While watching election results Tuesday night, my friends and I were just as happy as all the people on Green Street we could hear from our apartments. However, our joy was short lived. How could people go from elated to crying in five minutes? Sadly, we soon found out that Proposition 8 was almost sure to pass in California. Proposition 8, along with Proposition 102 in Arizona and Amendment 2 in Florida, will amend state constitutions to legally discriminate against the LGBT community by denying us the right to marry people of the same sex.

The fact that so many Americans are against same-sex marriage is astonishing and disgusting. Call me old-fashioned, but I always thought marriage was between two people who loved each other, not two people who happen to have different things between their legs. California is especially unfair; people are waking up to be told that their marriage is no longer considered valid. No heterosexual couple will have to experience this, and no married person should ever have their union nullified in this way. We are being told that Americans refuse to believe that we are real, breathing people who deserve the same rights as everyone else.

When this issue comes to Illinois-and it will-I urge people to use their minds and their hearts. Think of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people in your own life; if you don’t think you know any, Google ‘Ellen and Portia wedding photos’ and see how happy they are. Marriage is not only a matter of religion; it is a matter of true equality for all people.

Nora Anderson

Senior in FAA