On Thursday October 2nd at a Joint Informational Hearing of theCalifornia Senate and Assembly Judiciary Committees in downtown Los Angeles I gave the following public testimony:
My name is Ron Buckmire and I am here today as an openly gay Caribbean-American man who legally married his partner of 17 years on the auspicious day of August 8, 2008 in the great state of California. As a gay newlywed, I believe that it is simply wrong for the people of California to vote on whether my marriage should be "valid or recognized" in California.
Regardless of how individuals feel about marriage for same-sex couples, it is truly an extraordinary position to state that a simple majority vote of the electorate should be able to eliminate a fundamental right (the right to marry) by amending the state Constitution.
As a black person who is married to a white man I find it ironic that this debate is occurring almost exactly 60 years after the California Supreme Court became the first highest state court to invalidate racially discriminatory marriage laws in the landmark case, Perez vs Sharp in 1948.
The people of California did not amend the constitution to reinstate white supremacy to overturn that decision in 1948 and they should not enact Proposition 8 to reinforce heterosexual supremacy in 2008. In California, all people, gay and straight, are equal under the law.
Vote NO on Proposition 8.
4 comments:
This is so laughable. This guy decries a "simply majority" voting to decide whether his marriage is valid, but he has no problem that a "simple majority" of the Supreme Court overturned the will of the people. Hypocrite.
Anonymous is so right. This MadProfessah is OK with "simple majorities" when they're in his favor, but they're evil when they are against him. Double-standard loser.
Umm, no. It's called the "tyranny of the majority."
There are rights that minorities have that are guaranteed by the Constitution that can not be (and should not) be eliminated by the majority, EVEN IF THE MAJORITY DISAGREES WITH THOSE RIGHTS. If the majority is willing to eliminate the rights of minorities by "popular" vote, then we do not live in a pluralistic democracy, we live in a "tyranny of the majority."
In 2000, when Prop. 22 was on the ballot, the US Census put California’s population at about 33.8 million.
Of them only 7.51 million actually voted. Of those votes, 4.61 million were yes votes, while 2.9 million were no.
So, 13% of the people in California voted to restrict marriage to a man and a woman.
That's hardly a majority.
In fact, I would say it was the tyranny of the minority.
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