A Shameful Waste of $25Million
What would you do with $25Million? How many people could you feed, house, clothe? How many underprivileged children could you give a chance at a better life? How much good could $25Million do in the world?
Well apparently, there’s a group of people in our society who can think of nothing better to do with $25Million than to squander it in an attempt to institutionalize discrimination against another group of citizens. I’m of course talking about Proposition 8, put forward to circumvent a recent California State Supreme Court ruling recognizing that homosexual couples have the same right to marriage equality as everyone else. As recently reported by the LA Times, the backers of Prop 8 have raised over $25Million in their quest to pass this initiative which would amend the State Constitution to eliminate that right.
Now I’m a firm believer that people should be free to spend their money as they see fit, but I also believe I have the right to publicly criticize them for their choices. Especially when that choice amounts to an attack on one of the most fundamental rights we have in this country, the right to be treated equally under the law. For, whatever you might personally believe about homosexuality, or whatever arguments you might have in favor of or against Prop 8, this proposed constitutional amendment is about one thing and one thing only: requiring the state to treat one class of citizens differently than another class of citizens. As a society, we’re supposed to have grown beyond that type of narrow-mindedness. We’re supposed to have left the days of racism, gender bias, and religious intolerance behind us.
And yet there are still those who would use the power of government to restrict other people’s rights rather than to protect their rights. To these people I say this – your actions are shameful and the antithesis of every principle this country was founded on. In the same way that it is wrong to discriminate against people of color, of different religions, of different genders, it’s wrong to treat same sex couples differently under the law than you treat heterosexual couples. These are human beings with the same right as you to fall in love, marry, and live out their lives in peace and freedom. Regardless of whether or not you like how this group has chosen to live their lives or whether their choices make you uncomfortable or don’t fit in with your sense of morality, your right to disapprove does not trump their fundamental right to be treated the same as everyone else.
And spending $25Million, money that otherwise could be used towards the betterment of society, in order to ensure that others are treated differently, is simply wrong. Shame on you.
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by David Boaz or 
by David Bergland, both excellent books on libertarian thought.
Comment by Sunshines | October 21st, 2008
Amen.
[Reply]