I find myself frequently taking interest in political issues, but not getting passionate about them.
Proposition 8 is another story entirely. For anybody that has been living in a closet for the past 3 years (if you’ll pardon the terrible, awful pun), Proposition 8 is referendum approved by California voters banning same-sex marriages in the state. In the United States, it is unique by virtue of being voted in by the people instead of by the state legislature. Last week, it was overturned by a federal judge as being unconstitutional.
The same thing happened in Iowa last year as well, with the Iowa Supreme Court overturning the Iowa law banning same-sex marriages. Just like in California now, there was an outcry about activist judges subverting the will of the people.
Now, if you would, put on your imagination hat and let’s take a trip back in time to 1954, when the SCOTUS handed down the Brown v. Board of Education decision. There was an uproar in the South, with much of the same rhetoric being thrown around. Can you imagine today a world in which that decision had never come to pass?
Judge Walker, like the Iowa Supreme Court before him, is fulfilling the exact role the judiciary exists to fulfill: ensuring freedom and justice for all. If the courts were not there to protect the minority, we would still have baseless, state-condoned racial, religious, and other discrimination. It’s time to extend that protection.
I am thankful that Proposition 8 has been overturned, and that Judge Walker took the time and care to craft his opinion in such a way that issues that are fact cannot be argued on appeal like they are not. I am thankful to the Iowa Supreme Court for also recognizing that this type of discrimination is baseless and that the state-sponsored institution of marriage has no place being defined by religious rules.
If you live in Iowa, Republican Bob Vander Plaats is organizing a campaign to oust three Iowa Supreme Court justices based solely on this decision. Please write Mr. Vander Plaats and tell him where he can stick his bigotry, and in this year’s election, vote to keep those justices in office, as they have done their jobs well, jobs that so many people haven’t had the guts to do before: they’ve ensured a just and equal future for everybody in the state of Iowa.
I pledge allegience to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Footnote: the strikethrough represents the removal of an addition by Joint Resolution of Congress, ironically also in 1954; an item which also represents the tyranny of the majority.