Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the Same-Sex Bill, AB 849, which would have replaced the phrase “a man and a woman” from California marriage law with the phrase “two persons”, after special interest groups tried to get the governor to cower to their flexed voice muscles and cries of discrimination. Groups like the GLBT, the People For the American Way (PFAW) and the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center played the discrimination card, but the governor flexed his political muscles right back standing strong with the people of California.

The group People For the American Way (PFAW) said it is “extremely disappointed” that Governor Schwarzenegger chose to ignore the will of the people by keeping “discrimination” on the books in California.

It really irritates me to hear groups like these and other whining discrimination as if it’s a bad thing. What do they thing voting is? It’s discrimination. That’s what choosing is.

Several years ago when I lived in California, I heard a story about a company owner in Santa Cruz who was sued by someone he had turned down for a job.

The man owned a painting company. Painters go up and down ladders, scaffolding, walk on planks and carry heavy cans of paint throughout the day. It can be tough work. The owner interviewed many people for the job, and in the end made his choice. He chose the person he though could work the best. One person he chose not to hire was an obese woman that had neither the physical ability to outperform the guy he hired nor the experience in painting. But the woman thought differently and after finding out she was not hired immediately started crying discrimination and told him she was going to take him to court. Well, if you know anything about California, “I’m going to sue you.” is something you hear all the time. The company owner told her to go ahead and try. He didn’t think the case would make it to trial. But with large special interest groups like the ACLU and other organizations that are sue-happy, cases like these do make it to court and hers did too.

She told the court that she was illegally discriminated against. And after long deliberation and lots of money spent on the case, the court ruled in favor of the storeowner, a lucky thing for all storeowners throughout the state.

What was so amazing was not that the judge ruled in favor of the owner, but that the case actually made it to court. Businesses should be able to hire whomever they please based on criteria they set for the position.

Unfortunately for taxpayers, special interest groups are able to cry foul for almost any situation and be heard by the courts these days. And special interest groups, like those aforementioned, would like everyone to believe that discriminating is a bad thing. But all discriminating is is making a choice between one thing and another. People discriminate on a daily basis. We choose between orange juice and apple juice. But you don’t hear the apple juice growers and manufacturers complaining or whining about people choosing more orange juice over apple juice. People are unfairly discriminating between orange juice and apple juice. People aren’t buying enough apple juice to keep us happy. We demand the government make people buy more apple juice so we can be happy! That’s about the gist of it all.

In 2000, the people of California voted for Proposition 22, which was ratified by an overwhelming majority of California voters, prevailing by a 23-point margin. Statewide, 4,618,673 votes were cast in favor of the proposition, comprising 61.4% of the total vote. Opponents garnered 2,909,370 votes, for 38.6% of the vote.

On March 7, 2000, the people of California voted on Proposition 22, a proposal to enact a state “Defense of Marriage Act” as an initiative statute. The text of Prop 22 reads:

Only marriage between a man and a woman
is valid or recognized in California.

Final vote counts revealed that Proposition 22 won in 52 of California’s 58 counties, including all of the major metropolitan areas except for San Francisco. The six counties, which did not approve Proposition 22, were all in the immediate San Francisco Bay area, including: Alameda county, Marin county, San Francisco county, Santa Cruz county, Sonoma county, and Yolo county counties with high concentrations of gays and lesbians. The remainder of California voted according to their beliefs and ideals and Governor Schwarzenegger signed the bill according to how the majority of Californians voted. The special interest groups don’t rule, the people do, at least for now in California.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 1st, 2005 at 9:40 am and is filed under BURPS from the HEAD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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