The Wilhelmsen Botanical Blog

So, I guess that I have been wanting to say a few things about this ever since I started getting e-mails to “Support Amendment 8.”  First of all, we Utahns voted on that particular “Marriage Amendment” in 2004 and so these e-mails were annoying because they no longer applied to me. 

As Election Day drew nearer I started to hear about the leg work that the members of the church were doing in California to encourage getting the amendment passed.  This unnerved me a little bit because in 2004 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS church), though not officially endorsing the amendment, publicized a statement in July endorsing constitutional amendments that define marriage. On October 18 they issued a revised statement with the added text, “any other sexual relations, including between persons of the same gender, undermine the divinely created institution of family.”  This neither endorses nor opposes the amendment.  They stated their opinion and then allowed us as voters to interpret it as we would.  I feel that the large mass of Latter Day Saints that made calls and went door to door was not a separation between church and state and has brought harsher negative consequences to Latter Saints all over the United States.  (I will admit that there was going to some backlash no matter what.)

This is not to say that I don’t feel like marriage ought to be between a man and a woman because it should be.  That is what God intended for his children.  But do I think that we should take away the rights of those who have already chosen differently?  No.  I feel that their unions ought to be recognized as a union (not a marriage) and that they should get the rights and priviledges that come with being a domestic union (or couple or whatever other word you would like to use to label their status of being joined together). 

I do not remember what I voted when the amendment passed in Utah.  But the amendment reads as follows:

1. Marriage consists only of the legal union between a man and a woman.
2. No other domestic union, however denominated, may be recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect.

I wholeheartedly agree with point number 1.  I do not agree with last part (or given the same or substantially equivalent legal effect) of point number 2 and as such I think I probably voted no on the amendment. 

So I guess what I am saying is that a lot of time our government creates a blanket statement like Marriage Amendment and then hides things like part two of Utah Amendment three.  Because they know it would not pass on it’s own.  READ THE AMENDMENTS!!!  Don’t just vote based on their title.  One other example of this is, “No Child Left Behind.”  It sounds great doesn’t it.  What parent would want their child left behind in schooling?  What they didn’t tell you is that the expectations of the testing are unrealistic and that it basically ties the hands of many teachers to be able to do much of what they had been able to do before.  In essence, it HAS left our children behind because all of our schools will be “failing” and the teachers will be unable to be as creative in their teaching because they are too busy ensuring that their classes will pass the tests.  Anyway, if you want to read about Utah constitutional amendment 3 then go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Constitutional_Amendment_3  and for Propostion 8 in California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8_(2008).  For information on No Child Left Behind you can look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act_of_2001 and here for more info. on how Utah interpreted that bill http://www.schools.utah.gov/nclb/guidance_regulations.htm.  Getting off my soap box now.  🙂