{"id":610,"date":"2009-05-26T13:05:51","date_gmt":"2009-05-26T13:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/05\/prop-8-decision-on-the-way.html"},"modified":"2009-05-26T13:05:51","modified_gmt":"2009-05-26T13:05:51","slug":"prop-8-decision-on-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/05\/prop-8-decision-on-the-way.html","title":{"rendered":"Prop 8 Decision: Morally and Constitutionally Bankrupt"},"content":{"rendered":"

With all the buzz on Sotomayor<\/a> and the U.S. Supreme Court, Gay couples – and anyone who knows a gay couple – must be reeling from today’s California Supreme Court<\/a>  Prop 8 Decision.<\/a> Here’s a good blog about today’s latest proposition 8<\/a> fiasco.<\/p>\n

Prop 8 is clearly unconstitutional, one of the simplest cases ever<\/i>, and I hope it is overturned, either at the ballot or in court, with swift vengeance.<\/p>\n

Moral hatred aside, the constitutional issues are incredibly simple. Marriage is either<\/i> a secular designation or a religious one. It CANNOT be both, or it violates separation of church and state, plain and simple. If marriage is secular, then the equal protection clause means everyone must be allowed to marry the partner of their choosing. The state cannot extend secular benefits to some<\/i> couples and deny them to others. A simpler civil rights issue there has never been.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\nIf, on the other hand, marriage is religious, then the state cannot
\nlegally marry anybody (Hey, Church get the hell away from State! I
\nthought I told you you couldn’t play together). All the state can offer
\nare civil unions to all couples, and marriage is what you do with your
\nminister, rabbi, Imam, priest or preceptor, not with City Hall.<\/p>\n

Gay marriage needs to be legalized as soon as possible. In addition to being a moral embarrassment, it’s a legal embarrassment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With all the buzz on Sotomayor and the U.S. Supreme Court, Gay couples – and anyone who knows a gay couple – must be reeling from today’s California Supreme Court  Prop 8 Decision. Here’s a good blog about today’s latest proposition 8 fiasco. Prop 8 is clearly unconstitutional, one of the simplest cases ever, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interdependent-activism-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nProp 8 Decision: Morally and Constitutionally Bankrupt - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/05\/prop-8-decision-on-the-way.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prop 8 Decision: Morally and Constitutionally Bankrupt - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With all the buzz on Sotomayor and the U.S. Supreme Court, Gay couples – and anyone who knows a gay couple – must be reeling from today’s California Supreme Court  Prop 8 Decision. Here’s a good blog about today’s latest proposition 8 fiasco. Prop 8 is clearly unconstitutional, one of the simplest cases ever, and…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/05\/prop-8-decision-on-the-way.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-26T13:05:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ethan Nichtern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Prop 8 Decision: Morally and Constitutionally Bankrupt - One City","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/05\/prop-8-decision-on-the-way.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Prop 8 Decision: Morally and Constitutionally Bankrupt - One City","og_description":"With all the buzz on Sotomayor and the U.S. Supreme Court, Gay couples – and anyone who knows a gay couple – must be reeling from today’s California Supreme Court  Prop 8 Decision. Here’s a good blog about today’s latest proposition 8 fiasco. Prop 8 is clearly unconstitutional, one of the simplest cases ever, and…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/05\/prop-8-decision-on-the-way.html","og_site_name":"One City","article_published_time":"2009-05-26T13:05:51+00:00","author":"Ethan Nichtern","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/05\/prop-8-decision-on-the-way.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/05\/prop-8-decision-on-the-way.html","name":"Prop 8 Decision: Morally and Constitutionally Bankrupt - One City","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-05-26T13:05:51+00:00","dateModified":"2009-05-26T13:05:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/52c98770e14a482ace0de36ea672938f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/05\/prop-8-decision-on-the-way.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/05\/prop-8-decision-on-the-way.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/05\/prop-8-decision-on-the-way.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Prop 8 Decision: Morally and Constitutionally Bankrupt"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/","name":"One City","description":"The Interdependence Project","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/52c98770e14a482ace0de36ea672938f","name":"Ethan Nichtern","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13e\/13ee2d28169053f9c0745fa2e72f15b7x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13e\/13ee2d28169053f9c0745fa2e72f15b7x96.jpg","caption":"Ethan Nichtern"},"description":"Ethan Nichtern is the author of the acclaimed book One City: A Declaration of Interdependence (Wisdom Publications, 2007) and is currently finishing a novel. His writing has been featured in numerous print and online publications. He is the founding director of the Interdependence Project and the host of the I.D. Project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s popular weekly podcast (available on iTunes). He is currently on the part-time faculty of Eugene Lang College at New School University in NYC, where he teaches Buddhism. Ethan lectures regularly at universities and venues around the country on Buddhism, meditation, contemporary culture, and activism.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/author\/enichtern"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}