Land of equality?

Last May, the California Supreme court voted it to be unlawful that there be a limit to who could be married. The next day a couple who had been together for 60 years were the first to finally get married. When this happened I had hope. I think, and still believe that California and some Eastern states in the US are setting the tables straight on a lot of issues and this decision seemed to be in line with that. I don't believe that we need to have a say in who can marry. I thought we have been taught that as Americans we are all equal. I thought we got over that when we allowed African Americans and women the vote. The whole sexual revolution and Civil rights movements. Aren't we reinforcing that it is a free country? That America stands for equality and freedom? That no matter what your religious belief you still have the right to pursue happiness? Or did I get that wrong in my first grade lesson on The Constitution? Could it have been that everyone can pursue happiness except same sex couples?
Speaking about religion, I go back and forth on the idea that God is watching. Lately I know for certain He is here with me as this wonderful child develops in my belly. She is strong and I feel her closeness everyday. And so if God is watching and sending us these wonderful new beings to love, I have to believe some of us don't know it. They say they know it and are acting on His behalf by using Him to push their own prejudices and insecurities. Because in November our very forward thinking state of California has on it's ballot a proposition that will reverse the Supreme Court's decision and make it illegal for some of us to marry. Some, not all of us, but some. Like we are divided, like once it was thought that some of us should be able to vote but not all, or like it was thought that some of us should drink from this fountain or go to that school, but not all. I believe that God straightened us out then, that our conciseness and our morality, no matter what our beliefs, allowed us to make our American society into a place more like heaven, where everyone has the right to love and has equal chances to the pursuit of happiness. I hope He is here now like He was then because it is happening again, to a different bunch of Americans but it is the same thing.
I'm sorry I'm not a californian any more. I'm sorry that I won't be there to support my greatest friend in the world when he is told whether he and his loving partner of 3 years can not persue the same happyness that I have.
I guess I should think I am lucky? I guess that I am being told that I should have more rights than other people because I love a man and not a woman. That I should be happy that I am above them? I think about this and I remember a poster that my high school history teacher had hanging on her wall. I think it was to remember the Holocaust, and I know I won't quote it well since it has been a long time since high school, but it said something like: First they came for the communists, but I wasn't a communist so I didn't speak up, then they came for the Jews, but I wasn't a Jew so I didn't speak up, then they came for the Catholics, but I wasn't a Catholic, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for the tradesmen, but I wasn't a tradesmen, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me.
I think about my friends who I love and who love me and who have enriched my life, who would do anything for me at a moments notice and have provided me with happiness beyond explanation. And then I think of the people who want to cut them and tell them they are not Americans, they are not as good of people as some are and it hurts, it hurts very badly. I can't even really fathom that someone would want to do that. ... and I can do very little about it.
If you live in California please vote in this election, and please vote NO to Proposition 8.
I also want to encourage our other great states to rethink their previous decisions and to think about what God is really telling us.