Misunderstandings

1. I really enjoyed my book club. Lots.

2. The courts cannot, will not, and have not infringed on any rights provided by the U.S. constitution.

3. Courts are the proper place to decide civil rights issues for the very reasons we've seen over the last few months: they are emotional, messy, and squarely in the courts' purview. One of the courts' jobs is to protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority.
Thomas Jefferson, in his first inaugural address in 1801 said, "Though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable;...the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression." The law provides protection when the majority cannot see beyond their emotional reasons for eliminating rights.

4. Some people think churches will be forced to marry gays and lesbians should Prop 8 pass. It's not true. There remains a separation of church and state. There remains people who don't force a church that doesn't want them to marry them under their religions, within their walls.

5. There is a difference between California's existing Unruh Civil Rights Act (This law provides protection from discrimination by all business establishments (not churches) in California, including housing and public accommodations, because of: Age, Ancestry, Color, Disability, National Origin, Race, Religion, Sex, Sexual Orientation) and Proposition 8. Proposition 8 would write discrimination into the constitution. The Unruh Act protects California citizens who belong to a protected class. People have been suing under the Unruh Act (e.g. the Dr. in San Diego who refused to perform complete fertility services for a lesbian couple). People will continue to sue under the civil rights provisions of California law when they are discriminated against. Sometimes they will win.
This has nothing to do with Proposition 8.

6. The biggest newspaper in Alaska endorsed Obama for President (that's not a misunderstanding, I don't think).

7. Civil unions are not the same as marriage. First, they're not the same. If they were the same, folks wouldn't be all up in arms to eliminate the right for gays. Second, here's one way they are different. If you and your spouse live in California and then go to Colorado, and your spouse gets run over by a touring bus, you have all the rights in Colorado that are afforded to you in California by virtue of your marriage. If you have a civil union and the same situation occurs, you have a 'friend' with whom you have traveled and you have no rights: the hospital that tries furiously to save your spouse's life will just as furiously try to find next of kin, because it's not you. No rights. Here's another way: separate is not equal. Never has been, never will be.