The Prop 8 trial continued with testimony at the end of the week concentrating on the stats. How many couples married? How much did they each spend on their weddings? How many jobs were created? How much tax revenue was generated?
The defense (pro-Prop 8 people) tried to show that the figures were both inflated and even though 18,000 couple married in six months, only a small percentage of gay and lesbian couples bothered to get married. So once again, the best they may have done in this argument is shown that they will lie and contradict themselves to win.
But this argument by the pro-equality side probably wasn’t the best. While generating new revenue is a good thing, especially in cash-strapped California, it’s no reason to grant or deny civil rights. Civil rights are guaranteed by the constitution and because all men, including gay men and lesbians, are created equal. In 1919, women weren’t given the right to vote because of the amount of revenue they generated and the Civil Rights Act wasn’t passed in the 60s because of the revenue African Americans generated. Or maybe I’m being naive and that’s exactly the reason those rights were granted.
Hate doesn’t need an excuse, hate always finds a reason, whether sanctioned by law or not.
The antiquated beliefs and customs of a certain group of sub-humans that populate this world will one day be as much history as the polygamy some of them cherish, the snake-wrangling some of them still practice, and the general lack of education that characterizes the majority of them.
These lovers of superstition and social caste systems will give way to education, liberty, equality, and a happier world.
Dear mr. Taffet,
The reason the pro-equality side is bothering with this arguement has to do with the fact that the gay community is not classified as a “suspect class” while gender, nationality and ethnicity are classified as suspect classes. Since the gay community is not considered a suspect class, this case falls under “rational basis review”, if it was considered a suspect class it would call for a higher standard of review. Basically the lawyers are trying to prove that gay people are a discriminated minority and would qualify as a suspect class because it would increase our odds of winning. They are also trying to prove that gay people marrying would only benefit the economy, society and gov.- because it is still possible to create laws that infringe against the rights of a suspect class if it is in the best interest of society. Its complicated legal bullshit- but read this article, it describes it in a much more intelligible and coherent way than I can. https://www.autostraddle.com/prop-8-gay-marriage-trial-explained-pt-2-equal-protection-28933/
Jessie, Thanks. Good article. The best part of this argument is that it gave the defense an excuse to lie again, or at least talk out of both sides of their mouths. On the one hand, there aren’t that many gay or lesbian couples. On the other hand, very few gay or lesbian couples will want to marry. So the 18,000 couples who married are only a small percentage of the gay and lesbian couples out there, which means there must be millions of g and l couples.
But what bothers me about the whole numbers game is that everyone deserves equal rights and shouldn’t have to achieve a certain number to attain those rights. And we shouldn’t have to contribute a certain dollar amount to the economy to achieve those rights. Laws are usually created to protect the least among us, those with the least and those least able to protect themselves. Just watch – when the defense presents its case, they’ll be arguing – look how well these gays and lesbians are doing. They don’t need protection. They’re doing better than I am.
But if it’s numbers they want, then it’s numbers they’ll get. We’ll step up our recruiting efforts, print better, more colorful brochures, make bigger and better promises and step up the recruitment awards with better prizes for bringing in more members as well as actually achieving the opposition’s biggest fear – big prizes if you can prove your same-sex marriage actually destroyed a heterosexual marriage.