{"id":14489,"date":"2011-11-17T15:00:12","date_gmt":"2011-11-17T23:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=14489"},"modified":"2011-11-17T17:05:52","modified_gmt":"2011-11-18T01:05:52","slug":"prop-8-proponents-have-standing-to-defend-it-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=14489","title":{"rendered":"Prop 8 Proponents Have Standing To Defend It In Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

NPR Report<\/a><\/p>\n

The Full Decision<\/a><\/p>\n

I think this is the right decision.<\/p>\n

I’m in favor of full legal equality for all citizens. I don’t believe that there is a legitimate state interest in restricting marriage rights to heterosexual couples. I believe that all the quasi-sophisticated arguments about the ‘essence’ of marriage exist simply to mask naked homophobia. I believe that the heart of Proposition 8 can be reasonably described as “people who are not members of my religion ought to be compelled, by force of law<\/em>, to comply with the dictates of my religion.” And, as ever, I am disgusted by the open and repeated lies Proposition 8 proponents spout about “changing the definition of marriage,” as if marriage was always one thing, and as if that one thing has always excluded same-sex couples, neither of which is true.<\/p>\n

But even bad ideas … even the worst<\/em> ideas … deserve a fair day in court. Proposition 8 was voted on and passed by a majority of citizens of California, and though I believe it to be unconstitutional, that’s for a judge to decide. We oughtn’t make an end-run around proving it’s a bad law by disallowing anyone from arguing in court that it’s a good one.<\/p>\n

The remedy to speech we dislike is more speech, and I’ve found that the best arguments against Proposition 8 often come from merely letting its proponents speak freely. Let’s hear their best arguments. Let’s hear them loudly, clearly, and in public. It’s only through letting them speak, after all, that we can be certain that their very best arguments<\/em> are, simply … bad.<\/p>\n

Please do not comment unless you accept the basic dignity, equality, and inherent worth of all people.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NPR Report The Full Decision I think this is the right decision. I’m in favor of full legal equality for all citizens. I don’t believe that there is a legitimate state interest in restricting marriage rights to heterosexual couples. I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,115,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-speech-censorship-copyright-law-etc","category-homophobic-zaninessmore-lgbtq-issues","category-lesbian-gay-bi-trans-and-queer-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14489"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14491,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14489\/revisions\/14491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}