Exactly one year ago, Californians were thrust into the middle of this debate. This preemptive strike was nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on the GLBT community. It was hurtful and incredibly divisive for all Californians. The voters in California passed the measure overwhelmingly. In so doing, they established a grossly unfair legal predicament for gay and lesbian Californians who work, pay taxes and in every other way are expected to be part of the fabric of social life, yet are denied the very basic right to a legally sanctioned family.
Heterosexual couples have the choice of marriage.
The wedding day, by tradition and by law, provides them the opportunity to declare themselves a couple to the community. The community, in turn, is required to support their union. This prohibition, I contend, not only weakens society by discouraging the formation of loving families, albeit non-traditional ones, but also, and perhaps more importantly, keeps gays and lesbians in a perpetual state of adolescence. We have no obligation to take responsibility for our relationships, neither in the very immediate arena of the home, nor in the more universal arena of the community at large. I think same-sex marriage is the fundamental civil rights debate of our time.