California Prop 8

I was elated with I heard that Obama won the US presidential elections 2 weeks ago. It remains to be seen if Obama can bring about the 'CHANGE' that has been the theme of his campaign, but I really hope he does.

What really brought me down was the shocking news that California has voted in a referendum to ban same-sex marriages which was legalized by the state's top court in May. Thousands of gay couples got married since same-sex marriages were approved. Their marriages can now be challenged in court, but the court says it will apparently defend the legality of same-sex marriages that were performed after May and before election day (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7723645.stm). Other gay couples have their marriage registration appointments put on hold because of the voting results. The votes were 52% for and 48% against I think.

I am appalled by how this situation came to be. For a while I could not really explain why I was so against prop 8 being passed as there were also people talking about how civil partnerships should be sufficient, that marriage is not something that one , but after hearing Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" on Prop 8 (see the link below, it was sent by an ex-colleague, and a very heart-rendering video I must say) I think I am beginning to make a bit more sense of my repulsion towards the verdict. Mr Olbermann is exactly right. Proposition 8 was getting people to vote for something that was to take away other people's rights. That to me is an abuse of democracy (see http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/whatsdem/whatdm2.htm). A democratic society is one in which the people have a say in political decisions, and decision are made by the majority rule. The article however explicitly says that there are limitations to that standard as minority rights have to be upheld. Democratic rules are meant to protect the rights of all citizens, and to pass a law on majority rule, that will eliminate the rights of a proportion of those citizens, is an outright violation of the principles of democracy.

These people are not asking you to do something at your detriment. They are asking you to give them the same rights that everyone should enjoy. They just want to be able to go through the same rites that you can go through, be sanctified by marriage that you are committed to a person you love and want to spend the rest of your life with.

http://www.couragecampaign.org/prop8repeal

Anyway... I am in no place to say such things. :p Going to research a bit more about LGB issues in Singapore