Google opposes Calif. Prop. 8
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Our position on California’s No on 8 campaign
9/26/2008 03:23:00 PM
As an Internet company, Google is an active participant in policy debates surrounding information access, technology and energy. Because our company has a great diversity of people and opinions — Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, all religions and no religion, straight and gay — we do not generally take a position on issues outside of our field, especially not social issues. So when Proposition 8 appeared on the California ballot, it was an unlikely question for Google to take an official company position on.
However, while there are many objections to this proposition — further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text — it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 — we should not eliminate anyone’s fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.
Let’s talk this up so that the rest of California understands that this proposition is nothing more than another attempt to inflict religion upon the secular government. California, don’t be evil.
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27. September 2008 um 14:48
Let's talk evil and government encroachment… What about the rights of The People of CA being overturned by a mere 4 activist judges!? More than the prop, the real issue at hand should be that – we the garden-variety voters who naively thought this was all decided 8 years ago, by an over 60% majority no less, have been duped by the bullies of the activist community!
We should all be outraged by their unlawful actions – judges are in place to interpret the law, not to override and make new ones. Get the story straight, this is not all about equality and fairness, it is also about using the system and lobbying to ones own selfish advantage! Vote your conscience, not out of fear of whether you're politically correct…
27. September 2008 um 21:07
Labeling opposing views as “politically correct” is no different than my
labeling opposing views as bigoted and undemocratic. Great sound bite but
essentially uninformative and useless.
If majority rule was at the core of the Constitution, state or federal,
there would still be slavery in the South. Our republic has safeguards in
place to prevent rule by force. According to the latest polls, Californians
are changing their views, and their objections to, gay marriage. Maybe they
finally realize that allowing other couples the right to be married has no
impact whatsoever on the “institution” of marriage. Tradition is not the
law, nor does everyone share the same traditions. Traditional attitudes
toward marriage have changed a lot over the last 100 years. Another change
is not radical nor does it affect marriages performed by the church. They
are still free to discriminate and be exclusive, just as they've always
been. Religious values have no place determining the law that governs all
citizens.
Unless someone can articulate what harm allowing other consenting adults to
enter into civil matrimony does to straight marriages, I will consider
opposition to this proposal to be small minded and petty. We are not a
Christian nation. Keep religion out of political decisions that concern all
Californians.
5. November 2008 um 19:50
Yea, where does that put the CA Penal Code 286 concerning sodomy? Are we now going to piss away our penal code because a persons lifestyle hasn't enough thrills to keep them off of the 'walk on the wild side'? Why have laws at all? Does that also mean that the person who wants to marry an animal because the sex is fulfilling it should be allowed just so it doesn't violate anyones civil rights? Wake up people, and drink some purified water!
6. November 2008 um 20:31
California PC 286 concerns the qualifications and restrictions placed on
adjudicated sex offenders. California's sodomy laws were repealed in 1976.
By 2002, 36 states had repealed all sodomy laws or had them overturned by
court rulings. The remaining anti-homosexual sodomy laws have been
invalidated by the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision *Lawrence v. Texas. *Since
less than 10% of the population is homosexual, sodomy is practiced by far
more straight couples than homosexual couples. That's the primary reason
it's no longer illegal in most countries.
Yes, laws mean something. So perhaps knowing what they are should be a
prerequisite to discussing the topic.
Laws are also changed. Religious bigots can manage to impose their beliefs
on every citizen of the state for now, but I sincerely doubt those attitudes
will survive for long. At some point in the near future Americans will
realize what they've done and have this decision reversed. Denying equal
rights to any segment of the population for no better reason than religious
belief is unacceptable in a secular society.