Repeal the Zealots.

The initial vote in California last November 8th, 2008, was a lie, a sham, and a farce. Voters in California are notorious for their liberal, well educated voting policies and views- when they are aware of an issue and believe it to be important.

Last year's Presidential elections were important. A nation's future hung in the balance, and we in California were no less worried that the incompetent lackluster leadership of the latter day "Know Nothing" party would drive the country past it's breaking point and leave millions on the streets and in 21st century Hoovervilles while the handful of ultra-hawks and their well paid, well trained parrots finished the rape and pillage of the American coffers, borrowing rather than taxing to pay for their own oil laden masturbatory fantasies and blaming it all on anyone who was not in power and could not defend themselves.

California was, and is, a bastion of tolerance, charity, purpose, liberty, and liberal thinking where most residents truly do not want to impose on their fellow Californian's so long as those same people don't impose upon them.
Californian's are also busy. We have lots to do, carrying the 6th largest economy on EARTH- not the US, but the EARTH, including the heart of the entertainment industry, the US wine industry, the US electronics industry and computer industry and hand held media industry and internet industry. We also contribute such varied things as Almonds, light oils, Non-industrial worked diamonds, and medical needles,catheters and parts. *
We work hard. We also play hard, and have always kept our eyes on the important issues, leading the country in reducing automobile emissions, enacting clean air and water policies, and protecting the environment.

Last November however, Californian's did not understand that a stealth movement by out of state religious zealot agitators had been afoot for months to fuel a religious earthquake with misinformation and medieval threats to a small but incredibly well organized group- the California Mormons. Their goal?
To take a minor proposition that every right thinking human in the state felt was a ridiculous pipe dream, and in the space of several weeks flood the state with messages designed to lead the weak minded to the ballot box with their brains full of mush and the fires of righteousness in their bellies.

While millions of us were working to elect the first Black President and bring some balance and a sense of intelligence back to the White House, the Mormon Church was using their TAX FREE status to influence politics in our state and deny our citizens their fair and equal rights under the guise of "separate but equal".
NO ONE in their right minds believes that separate ever means equal, from our schools in the south to medical access in the Midwest to jobs to water fountains. There are haves-- and there are have nots.
We were focused on the needs to stop a war and save young American lives in Iraq instead of the machinations of a religious party who still allow their members to take multiple under age wives.
Our historic California tolerance extended to the foibles and peculiarities of a religious cult that sprang up in the Eastern US a little over 200 years ago complete with it's own "bible" and a belief that God hates dancing and coffee. We thought they were no worse than any other sect- or, in the words of Douglas Adams, "mostly harmless".
Their mother church in the church-state of Utah however, abused the tax status of a church and violated states rights * to decide their own fate and used their well attended churches to spread a noxious and vicious belief that marriage was in danger and that children would be defiled should we come to the rational, logical, reasonable, and fair decision to finally tear down the emotionally charged vocabulary barrier disallowing gay couples the same rights as everyone else.
It was with this comfortable belief that California was already tolerant and fair that we, the majority, the folks who do not believe in marrying 12 year olds to middle aged men, focused on the larger issues and ignored that evil, fear soaked proposition buried on our ballots until it was too late to rally our numbers and awaken the sleeping voters to the threat towards our progressive and fair marriage rights and their march forward one hard fought victory after another.
We were, to put it sadly, asleep at the switch while the ballot box was being stuffed with lies and stretched truths, fright scenarios and defensive partisan religious fake facts.
I am not surprised that the Church of 'latter day saints' (um... no. Check with the Catholics on who is and isn't a 'Saint') got enough votes to pass this absurd twisted vote through.

With enough money and fear, in 6 months time I can convince the residents of any state in the nation to cut off their own genitals. They will do it to "save their children", to "protect and defend their country" to "stop the abominations" or to "defend their rights", but they will do it.
They will do it gladly, and they will do it as willingly as the residents of Oakland California were when they drank Kool Aid and committed suicide for the Reverend Jim Jones in Ghana, 1978, they will do it with as much surety as Yossele Schumacher's grandfather had when he kidnapped the small child from the child's parents to save his religious soul, with as much burning passion as McCarthy felt when he held the hearings on Un-American Activities, with as much damnation as the American public felt avenging the attack on Pearl Harbor, with as much blind determination as the entire inner Nazi circle had while enacting the 'final solution'.
Human nature loves to have an evil to hyper-focus on, and the religious zealots of nations throughout history have known this, and used it to their own advantage.
Sadly, the voters who DID vote for Prop 8 did not use any logic. What exactly will allowing gay couples to marry do to them?

Nothing. Not one damned thing.

There is no limit on the number of marriages that the state allows per year, so no one is going to be turned away from taking vows due to some quota being filled by happy gay couples.
Having gay people married doesn't change the quality of our air or fill up the car pool lanes any faster. Allowing our fellow Californians their RIGHT to do exactly what any one else can won't bring the wraith of God down on us- many of us not only don't believe in that God (or any God), but our *country* is built upon the belief that NO RELIGIOUS BELIEF shall over ride any other nor shall any one religion dictate the laws of the land to our citizens.
Married gay folks won't change the taste of the shrimp at Monterey Bay, won't make the sun go down any faster in the West, and won't matter a rats ass to anyone but those individual couples safe in their cocoons of love and harmony.
The religious fear mongers- and every religion is full of fear mongers and those preaching hellfire and damnation to anyone that challenges their authority- cannot show any of us a single blessed thing that will change for the worse in recognizing marriage as a right of 2 people to enter into.
They cannot make 'unions' as legal as 'marriage', and they cannot show us proof positive that unions are not second class papers without all the legal and equitable rights that the national usage of 'marriage' instantly grants 2 people anywhere in the *world*.
Citizens of California are not demanding that anyone MUST allow marriages in their church-- that *is* for the church itself to decide, and should the righteous voters of our state continue to push the situation, I can see a time when we outlaw marriage itself, at least as a right of the church.

We can legislate that *ALL* unions must be performed at the County Clerks offices of each county to be legal and valid marriages, and whatever the individuals involved wish to do separately, without the blessings of the state, in their own churches before or afterward are their own business, but they will carry NO legal advantages or be acknowledged by any agency of the state.
Yes, you heard me right. You can get married at the clerks office, or you can have some elaborate affair at a church- but still be living in sin without the benefit of a marriage license unless you do it our way.
Yes, we CAN push that vote through.
We WILL make it right for ALL our citizens to share equally and justly in every facet of citizenship that we offer in this state.
Zealots be damned.

California Exports
* Courts have ruled that the church violated laws during this campaign and have been fined.