The Year Of Livingly Tediously - The 10 Worst Things About 2008

1) Proposition H8.

NOTE: The following is not the official position of LAist. It is however the correct position.

They say that God never closes a door without first opening a window, and it must be true because just as the door was closed on an 8 year national nightmare brought to us courtesy of America's Godliest president, a window of hate and bigotry was opened by, you guessed it, California's Godliest voters.

The specifics of Prop 8 are well known, but to recap, just in case you're returning from Mars: Proposition 8 revoked the right of same sex couples to marry. It was drafted and added to the November ballot in the wake of a California Supreme Court decision declaring that the state's prohibition against gay marriage was unconstitutional. It sought (successfully) to make such marriages illegal, again, this time by amending the constitution itself.

If that sounds monstrous to you, that's because you're a decent human being and like most decent people, you probably don't take pride in a desire to break up families and punish people for their relationships.

Prop 8 is an offensive law that expressly revokes the explicit constitutional rights of hundreds of thousands of citizens and the biggest mystery of all is "just how in the hell, in California, in 2008, did a pernicious bit of filth like this pass?"

Here's how the hell:

With a little assist from a general population too incredulous to believe until it was too late that such an awful bill could be passed in 2008, the proponents of Prop 8 lied about the law in California and in other states, and otherwise pulled out all the stops one might expect decent, honest people to heed. In addition, Churches supporting Prop 8 involved themselves in the political process to disturbing degree - in fact, they might have violated the law. The Mormon Church in particular actually instructed their congregants that voting for Prop 8 was a religious duty.

In 2004, a pastor at Pasadena's All Saints Episcopal Church gave a sermon denouncing the war in Iraq, and discussing it in religious terms. Unlike anti-abortion churches throughout the south and midwest, he didn't advise his congregants on whom to vote for, nor did he provide them with voter information guides, or access to sympathetic politicians, or dictates about how their voting habits might send them to hell or result in their expulsion from the church. He discussed the war in the context of the Christian beliefs about which we so often are told that Republicans are the only legitimate acolytes. For this the church was reported to the IRS and for 3 years, a cloud of suspicion hung over them. When the IRS finally announced in 2007 that they would not revoke the Church's tax-exempt status, they still issued a damning statement that the Pastor's speech crossed a line into political activity, (though specifying no punishment nor providing any example of the violation in question, prompting suspicions that the IRS actions were themselves political in nature.) Interestingly, there haven't been any prop 8 related IRS investigations. Imagine that.

But why stop at ruining hypothetical lives when you can go after the real thing. The proponents of Prop H8 didn't quit after their dishonest victory in November, and on December 19th, 6 days before Christmas, the Yes On Prop 8 organization exposed themselves as the mean hearted, miserly and hateful people they are, when they filed a brief with the California Supreme Court to annul the legal marriages that were performed prior to the passage of the bill. That the brief was co-written by Ken Starr is an irony that has gone unremarked, but it's fitting that the 90s' chief panty sniffer is now hard at work sniffing through the underwear drawers of law abiding Californians whose only crime is to fall in love.

What we can learn from all this is that there is no filth too unclean, no lie too outlandish, no sin too low that the Christian right will not gleefully embrace it, so long as it imposes their will on the nation at large. But at least we now know that they have no limits and can prepare accordingly. That is weak tea, but better than nothing.

Is that an intemperate thing to say? Perhaps, but it's pretty goddamned rich that people who devote their lives to revoking the rights of others run for the fainting couch and gasp with play-acted outrage, accusing those who dare criticize them of intolerance. I counter that intolerance of the intolerant, and bigotry against bigots, are not vices, and intolerant bigots ought to stop their crybabying.

Prop 8 is likely not long for this world - numerous court challenges are pending, and even if they fail, those of us who believe in freedom and equality will not make the same mistake again - expect the pro marriage equality movement to use the ballot initiative process to our advantage next time. Therefore, one can, somewhat confidently, predict that this awful law will kaput one way or the other. Even so, Prop 8 remains a stain on the state, and on the nation at large, and we all should be ashamed that it passed¹⁵. (photo by Heather Shaughnessy for LAist.)