The Lies That Passed* Prop 8

These are the lies that convinced otherwise rational people in California to vote to legally discriminate against homosexuals.

Keep in mind that most of these lies were approved and funded by the Catholic and Mormon Churches.

Pastors and priests will go to jail for refusing to marry gay couples.

This is ludicrous.  No law forces churches to marry anyone for any reason.  In fact, that would directly go against the First Amendment.  The state will be required to issue marriage licenses to gay couples but churches that don’t want to marry gay couples won’t have to.

Churches who refuse to marry homosexuals will lose tax exempt status.

This was never a part of the ruling allowing gay marriage… but now that you mention it… it’s a great idea.  But that will never happen.  The government is still nestled safely in the church’s pocket.

The marriage industry will lose money and eventually be forced to shut down.

I can’t think of a single business or industry that has ever lost money by gaining more customers.  In fact, I think that would deny the most basic principle of economics:  The more people you have buying your shit (flowers, dresses, tuxes, swan-shaped ice sculptures), the more money you will make.

Kids will be taught about homosexual marriages in school.

Kids aren’t taught about marriage at all in school (except, in some places, that sex should only happen within a marriage), so why would increasing the amount of marriages change the educational curriculum?

Kids will be taught about homosexuality in school.

Just because they live together across the street from the elementary school doesn’t mean that your kindergartners are going to learn how Mr. and Mr. Smith “do it”.

Marriage is not a right.

Actually, currently, it is defined by the state of California as a right.

Gay marriage will increase the divorce rate due to homosexual promiscuity.

Yes, because homosexuals can’t have committed relationships.  We’re all promiscuous monkeys who fuck anything that moves.  Oh right… except that we don’t.  Promiscuity in homosexuals is mainly in younger homosexuals… like in younger heterosexuals.  In fact, allowing gay marriage would most likely decrease the level of promiscuity in the homosexual community.

And even if this assertion was right, which it isn’t, why would that effect your own marriage?  California is right next to Nevada… the only state where you can drunkenly walk into a chapel with a legal prostitute, marry her, gamble all of your cash away, stop by the drive through window of a divorce lawyer to file for a divorce and fly back home to your wife and kids.  (Oh yeah… and we’re in an endless war and the economy’s in shambles.)  California’s divorce rate should be the very least of your worries.

Marriage won’t mean anything anymore if gays gain the right to marriage/Gay marriage will deteriorate the sanctity of marriage.

Allowing more people to get married, I think, would increase the value of marriage.  Marriage doesn’t work like Pokemon cards:  The value of your marriage/Pokemon doesn’t go down when more people get the same kind of marriage/Pokemon.  Also, I don’t think you can trade marriages like Pokemon cards.

Gay marriage will open the door to polygamy, bestiality and legalised paedophilia.

Whaaaaat?

Property values will plummet when Mr. and Mr. Smith move in next door.

They said the same thing about interracial marriage in the 50s and 60s.  It wasn’t true then, it’s not true now.

Aliens from the planet Zircon will annihilate California’s redwood forests if gays are allowed to marry.

Actually, that wasn’t said over the past few months, but it’s just as likely as any of the others.

This is how credulous Americans are.  Anyone who can come up with the money to make a splashy commercial can make Americans believe anything.

We need to get Americans to start thinking sceptically.  We need Americans to watch political ads and listen to political speeches and say, “What do you mean by that?”  “What’s your evidence for that?” and, “Give me proof of that.”  The issue, I think, isn’t bigotry.  Most people don’t care if gays can get married or not–just the loud, annoying ones—they just go with whatever their pastors tell them.

We need Americans to start questioning what they hear about politics, even when they hear it in their churches.  That’s the only feasible way we can prevent this from happening again.

*I know there are a few million provisional ballots that need to be counted before anti-gay law is cemented into place in California’s constitution, but there is no logical reason why those votes should lean any differently than the votes at the actual polls, so I’m going to be a Debbie Downer and assume it’s already passed.