California Proposition 8

This has nothing to do with computers, Unix. Linux, or OS X. If someone else submitted it to me for publication here, I'd politely reject it because it's completely off topic.

However: this is MY soapbox and I am outraged.

I was happy on November 4th when Barack Obama was elected. The announcement of the passage of Proposition 8 in California the next day tarnished my joy considerably.

First, some background. I'm not gay. As far as I know, no one in my immediate family is gay. I have no close friends who are gay (again, as far as I know). I have no axe to grind here. I didn't "awaken" to support gay and lesbian rights because of a child, a niece or a friend.

It simply enrages me that people think they can vote away other people's rights.

I have a very hard time holding my temper when someone dismisses this outrage with "majority rules, get over it". Seriously, when I hear that my blood boils. That stupid (yes, stupid) attitude makes me very, very angry.

I don't care whether you believe sexual preference is a matter of genetics, conditioning or choice. If you still believe that last, you are ignorant beyond hope, but I still don't care: you have no right to infringe upon someone else's life unless they are harming you and even at that we need to be very careful.

If you are truly so ill-informed and stupid that you believe otherwise, I honestly don't think that you should be voting on any issue. I wouldn't disenfranchise you by law, but I would hope that you would realize that you are too ignorant and unintelligent to have useful opinions. You should recuse yourself from voting on issues where you have no comprehension.

I'm outraged by people who discriminate against homosexuals because of personal revulsion or discomfort, but I'm beyond outrage when people use religious beliefs to justify the discrimination.

The word you should be paying attention to is "beliefs". Yes, your religion teaches these things but they are BELIEFS, not facts. Certainly at some level even the worst of you recognize that: you allow people to hold different religious beliefs or even not to have religious beliefs at all. You don't attempt to restrict the rights of those people - we're a few hundred years beyond that hypocrisy. Your BELIEFS about homosexuality should not and cannot be expressed in law. Again, that's true no matter what you believe about the causes of sexual preferences. Genetics, conditioning or idle choice - whatever you believe, no matter how ill-read you are, no matter how little you have bothered to educate yourself, no matter how stunningly ignorant you are, you should be able to understand that you don't get to mess with other folks lives.

OK, I feel a little better. As I finish this, I realize that it's entirely possible that I could lose some readers because of my rather strong opinions here. That's fine: if you are so backward as to feel that way, good riddance to you. I mean that. I don't like bigots and haters. Go, and don't let the screen door hit your butt on the way out.

I apologize to everyone else for the digression from our normal topics.