opposition to equality.

At root, perhaps, is the religious connotation that many people assign to marriage. Indeed, many couples get married in churches and view their union as a commitment before God. Should religious bodies wish to regulate for whom they will perform marital ceremonies, they certainly have this prerogative. But permitting gay marriage is not about forcing unwilling faiths to conduct weddings for homosexual couples in their churches. It is not about altering the curriculum of schools, or forcing a new ideology on straight people. Plain and simple, it is about allowing two people who are in love to solidify their relationship in a way that grants them joint legal rights and, culturally, implies a lifetime commitment to each other - same as marriage for a heterosexual couple.

Some sanctimoniously argue that gays should be allowed equal rights under the law, but that the idea of marriage between a man and a woman is sacred. But this ignores a big part of the issue by dehumanizing the discussion. People do not get married because they want visitation rights in the hospital or to fill out their taxes in a different way. These are necessary benefits of being in a long-term, committed relationship, but they do not spark the relationship itself. Couples get married because they are in love. They marry because they want to become a family and because they recognize how much fuller life is with a companion than it is alone. It should not matter if the people in question happen to be gay. How is it fair to deny anyone this happiness?

It is particularly heartbreaking to consider Proposition 8 in the context of the national election. The sense of hope and opportunity that Barack Obama represents rings quite hollow when juxtaposed with what happened in California. To favor a constitutional ban of gay marriage is to favor legalized discrimination. This position inherently casts a group of people as second-class citizens and legitimizes a sense of bigotry that this country has long struggled to overcome.

Still, caught up in the spirit of Obama’s victory, I am confident that this ban will eventually be overturned. A younger, more tolerant generation is coming of age, and I cannot believe that such blatant discrimination will persist in America, purportedly the Land of the Free, forever. So while there is reason to be hopeful, for now I am just very, very sad.