In a busy week for the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), Tuesday morning marked the beginning of arguments about the controversial issue of gay marriage. The Court will hear both the 2008 California ballot initiative known as Proposition 8 and an appeal of the Defense of Marriage Act of
1996 (DOMA).

The case at the heart of the matter is California’s Proposition 8. The initiative, like others of its kind, defined marriage in California as a union between a man and a woman. This legal definition banned gay and lesbian couples from receiving federal benefits associated with marriage.

The fact that Proposition 8 is even appearing in front of the Supreme Court proves just how divisive and manipulative anti-LGBT activists can be. According to Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post’s The Fix, the measure passed because the bill’s proponents, Project Marriage, ran a series of fear-based campaign ads that effectively convinced enough people in one of the most liberal states in U.S. to vote against gay rights.

The advertisements followed the basic poor production
quality of any campaign ad, but the moral of the “Yes to 8” campaign had no basis in reality. The ads depicted a conversation between an innocent second grader who is forced to have a seemingly awkward conversation with her parent about how she learned from her Massachusetts elementary school that she could marry
a princess.

The idea behind the ads were to show that somehow allowing gay men and women the right to marry the people they love would make parents have awkward conversations with their children.

This kind of pathetic manipulation is the epitome of what is wrong with the American political system. Now the same people who manipulated voters in California are trying appeal to the Supreme Court under the same misguided and idiotic terms.

The government has no right to tell people who they are allowed to marry. Project Marriage has no right to tell people who they can marry. It is ridiculous that groups like Project Marriage are able to disrupt other people’s lives and freedoms because they do not agree with them.

The Supreme Court should uphold the lower courts’
ruling and deem Proposition 8 unconstitutional. It should repeal DOMA and allow every American the same inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit if happiness, lest children are taught thatacceptance of others relies on whether political leaders agree with their lifestyles.