Why Proposition 8?

I propose that marriage was not originally intended simply as a legal contract. It has been around longer than law itself, regardless of which culture you take as an example. The reasons we have for wanting to protect it for what it truly was intended as go much deeper than a simple civil rights discussion. Modern ideas and political pressures should not be used to trample under a religious rite, which, to many, represents far more than a method of obtaining civil rights. It is a covenant. A sacred three-way covenant in which only a man, woman and God can enter into. That the state additionally recognizes it and affords benefits to it as a contract between two people was convenient at a point in history but is showing its age in our changing social climate.

Redefining marriage to include discriminated individuals or groups does not eliminate the discrimination. It simply gives it a new name.

What Prop 8 does is open the way to change existing discriminating legislature (laws giving benefits to married couples but not civil unions) without defacing the institution of marriage. You don't change the included list of people in a discriminatory law to include your group; you change the law and the definition of that group stands separately. The laws regarding segregation didn't get changed to say, "Blacks are now White and therefore are given rights." Saying that homosexual couples should be included in the definition of marriage is the same argument.

ProtectMarriage.com:
"...Prop. 8 will not “rob” anyone of anything. Gay couples in domestic partnerships have and will continue to have the same legal rights as married spouses. We’re not here to stop anyone from expressing their commitment or responsibility to another. We’re simply here to protect the definition of marriage ... - a union between a man and a woman."

While I understand that the federal government may currently discriminate, this is a state law, not a federal law we're voting on. People deserve equality from the state on both sides of the issue. Supporters of Prop 8 believe marriage is a religious institution and not just a contract recognized by the state between two consenting adults. As a religious rite, it deserves full protection from the state. The same is true of other religious rites, be they whatever they may be.

Civil Unions and the rights thereof are a totally separate discussion - one which you'd find me and my church on the same side as homosexual couples.