From a scholar and physician who grew up in Davis.

Why I Support Proposition 8

Earlier this year, the California Supreme Court discovered a “right” to gay marriage in the state constitution that its founders never intended or imagined. Proposition 8, which appears on the November ballot, seeks to reverse the court’s decision by specifying in the state constitution that “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” Opponents of Proposition 8, under the appealing slogan “equality for all,” characterize the measure as an attempt to limit the rights of gays, rather than what it really is--a stand on principle to defend and preserve an institution vital to society.
Traditional marriage, once the hallmark of society, has already undergone serious decline as too many of us have allowed other interests to take precedence over our family responsibilities. We have divorced too much. We have made our sexual unions more important than our family obligations. We have become cavalier about bearing children out of wedlock. We have too often left the rearing of our children to others. The consequences, both for children and for society, have been disastrous.
The legalization of same-sex marriage deals another crucial blow to marriage as an institution, the consequences of which will certainly be more profound than most Californians realize. What are the harms? This is hard to predict, but the following results seem certain to occur:
1. The indoctrination of our kids. This is already happening to a degree, but now has gained a new and important legal basis. The legalization of same-sex marriage will require the school curriculum to become “gender neutral” where marriage is concerned, placing the schools increasingly in conflict with parents trying to maintain the traditional family ideal. Claims that legalized gay marriage will have little effect on the school curriculum are either naive or deceptive. As well-publicized incidents in both California and Massachusetts illustrate, it already has.
2. The limiting of our freedoms. The establishment of a “right” to gay marriage brings the legal powers of government in conflict with truly constitutional freedoms, such as freedom of religion and freedom of speech. This has already begun to occur--on the basis of this new-found “right” physicians, church adoption agencies, and even wedding photographers have already found themselves in legal jeopardy for declining to perform services, readily available elsewhere in the community, which run contrary to their religious or personal beliefs. Employees in public workplaces must be increasingly cautious in expressing their views for fear of being accused of “hate speech.”
This is only the beginning. The legal forces are already poised, and if Proposition 8 fails, we can expect a flood of litigation challenging virtually every institution, religious or otherwise, which chooses on moral grounds not to adopt this radical new definition of what constitutes a marriage and family. The results are yet to be seen, but in California courts, it seems clear that in the rush to uphold a trendy new “right” to gay marriage, freedom of speech and freedom of religion are not likely to fare well in the courts. The powers of government will increasingly be brought to bear on what we as citizens may openly believe, do, or say.
3. Most importantly, the traditional family itself is dealt a crippling blow, by altering the very institution on which it is based. Once a “right” to same-sex marriage is established, equality requires the law to treat heterosexual couples and homosexual ones the same, despite the obvious biological differences. In effect, our effort to extend marriage to gays will ultimately reduce the legal institution of marriage itself to no more than a domestic partnership. This change will profoundly affect the rising generation’s perception of what a marriage and family are, and the traditional family will continue to lose ground.
The fact is that our collective experience and social research have consistently shown that children reared in traditional families as a whole fare better, contribute more, and fail less, than those who are not. Indeed, the traditional family, once the hallmark of society, still seems its only real hope. Amid a flood of social decay, young couples can still turn to the traditional institution of marriage as a foundation for their adult lives, with the confidence that if they adhere to its expectations, they will reap its benefits. This institution is now in jeopardy.
Legalized same-sex marriage does not just provide an alternative to the traditional family, it strikes at the heart of the institution upon which the traditional family is based. Indeed, for all our rhetoric about gay rights, it is not the gay lifestyle that is endangered in our society, but the traditional family itself.
Proposition 8 has never been about bigotry versus equal rights for gays--such rights, in California especially, have and will continue to be abundantly protected with or without the passage of Prop. 8. Instead, it is a measure to restore and defend our most vital public institution, the American family.
I urge a “yes” vote on Proposition 8.

Author:
John Bringhurst
Profession: Physician.
Residence: Woodland, CA.