proposition 102

Proposition 102-gay marriage
When I was a little boy, I often asked my mother, “What is marriage?” She said: “Marriage is a father and a mother that get together. They will have a big wedding. Later, they will have a child. The father and the mother raise their child together. That is marriage.”

I am pretty sure that every person in America has heard the word “gay”. When I was in elementary school, I met a person in another class, and in the same grade. He was kind of different from other people; he was acting kind of weird. He liked girls’ stuff. Everybody around him called him “gay”. Many students around him often made fun of him, and no one wanted to be his friend. Since then, I have not seen him again. I think he transferred to a different school.

After I came to America, gay issues were kind of hot issues. I heard about it more often than when I was in China. In sociology class, we studied about gay people. We learned that gay is not a kind of disease. Gay people just happen to be different than normal. No one can change that. They just like people that are the same sex as them. Anything beside that, they are just the same as other normal people. (“Being gay”)

Proposition 102 says that gay people cannot get married. It says, “Marriage: section 1. Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.” Many people support this proposition, but also a lot of people are against this proposition (“Prop 102 is 20”).

The supporters have raised almost seven million dollars for this campaign. They think it is necessary for us to support proposition 102. Right now Arizona’s law says gay people cannot be married. Supporters of proposition 102 believe the law can be easily change by judges because it is not written in the Arizona constitution, so they want proposition 102 to become a constitutional amendment. They believe that the constitution is difficult to change. They believe proposition 102 does not take away anybody’s rights, saying, “Everyone has the right to live as they choose, but no one has the right to redefine marriage for all of society.” They also think that proposition 102 is not just about forcing religions on others, “The truth is that support for defining marriage as one man and one woman cuts across all religious, political and cultural lines.” (“Prop 102 is 20”)

Many people disagree with proposition 102. They think first, this argument was already brought up back in 2006. At that time most of the people in Arizona voted no for that proposition (“No on 102”). It is unnecessary to vote for the same proposition again. Second, our existing laws have clearly described marriage. It is unnecessary to make that a constitutional amendment (Marriage amendment). Third, we have no right to take away somebody’s right, and tell that person that his family is not good enough. Fourth, nearly 90% of those seven million dollars came from Mormon donors (“Vote ‘no’ on”). This proposition is not supposed to force religions on others (“Marriage proposition”).

I personally disagree with the supporters of proposition 102. I think everybody has equal rights; no one can take away rights from anyone. Gay people do not choose to be gay, only their bodies have different structures than a normal person. This is not their fault (“Being gay”). Other than that there is no difference between a normal person and a gay person. I spoke to Sandy and Chuck from the Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays organization (PFLAG), and they told me that they have two daughters. One is normal and the other one is gay. No one has any idea why one of their daughters is gay. They have asked many doctors and they all told them this is not a disease, but there is nothing that can be done. However, their daughter is married to another female. Both parents from two families love them very much. They live together and they have a pretty happy life (Bonstelle, Chuck and Bonstelle, Sandy). Also, I talked to Millicent Carter-bloodworth who wrote a book about her life called The Exceptional, Impossible Woman Indeed! She was born a male. She found out she was gay when she was young. She married a guy 27 years ago and they raised many kids. She told me that she has a happy life and she is happy (Carter-bloodworth, Millicent).

We should not take away gay people’s rights just because they like people who are the same sex as them. We also should not make all kinds of definitions to tell them what they should do in their life. For instance, a straight A student rides a bike to school every day because he wants to save some money for his future. Does that mean if I drive a car to school every day then I cannot be a good student? No, different people have different lifestyles, different people like different things. No one can be 100% sure that his lifestyle is better than other people’s. Gay people do not commit more crimes than any normal person. If a person dislikes some thing, that is his personal feeling. But if this person makes that into a law, then no matter if you like it or not, you have to follow it.

Also, people should not say being gay is a sin, or that gay people should not get married because they think the Bible says so. First, not every body in the world believes in religions, so religious rules cannot apply to everyone on earth. Second, the Bible never says being gay is a sin or gay people should not be married. In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, God destroys those two cities because there were full of sinners. The Bible does not say any of those sinners are gay people. It only says they have committed sexual crimes (“Don’t know much”). If being gay is really that sinful, God would have destroyed all the gay people already. I think it all depends on the way that people understand the Bible. Third, things change throughout history. Some things that people used to do are not done any more. Such as the biblical tradition that after a husband dies, his wife has to marry his brother or father. Does that mean if a person dies and his wife does not want to marry his father or brother then she is a sinner? Also, what about the separation of church and state? Amendment I of the Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” (“The Ten Commandments”). That means law and religion should have nothing to do with each other. We do not make laws based on any religious beliefs, so we should not make laws against gay marriage based on people’s personal preference or their religious beliefs.

I totally agree with what Kelly Frieders said, “Who are we, as Christians, as Americans, as human beings, to tell other people their families aren't good enough? Who are we to define for someone else what marriage is? Or to decide for them that their family isn't really a family at all?” (“Vote ‘No’ on”). We are the same. We have no rights to decide someone else marriage. We need to vote no on proposition 102.

Work cited
Being Gay: Coming Out in the 21st Century. Cambridge Research Group, 2003.

Bonstelle, Chuck. Personal interview. 8 Oct. 2008

Bonstelle, Sandy. Personal interview. 8 Oct. 2008

Carter-bloodworth, Millicent. Personal interview. 22 Oct. 2008.

Davis, Kenneth C. Don't know much about the Bible : everything you need to know about the Good Book but never learned. New York : Eagle Brook, 1998.

Marriage amendment. Azcentral.com. 20 Oct 2008. 21 Oct 2008. <http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2008/10/20/20081020mon1-20.html>.

Marriage proposition sparks passionate debate. America’s newsbank inc. 13 Oct 2008. 21 Oct 2008. < http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_product=NewsBank&p_theme=aggregated5&p_action=doc&p_docid=123D20EAF955A0A8&p_docnum=6&p_queryname=1>.

No on 102: Keep government out of our private lives. Tucson Citizen.com. 11 Oct 2008. 21 Oct 2008. <>.

Prop 102 is 20 simple words: “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state.” Yesformarriage.com. 21 Oct 2008. <>.

The Ten Commandments and the Separation of Church and State. Biblelight.net. 23 Oct 2008. <>.

Vote ‘no’ on divisive Proposition 102. America’s newsbank inc. 13 Oct 2008. 21 Oct 2008. < p_product="NewsBank&p_theme="aggregated5&p_action="doc&p_docid="123B7F166C1A4880&p_docnum="16&p_queryname="4">.

No title again

The essay 2 is due really soon, but I still have no idea how to do it. I really dislike we have to choose one of the propositions for our topic. Why we can not choose any topic as we want. That will be much easier. I think if you want to do a good argument, you have to know the topic really well. I know not thing about all those topics. As the topic prop 202 that I chose. I still do not know what they trying to change. Because I think right now we have laws to stop the illegal hiring. I think if they find out you are hiring illegal immigrant. You will get fine. So what is the different? Why we are so unlucky?

P.S: however, the teacher's hand writer became better now; it is much easier to read now. Thank you so so much.

No title # 2

The second “big home work” was assigned about two weeks ago. I still kind of do not know what I am going to do about it. I do not know where I should begin with and how I should start. It is due really soon. I just start to worry about it. I hope I can able to finish it before it is due. I really want, really need an A in this class.

I chose the proposition 202 for my homework topic. I think it should be the easiest one to do. However, I still not very sure am I agree with it or not. It just seems to be a really difficult homework to do.

P.S: I still have a really hard time reading his hand writing.