On Tuesday Nov. 4 millions of Californians voted in favor of Proposition 8 defining marriage as strictly between a man and a woman. On Wednesday Nov. 5 thousands more Californians took to the streets in protest demanding equal treatment under the law.
From San Francisco to Los Angeles protesters took up their signs and crowded hundreds of streets in opposition of the new amendment. They marched for equality they marched to stop discrimination but most of all they marched in the name of the Constitution of the United States of America.
The Mormon temple in Westwood was particularly targeted by protesters because of the significant role it played in campaigning for the proposition. Opponents of Proposition 8 claim the church contributed more than $20 million toward the “Yes on 8” campaign according to the Los Angeles Times which significantly impacted the outcome of the vote.
Proposition 8 was passed by a margin of only 500000 votes and the involvement of the Mormon church could have easily helped persuade as many voters as the proposition needed to pass if not more. This clearly defies the fragile constitutional concept of “separation of church and state giving the protesters legitimate and lawful grounds for an argument the church cannot and should not reciprocate.
Since the Constitution was ratified, it has demanded that religious institutions remain separate from the political realm. This separation is meant to ensure that one religion is not favored over another and that religion is not favored over non-religion, or vice-versa. If, for the most part, the government cannot interfere in religious beliefs, why then can religious beliefs interfere in the government?
The involvement of the Mormon church interfered in the government. They gathered coalitions and raised money in the name of preserving marriage.” Marriage though is no longer simply a church institution yet still the Mormons decided to use their resources to tip the vote in their favor.
The protesters outside the Westwood temple held signs displaying slogans like “Mormon hate out of my state Keep your bigotry out of my Constitution” and “You can’t amend love.” These signs are more than simple cries of dissent. They are symbols of the decades of discrimination and hate in America to which so many demographics have been victim.
Our Constitution promises its citizens equality under the law yet institutions like the Mormon church undermine the meaning of equality just as local governments undermined the rights of blacks in past centuries. “2nd-class citizen” was a statement – hurtful but true – etched on cardboard that the protesters carried around last Thursday to demonstrate their frustration.
Jeff Flints a strategist for the “Yes on 8” campaign was interviewed by the Los Angeles Times and said: “If this activity were directed against any other church if someone put up a Web site that targeted Jews or Catholics in a similar fashion for the mere act of participating in a political campaign it would be widely and rightfully condemned.”
This seems slightly hypocritical to the thousands of protesters fighting against the church specifically targeting them for the mere act of loving the “wrong” person. If the church was condemning marriage between races instead of within sexes it too “would be widely and rightfully condemned.”
The protesters though are not targeting the Mormon temple because of their religion. They are targeting the Mormons because they wrongfully tampered in the political process. There should be limitations on church involvement in government just as there are limitations on government involvement in churches.
America has seen years of protests involving endless fights for equality. Thursday though saw men and women young and old black and white and Asian and Hispanic all protesting together breaking down demographic barriers America had previously sustained to fight yet another battle against discrimination.