Am I Missing Something?

Over the weekend huge crowds came out around the country to protest against California's passing of Proposition 8, banning gay marriage. In my home state of Illinois, around 2,000 people were out in full voice despite the cold temperatures to protest, but was anyone listening? And why protest a California law when Illinois forbids gay marriage itself? Why not rally against Illinois law?



To be honest, there are a number of issues that I'm concerned about and focused on, I have no time to pay attention to every issue, and gay marriage is one that gets lost in the void to me. I can understand both sides of the argument and to call the side who doesn't want to allow gays to marry "racist" is really misunderstanding the issue. To me, if gay people want to get married, it has nothing to do with me and is none of my business, nor is it the government's business so they shouldn't legislate against it.



However, it wasn't the government who legislated against it in the California situation, the voters of the state of California voted in favor of not allowing gay people to marry. Perez Hilton's voyaging into politics just makes me laugh, but it annoys me that a "Conservative" like Andrew Sullivan is dedicating so much time to this issue. Those who were against the Proposition could have, should have, and in many cases probably did vote against it, but the majority of people in the state voted for it, since when are we against letting the voters speak?



Okay, okay, I know the feelings of the anti-Prop 8 side feel that it is akin to allowing people in say Arkansas circa 1960 to vote to banish all the black people from the state, but most people don't view the issue like that.



Further, as I said above, what motivates someone in well, the majority of states in our Union to come out and protest against Prop 8 when their own states don't allow for gay marriage and the people of California have already spoken?



I simply don't get it.