Liz Michael
I am very pro-family. We as a society should promote values such as
marriage, family, monogamy and stability.
We can promote and preserve the stable family, through lowering taxes,
eliminating the marriage tax penalty, increasing the standard deduction,
providing full tax credits for education, and the like. Cutting the
taxes, regulations and fees that burden small business would also greatly
enhance the ability of working class Californians to provide for their
families.
But there is a myth in circulation that Proposition 22 on the March
ballot will somehow protect and promote heterosexual marriage. The
trouble is, there is not a single provision within Proposition 22 that
actually does promote heterosexual marriage.
All Proposition 22 does is deny people of the same sex, should they
become legally married in another state or another country, the right to
be recognized as married in California.
How does denying the right of certain people to marry strengthen marriage
and the family? Why do we want to deny gay couples recognition of
marriage?
I am at a loss to explain that. I am also at a loss to explain Republican
fascination with Proposition 22. A party that rightly rails against the
excesses of big government is itself calling for big government to put
its foot down against gay couples.
We as a party stood with black conservative Ward Connerly. We embraced
Proposition 209 because we wanted to do away with special privileges
based on racial characteristics. We rightly saw these racial preferences
as reverse discrimination.
Yet here is the same Republican Party, now demanding discrimination in
favor of a majority of Californians. This same Republican Party has now
done a complete about face and is opposing Connerly when he says it is
not the government's business to ban marriages because they are different
from the norm.
Some Republicans say they support 22 for moral and religious reasons. But
there is no provision in the law for the morality or the religious nature
of marriage.
Men and women can get married for a variety of reasons ranging from the
most holy to the most evil, or for no good reason at all. The state never
questions or nullifies the validity of any of these marriages, no matter
how wrong they may be.
Why should gay or lesbian marriages be any different? Who have the
Republicans aligned themselves with?
A recent prayer breakfast gave us insight into the character and the
motivation of Proposition 22s proponents. State Sen. Pete Knight, ever
