Ron Prentice, the official proponent of Proposition 8, stated that he was “confident that voters will reaffirm the traditional definition of marriage[.]” In California, the traditional definition of marriage reads as follows:

No license may be issued authorizing the marriage of a white person with a Negro, mulatto, Mongolian or member of the Malay race.

California enacted its traditional marriage statute in 1850, the year it became a state. Actually, the 1850 statute was relatively more liberal in that the restrictions governing Mongolians and Malays were not added until 1901 and 1933, respectively. If 1850 is not sufficiently traditional, consider that Maryland banned marriages between white persons and Negroes or Indians as early as 1663. That’s a pre-independence tradition. Or, for those whose ancestors came from China, 1663 is 19 years after the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

In short, the traditional definition of marriage has nothing to do with a man and a woman. Instead, the traditional definition of marriage is a racist and bigoted law that viewed the Chinese people as being inferior and incapable of progress or intellectual development beyond a certain point. I cannot support the traditional definition of marriage. Neither should you.