No on Prop 8 Letter to UM Friends

Emailed Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

Dear U of M Friends-

At the risk of sounding cliche, I'm not a fan of mass emailing and I'm embarrassed to be sending an email to such a large group of people, some of whom I haven't seen or spoken with in quite a while. However, at this point I'm willing to risk my good standing with some to address the gravity of this issue. So please forgive me and know that I would not do this if I didn't really think it was important. Yesterday in California, Proposition 8 passed. And while similar measures passed in other states, the terrifying significance of California's bellwether vote has honestly rocked me to the core. On the same day that we elected our first African-American president, we stripped an entire demographic of its civil rights. This wasn't just a measure to ban gay marriage. Same-sex marriage was already legal and recognized here. Yesterday our state took away rights that had ALREADY been won.

A number of my friends here have expressed varying sentiments to help them deal with the bittersweet nature of Obama's win and Prop 8's passing, such as "We can't win them all" or "win some, lose some." While I too have been so moved by last night's presidential election that I can barely believe it's real, I am also dumbfounded by the irony of these two simultaneous events and the inaccuracy of the above sentiments. This wasn't about "winning" anything. Last night, basic human rights were literally taken away, and done so in the grossest, most unconstitutional fashion imaginable.

As most of you know, I am not a religious person, I am not a traditional person, and I am likely not what you would call a "politically correct" person. In fact, I spend most of my time trying to convince people NOT to get married. However, this proposition is not about marriage, it's not about family, and it's not about being politically correct. It's about civil rights, human rights. And I cannot imagine what it must have felt like to sit there and celebrate an Obama win last night in the face of having one of my basic rights taken away from me. My heart breaks at the very thought of experiencing that kind of personal conflict.

The No on Prop 8 campaign (http://www.noonprop8.com/) and the Human Rights Campaign ( http://www.hrc.org//) struggled to raise the money they needed to fight this outrageous measure in part because so many of us who would have normally donated to this cause, were busy donating whatever we could give to the Obama campaign, and understandably so. Now they need support and money to fight this proposition's passing after the fact, before California's example sets the bar for the rest of the country. Donating even just $5, or passing this on to others you know, really will make a huge difference. And I know that many of you already have.

Again, I'm uncomfortable forwarding this kind of request, but it's just too important not to. Thanks so much for reading this and for your consideration.

I hope all of you are well and still celebrating!