Most of the propositions on the November California ballot are complex and involve big numbers in tax proposals and bond issues.
Only one is simple, and calls for an easy Yes vote.
California Proposition 3, the Right to Marry and Repeal Proposition 8 Amendment, involves just the arithmetic that 1 + 1 = 1 — as in one person plus another person deciding to get married equals one new legally betrothed couple.
Our society should and does incentivize marriage in so many ways. And, yes, it’s absolutely amazing how relatively quickly public attitudes have changed since the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
Gay marriage is now common, across the land. We all know gay couples who are legally married. It’s not a political thing. It’s a human thing.
And yet, technically, Proposition 8’s mandate remains in the California Constitution.
Appearances, and technicalities, matter.
Along with repealing Proposition 8, Proposition 3 would also, as analyzed by Ballotpedia, “add language to section 7.5 of Article I of the state constitution establishing a right to marry as furtherance of the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and privacy and the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the state constitution.”
This year, we’re joining Colorado and Hawaii in deciding on constitutional amendments to take out same-sex marriage bans. Four years ago, Nevada became the first state to remove its ban from its constitution.
It’s hard to think of any public policy — and ethical, and moral — issue about which public opinion has changed so drastically in such a short period of time than gay marriage.
Gallup polling shows that in 1996, 68% of Americans believed that gay marriage should not be legalized. People recall Democratic President Bill Clinton as pretty liberal on social issues. And yet it was he who in 1996 signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman,
By 2023, 71% of Americans said it should be legal.
So it’s a complete reversal, and then some, of attitudes about a legal and often religious precept that had been commonplace for thousands of years.
Nowadays, 87% of Democrats say same-sex marriage should be legal, as do 72% of independents and, as of recently, for the first time, a majority of Republicans — 55%.
That GOP trend line is only growing. “Support has been largely driven by younger Republicans. According to Pew Research Center, 64 percent of Republicans ages 18 to 29 say the legality of same-sex marriage is a good thing for society, compared with 30 percent of Republicans ages 65 and older,” The New York Times reports.
When more and more of the friends and neighbors of the average American came out, and as the gay liberation movement started noting that what marriage equality is about, after all, is love and commitment, not anything radical, the swift shift in attitude about gay marriage began.
Here in California, where new ideas about equality and human rights so often begin, voters have the chance to codify what our hearts and minds have already told us.
Do just that by voting Yes on Proposition 3 on the November ballot.
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