how change is possible

from contemplating my last two posts about proposition eight, i’m remembering today my own journey toward tolerance and then onto support and it is making me teary. so i thought i would share some of my personal story in brief, below the fold.
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alas, prop 8 might pass

even though i’m not gay, i take this issue deeply to heart and think the ban on same-sex marriage is unjust discrimination. in the same way, i’m not an ethnic minority but i feel discrimination — implicit or systemic — based on race is something to expunge. as a former irish catholic, and now buddhist, my ancestors fought for equality both in terms of class and religious freedom in this country. let me not forget that my privilege and opportunity is in part because of their struggle for equality and to be viewed not by their culture, standing, or religious views. and same-sex marriage is no different.

i said yesterday that views on same-sex marriage are changing. here’s a graph of views by age, that i found on the uncommonliberty blog and is based on a 2004 study by the university of michigan’s center for political studies.

one could argue that young people just haven’t made up their mind yet, but i believe this demonstrates a shift in view about same-sex marriage and that it’s just a matter of time before bans on same-sex marriage laws are repealed and constitutional amendments are annulled. in my opinion this will reverse a timeless discrimination whose time has come.

on this topic, i also recommend a couple blog posts from last year by the wisdom of repugnance blog including would you like to have your daughter marry a negro? and what’s in a name? where c.t. pope discusses emotions versus reason in social and bioethical issues. the first post, however, notes how the “welfare of children” argument was used forty years ago in defense of banning interracial marriage. for example, the assistant attorney general of florida at that time, james mahorner, argued to the u.s. supreme court that anti-miscegenation laws would protect the mulatto child from a psychological disadvantage by discouraging mulatto children altogether. pope argues that what really was at issue was creating a sense of unity by separating another group in contrast, and interracial marriages undermined that desire to divide us from them. the context is different with same-sex marriage but i suspect pope’s argument would also apply to that issue. but i am also now contemplating his final conclusion - that change around anti-miscegenation laws did not solely come from arguing the illogic of it but from society adjusting their irrational response. i suspect the same is occurring with homosexuality, but if proposition 8 passes it merely says that the process will take some more time.

update: the absentee ballots are not likely to reverse the expected outcome on this measure.
update: keith olbermann spoke out on this very topic at msnbc on nov 10th, now on youtube, worth watching.