Soon we will be partaking in the most important election in decades. You must participate! There are so many important reasons for you to give your voice to this process. But there is none more important than Proposition 8, the prohibition on same-sex marriages. Californians will be asked whether the California state Constitution will be amended to prohibit the right of same-sex couples to marry. This right was recently granted by the California Supreme Court, a court dominated by Republicans, by virtue of the equal protection clause of our Constitution. The argument against Proposition 8 is brief. If California passes Proposition 8, we will join a short list of some of the most heinous governments in history. This list includes the apartheid government of South Africa and the government of Nazi Germany and its pre-World War II underling satellite countries. Our state, a world leader in so many areas of government for over one hundred years, will share the same attribute with the most odious and despicable governments the modern world has ever witnessed. We will have written discrimination into our Constitution, the document at the very foundation of our government. Perhaps your religious leaders profess that homosexuality is a sin and therefore, if the government condones same-sex marriage, it is condoning sin. Please remember that in the past, religious leaders have used their pulpits to defend slavery, legalized discrimination, and the prohibition of interracial marriage. These practices are now universally condemned by all the major religious leaders. As with any institution, secular or sacred, religion changes over time, and it is no doubt that in a generation or two, all the major religious leaders will have been replaced with a new crop of religious leaders whose views are very different from the current leaders. Please vote no on Proposition 8. In 40 years, we do not want to have to apologize to the yet-to-be-born generations for following a road only the worst governments in history have followed. We do not want to have to apologize for writing discrimination into our California state Constitution.