Let me preface the following by first stating that I am not sold on the institution of marriage.
With that said, if it is determined that citizens have the right to marry, then that right should be unalienable. How would opponents of same-sex marriage feel if they were denied their right to choose a life partner and get married? Because that's what it's essentially about--CHOICE. These opponents have that choice, and they don't know how it feels to be told by the class bully what to do.
But I'm not here to speak to opponents. No matter how many debates we engage in, how much statistical and scientific evidence I present, I will be unable to sway their stance. They won't listen to me because to them, Proposition 8 is a piece of legislation, essentially, paperwork. In order to change their outlook, us supporters need to humanize Prop 8 by taking the advice of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, who famously iterated in "The Hope Speech":
Unless you have dialogue, unless you open the walls of dialogue, you can never reach to change people's opinion... Once you have dialogue starting, you know you can break down prejudice.How do we get the dialogue started? Let's use the story of Jerry Sanders, the Republican mayor of San Diego, as inspiration. The former gay marriage opponent went through a defining moment in his personal and political career when his daughter confided that she was a lesbian in a committed relationship. After publicly changing his stance on the subject, he lost support within his party, but worked hard to get re-elected for another term.
Point being, for the LGBT community, there is no better way to start the dialogue than to be true to yourself with your family and friends. Make your voices heard, your stories told, your struggles public. As straight allies, we can protect you from the bully, but he'll still pounce on you when we're not around. The only solution is for you yourself to stand up to the bully in front of the class and proclaim that you will no longer accept being treated as anything less than equal.
Every generation wages its own battles as its gift to the next, fighting for the rights of women and minorities. If this is the battle that defines our generation in history, then for the sake of our future, let us put up a good fight and make sure we emerge victorious.
PS As far as we know, Lindsay Lohan is the child of a heterosexual marriage. Case closed.
For play-by-play comprehensive trial updates, follow @NCLRights. For the cliff notes version, the Huffington Los Angeles feed has excellent coverage.