Victory at C... California, That Is!

Congratulations, Judge Vaughn Walker. You helped strike a victory for justice, morality and decency this week.

I'm referring, of course, to his decision to overturn California's unnecessary, hateful, overwhelmingly phobic ban on same-sex marriage.

The ban (known on the ballot as Proposition 8) was passed with a 2% majority in the enormous southwestern state back in Aught-8. Of course, by democratic rules, a simple majority was needed. But 2% is a little nebulous, wouldn't you say? So thanks to its powerful backers (entirely religious-conservative, although I'm sure confusion over the wording of the proposition did contribute some) which included apolitical churches and fear-and-hatemongering politicians and pundits, hordes of loving, committed couples were no longer allowed to enter into the same holy sanctity of marriage shared by billions throughout history who were happily and successfully united. Also Henry VIII and Britney Spears.

"Sanctity of marriage" is an abstraction, and in my mind, entirely personal. The institution of marriage, in my opinion, has no universal sanctity when it can be dissolved with a simple phrase as vague as "irreconcilable differences." And not when thousands of couples are drunkenly married in Vegas not knowing their spouses' names. Not when supermodels and "actors/actresses" have new wedded spouses every month. If you ask me, two married people create their own sanctity by their devotion to each other. A marriage isn't automatically better because it's between a man and a woman instead of two men or two women.

This, of course, applies only to civil marriages and marriages performed under faiths that embrace same-sex couples. Obviously, all religions are welcome to set their own standards for who is worthy of marriage. But with that right comes the responsibility not to interfere with those who choose love and equality. And yes, I realize that's a loaded sentence, because I don't believe discrimination against the GLBTQ is any better than discrimination against racial or religious minorities, or against women. Or men, for that matter-- no double standards today, thank you very much.

Quite frankly, the tidal wave sweeping across this country to make way for victory on this issue is the same that previously surged across America and ended slavery and allowed women to vote. It's called progress.

So well done, California. I await the results of the appeals. My advice to the ban proponents: Don't push it, please. Sometimes the world needs to change. This is one such time.