Mixed Feelings on Elections

It’s the day after Election Day. My feelings are mixed. As an American I’m very proud, but as a Californian I’m sad. Yesterday, we, as Americans did something I never thought would happen in my lifetime. We elected a black man as president. Although he won as easily as was predicted there were many Obama supporters in my office that were biting their nails as the poll results began rolling in from East Coast late in the afternoon.

My joy of Obama’s easy win was tempered late in the evening as the anti-gay Proposition 8 was apparently victorious. Up until yesterday it was legal for gay couples to marry here in California. Proposition 8 takes that away. It was not just a setback for the LGBT community. It was a setback for civil rights.

I was disappointed to learn that two my co-workers, both black, supported the ban. They had a different perspective from the typical Prop 8 supporter. They felt that equal rights for gays should not be given priority over the rights of ethnic minorities. To paraphrase them, being gay is a choice, but being black isn’t, and you shouldn’t be given special treatment because you choose to belong to a group that’s subject to prejudice. I was saddened to hear that.

You see, that’s not a logical argument either because it is absolutely illegal to discriminate based upon one’s religious faith and that’s a choice, isn’t it? Although you can be born and raised as a Muslim, Christian, Jew or Hindu, you can always choose to convert. One’s religion is unquestionably a choice.

An important point about this proposition is that gays weren’t asking for the right to marry. They already had it. This takes it away from them. The fact that this proposition singles out one specific group of people, and takes away their right to do anything makes this wrong on GP (general principle) alone. Like the commercial said, just like it was wrong for America to intern Japanese Americans during World War II, prop 8 is unfair and just plain wrong.

We’re off work now and nearing Fry’s. I’m going to look at external hard drives. I’ll update you about the coming and going of my 41st birthday last week on my next post.