California recently passed Proposition 8 which bans gay marriage. Many conservatives see this as a step back to good old fashioned American values; they see it as a step in the right direction.

Proposition 8 is, however, an insidious and detrimental assault on the rights of every person in the state of California–gay or straight, if you live in California, you will see repercussions from the passage of this proposition.

The CA Supreme Court had upheld a measure allowing gay marriage earlier this year but the voters have overturned that ruling. What the voters don’t seem to realize is that by taking away the hard earned rights of others, they’re setting the stage to allow the state to remove their own rights as well. If gay marriage doesn’t apply to you, you should still take heed. Now that the state has been given authority to start taking away fundamental rights, each and every person should expect to see more rights disappear more quickly than ever before.

Thought women had a right to vote? Maybe not for long. Thought minorities were allowed to eat in the same restaurants as whites? Perhaps that will soon be ending.

It’s dangerous to take away the rights of a group of people–the rights, in this case, that all other groups of people have enjoyed since this country’s inception. Rights that, in this case, aren’t harming anyone. There is no good reason that anyone should have voted in favor of Proposition 8. It’s hard to gain legal rights from any government. And once those rights have been gained and taken away, it’s even harder to get them back. And by giving the government the right to single out groups of peaceful people who are not harming anyone to have their rights taken from them, I assure you, the government won’t stop there. More rights will begin disappearing from more groups of people. Maybe this time it wasn’t you that lost the right to love whomever you choose. But maybe next time it will be you.