A reader sent me this overnight and I’m posting it here in full…

Hello Bruce!

I’ve been reading your blogs and your writings on aph for nearly twenty years now.  Thought I’d share something I wrote to my neighbors in Lake Manor CA (just to the west of Chatsworth).  And I’ve been sharing it, and sharing it, and sharing it…

Feel free to share it as well.

Cheers,
Bill

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Neighbor to neighbor on Prop 8

Dear Neighbor,

Bill here, as in Bill and Robert and our three dogs. I normally don’t suggest to my neighbors how they should vote, but this time the stakes are too high. On November 4, the Yes–On–8 campaign wants you to take away a constitutional right. This is unprecedented in California, and it’s wrong. I’m writing to ask, neighbor-to-neighbor, that you vote NO on Proposition 8.

Robert and I have been together for 16 years, and we’ve lived here in Lake Manor since 2005. We’ve grown to love Lake Manor, not just for its beauty, but also for its people. We’ve shared many dinners, holidays and block barbecues together, a few Super Bowl parties, and countless evenings just chatting over a few beers. During the wildfires, our neighborhood pulled together to see that everyone and their pets came to safety. Never have Robert and I been treated as less than other couples. We love our neighborhood and our neighbors. We’ve found our home here, and we are profoundly grateful.

Proposition 8 seeks to legally make us lesser people, and relationships like ours less protected under the law. There are dozens of legal rights – and responsibilities – given to married couples and no-one else. The backers of Prop 8 say they only want to preserve marriage, but marriage is not threatened by gays and lesbians living the same quiet life as any other couple. It’s sad that Yes-On-8 ads have used fear mongering and falsehoods to deny that which everyone else enjoys. I can’t believe what they’re saying, but it’s not hard to see through their campaign:

Claim: Same-sex marriage infringes on religious liberty.

Fact: The California Supreme Court specifically stated that no church, synagogue or other religious institution can be required to perform or recognize a same-sex marriage.

Claim: Children will be forced to learn, over parents’ religious or moral objections, that same-sex marriages are equal to opposite-sex marriages.

Fact: Prop. 8 does nothing about education. California law expressly gives parents the right to review classroom material on health and family issues and remove their child from hearing what is objectionable. That won’t change.

Claim: Domestic partnerships for gays and lesbians are enough, and activist judges shouldn’t make new law.

Fact: I actually read the Court’s decision. The Court recognized this as a ‘Separate but Equal’ argument, and court after court has ruled that separate-but-equal has no place in American law.

You may have genuinely-felt religious objections to same-sex marriage. I respect that. I grew up Lutheran, and if my conservative congregation isn’t exactly gay-friendly, neither is it gay-hostile. They don’t perform same-sex weddings, but they still treat Robert and me like any other couple when we’ve gone on visits to my home town. In fact, people hear about what’s going on in California, and ask us when we’re getting married!!! Why? Because in addition to marriage being a religious rite, marriage is also a civil and legal institution apart from any particular faith. The law doesn’t care who performed your marriage, nor should it. Legally, it makes no difference if you were married by a priest, minister or rabbi, or by a judge. My congregation is happy living in a pluralistic society, because while their faith is strong, they know that everybody should be equal under the law. Everybody.

It’s wrong to make gay couples pay the price for someone else’s misplaced fear. On November 4, it’ll be only you in the voting booth. Nobody will see how you vote – that’s your business. But before you mark your ballot on Prop 8, please take a moment to ask yourself, in all honesty, what does it hurt you if gays and lesbians get married? Will it make you love your spouse any less? Does it make you love your children any less? Would it hurt your family if, after 16 years, Bill and Robert finally get to tie the knot?  I think your answer will be no. Your marriage will be no weaker if Prop 8 doesn’t pass. Your family will be no less under the law or under God.

This will be a close vote, so what you decide matters. Vote NO on Prop 8.

Thank you for reading this, and thank you for helping make our life in Lake Manor a happy one.

Your neighbor,
Bill

P.S. Feel free to share this letter if you like. Get the facts at www.NoOnProp8.com and contribute if you can. If you want to talk about this issue, drop by the house or send e-mail.

P.P.S. You may have heard from Yes-On-8 about those school kids who threw rose petals at that gay wedding in San Francisco. What they didn’t tell you is that the idea was from a parent, not the school, and every one of those kids had their parents’ permission to go. Some parents declined, so their kids didn’t go. That’s OK, but the Yes-On-8 campaign seemed to miss those details. 

Thanks for sending this.  And…wow…I had no idea that some of the folks who read me once upon a time on aph (that’s alt.politics.homosexuality, the Usenet newsgroup I used to post to often, long ago, before I set up my own website), were still reading me.  That’s…amazing. 

Please, give what you can to the fight against Proposition 8.  We have closed the fundraising gap and the vote is close, very close, and that’s only made the other side raise their own stakes more furiously.  They want to swamp TVs all over California with anti-gay propaganda in the closing hours of the election.  We need to be able to match them ad for ad in the last days before November 4th.  Please give.  Anything you can spare.  So that love can have a chance in this poor angry world.

Donate Here, to No on 8.  Any small amount…any at all…can help make a difference in leveling the playing field. 

If you donate between now and election day online (for any amount), and send me your confirmation email, I will draw, if you wish, an editorial cartoon on the topic of your choice. Or…alternately…a Mark and Josh cartoon on the topic of your choice.  Or…if my cartoons don’t do it for you…you can have a signed 11 by 17 print of the image of your choice out of any of my photo galleries.