Cascadia Journal

On Tuesday, the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, the November referendum that took the right to marry away from California gays and lesbians.  As a small consolation, they did not invalidate the legal marriages of around 11,000 couples that were already married.

Proponents had based their support of the taking of rights from their fellow citizens by stating that their own religious beliefs did not condone gay marriage.  Those against the measure believe, as I do, that any adult should to be able to marry any other adult that they love and want to spend their lives with.

One major argument for upholding this ill-passed measure was that it was the “will of the people” that some adults should be prohibited from marrying other adult that they choose to be their mate.  Yes, we have established that the measure did pass a vote of over half the voters.  I would like to share some other examples of how a majority of the people denied the rights of a smaller group of people, in the name of “the will of the people.”  Among them:

• White people in Oregon were not permitted to marry Blacks, Native Americans, Asians, or Native Hawaiians until 1951.  In the timeline of history, this is fairly recent.  White Californians could not marry Blacks, Asians, or Filipinos until 1948.  It was “the will of the people.”
• In 1963, California Proposition 14 passed a constitutional amendment that restored the right of a landlord or home seller to refuse to rent or sell a home to “colored” customers.  This was passed in response to a recently passed law to stop racial discrimination.  Although the amendment was invalidated by the US Supreme Court in 1967, the passage of the original proposition was “the will of the people.”
• In Oregon, The original State Constitution prohibited blacks from living, voting, or owning property in the state.  This provision was not repealed until 1926.  Until the 1960’s, African Americans could only live in certain neighborhoods in Portland.  Why?  It was “the will of the people.”
• In 1922, with the backing of the Ku Klux Klan and the Masons, Oregonians passed a ballot measure that required children to attend public schools, and specifically prohibited their attending Catholic schools.  The anti-Catholic groups wanted to eliminate Catholic education.  It was passed by a majority of voters that year.  Although the US Supreme Court nullified the new measure in 1925, clearly this discrimination was “the will of the people.”

There are of course plenty of examples all over the country where a majority of voters have voted for discrimination.  This is all too recent history.  I am sure that in the relatively near future, cooler heads (and likely the courts) will see this as simply another form of discrimination.  Eventually, we will have equal rights for all.  Eventually, right will win over wrong.

In the meantime, I am ashamed for us that we do not learn from our history and that times never seem to change.  Forgive me if I am not easily swayed when someone argues that some new law is “the will of the people.”  Sometimes, the people are mistaken.