I did a bit of research into the bad tactics around Proposition 8, including falsely implying Obama's support, lying about kids/schools, and threatening companies who supported Equality California ... it's really sad that these tactics appear to have worked. - Tom Stocky

The ads about the kids in school didn't make rational sense at all--suppose they did learn about it, it would be at most 5 pp. in a social studies text! But the ads played on parents' deep-seated instincts that they don't want their own children to be gay. From an evolutionary POV, the instinct is perfectly natural. Unfortunately civil rights / fairness / the golden rule didn't trump this emotionally. - Ruchira S. Datta

People need to be educated that homosexuality is not a choice--it doesn't spread through some sort of mental contagion. This becomes obvious once you learn that it occurs across diverse species in the animal kingdom. - Ruchira S. Datta

I'm confused about the lying about kids/schools. The Education Code §51890 is clear, and it seems like State Superintendent is wrong. I don't think there's any requirement that he apply the code correctly. In fact, I think he could get fired or sued for applying it incorrectly. Can you clarify? - Joel

@Joel: That section is just defining what "comprehensive health education programs" means. It doesn't say what (if any of that) should be implemented. If you look at 51913, it talks about the criteria for reviewing plans, which need to include "evaluation of the program by the governing board of the school district with the assistance of administrators, teachers, parents, pupils, and participants in the program from the community." Then 51914 reiterates explicitly "No plan shall be approved by the State Board of Education unless it determines that the plan was developed with the active cooperation of parents, community, and teachers, in all stages of planning, approval, and implementation of the plan." - Tom Stocky

FYI, for the full Education Code: http://law.justia.com/califor... - Tom Stocky

Video sent to me by an evangelical Christian I know - http://link.brightcove.com/service... -- If you believe that being gay is a choice and a wrong choice at that, then I think you are easily scared that your children will be told by their teacher that being gay is ok. I don't agree with this and am deeply saddened by the tactics used to get Prop 8 passed. - Michael Leggett

My wife (who was reporting on the election on Tuesday) said that many of the people she interviewed were for equal rights for gay couples but didn't want their children taught about it in school. Further evidence that the lies spread succeeded in scaring people. Or maybe that was just the excuse people gave b/c they didn't want to say how they really feel. - Michael Leggett

@Ruchira I'll gladly accept that some are born homosexual, but am not sure that *every* gay or lesbian was born that way. If you are bi-x what gene did you get? both the heterosexual and homosexual genes? I do think we do a lot of things by choice and can say that I know people that lived it, but then decided it wasn't. I'll love to learn more on this subject. - Elias Torres

Remind me again why there is such a thing as a state recognized marriage. - Kelly Norton

@Kelly I agree. - Elias Torres

@Kelly: As I understand it, states are responsible for issuing the licenses, but the benefits are at the federal level (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...). States can choose to recognize things like domestic partnerships as well (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...), but it doesn't seem like that will ever be a real solution until all marriages are domestic partnerships or vice-versa -- i.e., one legal term that covers everything. - Tom Stocky

@Tom: I think we are in total agreement. When I said "state," I meant state in the broader sense (as in government). State involvement in marriage should be limited to the recognition of domestic tax arrangements, IMO. - Kelly Norton

@Kelly: Yeah, totally agree. It seems like an easy way out would be to just stop using the term "marriage" to describe the legal relationship and call it something else so so religious definitions of "traditional marriage" don't play a role. - Tom Stocky