Sitting Out California Just Not an Option

[Hazumu]

 By: ANTHONY M. BROWN
09/11/2008

But the most significant aspect of this decision was how it honored our dignity. The opinion states, "... retaining the traditional definition of marriage and affording same-sex couples only a separate and differently named family relationship will, as a realistic matter, impose appreciable harm on same-sex couples and their children, because denying such couples access to the familiar and highly favored designation of marriage is likely to cast doubt on whether the official family relationship of same-sex couples enjoys dignity equal to that of opposite-sex couples."

This wording was no accident. Equality organizations in California conducted extensive research to understand exactly what themes would resonate with everyday Californians, making them more sympathetic to, and accepting of, their gay friends, family members, neighbors, and co-workers. It was "dignity" that touched their hearts, and dignity that was emphasized by our legal advocates.

And it is every gay American's dignity that is at stake in the upcoming election in California. Proposition 8, which would do away with gay Californians' right to marry, is a full frontal assault on everything that our community has worked so desperately hard to create.