There were many important propositions on the California ballot this year (like prop 4, which would have taken away a young girl's right to an abortion without her parent’s consent) and some not-so-important ones (like prop 11, which was about redistricting voting jurisdictions). But the two highest-profile propositions were numbers 2 and 8: Prop 2 humanly wanted to give basic rights to chickens while prop 8  insidiously asked to take basic rights away from homosexuals.

After months of robotic phone calls, posters, flyers, texting and Facebook headlines urging Yes on 2 and No on 8, November 4^th finally arrived. And the gay-friendly residents of Los Angeles and San Francisco were shocked to learn that the state of California agreed that chickens -- even those that are soon to be eaten -- have the right as living creatures to be caged with enough room to stand up, turn around, stretch, and expand their wings while gays and lesbians don't have the right to legally enter into same-sex marriages and enjoy the perks of straight couples.

Gay marriage was finally made legal in May of 2008 when the Supreme Court of California overturned the ban on it. The homophobes leading the charge on prop 8 immediately campaigned to take this basic right for same-sex marriage away once it was valiantly won. The endless fight to keep gay people down goes beyond normal everyday discrimination -- hey, just RSVP no to gay weddings.

All the gay and lesbian couples that recently entered into sanctioned marriages and are still enjoying their honeymoons will now have their nuptials invalidated. And all the couples who were planning weddings -- picking out fuchsia color schemes, tiered cakes and silk cummerbunds -- will have their basic constitutional rights ripped away. Aside from the clear horrific social implications, making same sex-marriages illegal causes a major fiscal void. Gay and lesbian wedding revenues for the state of California that were estimated to cost in the hundreds of millions will now be lost.

On November 4^th, a day when the country finally lashed out against racism and elected our first black president, California decided to up the ante on homophobia. Maybe some people can only accept so much. Voting for a black guy means hating gay people more. Maybe this country isn’t ready to give all minorities equality at the same time.

But, hey, at least the chickens will be treated humanely. Let’s just hope they don’t start asking for marriage licenses. Because they will be in for a very rude awakening indeed.

--Sascha Rothchild

Photo by David Malkoff