In May of 2008, the LGBT community and its supporters flooded the streets of California awaiting, then celebrating, the California Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the ban on gay marriage. The court ruled four to three that same-sex couples had a constitutional right to marry regardless of sexual orientation.

The court’s opinion, written by California Chief Justice Ron George, said that “the substantive right of two adults who share a loving relationship to join together to establish an officially recognized family of their own — and, if the couple chooses, to raise children within that family — constitutes a vitally important attribute of the fundamental interest in liberty and personal autonomy.”

However, during the November 2008 general election, a California ballot proposition – Proposition 8 – added a new section to the California Constitution. The new section reads: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

By restricting the definition of marriage to opposite-sex couples, the proposition overturns the California Supreme Court’s ruling that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage.

The proposition went into immediate effect the day after the election.

Supporters of the constitutional amendment have been hawking to anyone who will listen that the “sanctity of marriage” has been saved. They also claimed that leaving the constitution unchanged would result in the children in our public schools being taught that “being gay was okay.”

Call me crazy, but this sounds akin to the argument that opponents of interracial marriages squawked about in the 60’s.

In the United States today, women’s right to vote raises no furor and interracial couples are easy to miss, but that’s only because the hawks have given up those issues in favor of gay-bashing.

It’s time to get over it and realize — gay rights are human rights too.