No more excuses

Op/Ed from the Sacramento Bee (H/T JCF)

I never thought I'd become a full-fledged supporter of same-sex marriage, especially growing up in a socially conservative Catholic family of Mexican descent.

From an early age, I had homophobia drilled into my head at church, at school and at home. ...

The most stubborn forms of discrimination are those taught to us by people we love.... As we get older, we become sophisticated in obscuring our biases with lyrical justifications or purposeful ignorance. You know what I mean?...

"There are those who sincerely believe that homosexuality is inconsistent with their religion – and the First Amendment guarantees their freedom of belief," wrote David Boies, one of the lead attorneys seeking to make gay marriage legal. "However, the same First Amendment, as well as the Due Process and equal Protection clauses, preclude the enshrinement of their religious-based disapproval in state law."

..."But a slogan is not a substitute for constitutional analysis," Boies wrote in the Wall Street Journal. "Law is about justice, not bumper stickers."

The old arguments simply don't hold up anymore.

So on Tuesday, when state Attorney General Kamala Harris asked a federal appeals court to allow gay couples to marry while Prop. 8 is sorted out, it was like another blow against intolerance.
...

It's past time for the law to outlast the lies.