As someone who’s written at length about the need of this country to treat its gay citizens as actual citizens, I haven’t considered the California battle over gay marriage - Proposition 8, which passed, which now means gay marriage has been made illegal in California - as closely as I perhaps should have.

In part it’s because we don’t live in California. But in another respect, it’s because I do retain some belief in federalism - that the states should be permitted to make their own way, their own decisions. It might be one thing if gays were being beaten in the streets or bitten down by police dogs, as was the case during the Civil Rights movement - federalism could not be applicable then. Now… I don’t know. The people of California have voted to deny some citizens a right that other citizens are afforded automatically. They have officially voted to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

Yer gay? You just don’t have as many rights as the rest of us. Rights are ordained by God; but not for you.

But Californians decided this. With, yes, lots o’ money dumped into the campaign by the Mormon church. But if Californians don’t want it I don’t really see where it’s appropriate for a Pennsylvanian to tell them they’re wrong, though I believe they are.