All that Proposition 8 accomplished was to take away from same-sex couples the right to be granted marriage licences and thus legally to use the designation of ‘marriage’, which symbolises state legitimisation and societal recognition of their committed relationships. Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no other effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.
