So I do not like getting political at almost any time, but we are in the midst of an election and Proposition 8 has become personal to me. Many of my friends who live in San Francisco in and out of the Castro and cannot get married have recently been given the rights to be equals and share the same basic, yet common rights that Americans have enjoyed for decades.

The simple fact is, domestic partners in California do NOT have the ability to gain benefits if a partner dies or becomes unable to respond. Only a family member can decide what should be done with his or her benefits and not the partner. Thus if an employer provides benefits for spouses, domestic partners are typically excluded. This is one of many differences the state of California has provided as a basic level of discrimination.

Proposition 8, which has been funded largely outside of California is a written in stone amendment stating that marriage can only occur between a man and a women. Something written specifically in the “New Testimate”. When the original settlers of the US left the old country, they wanted a place to be free, from not only religious persecution but all levels of intolerance. Thus when our constitutional rights where written, it was made clear that there was a fundamental difference between Church and State! Ironically, Europe, which most escaped from has now become very tolerant of difference and provides tremendous levels of protection to all.

This same group has used young children, without the consent of their parents to create miss leading ads that convey they are being taught about same sex marriage in their schools and it is swaying their views. A significant portion of these parents have publicly asked that their children be removed from these ads, I hope that they choose to take legal action against these “Child Abusers”.

When making your decision, I only ask one thing. Is it right, to treat “Americans” differently based on race, gender and or sexual orientation over religious views? In a country founded on such differences?

Maybe we should only use the oldest religions as a base in all of our decisions. This would help determine all of our choices in life. That could be Judaism, Buddhism or we can just simply go back to the Roman Gods.

Why should our friends be treated so differently? Even though you may think that no one around you is being effected, I can assure you, they are!