UCSF Today Readers Comment on Election Results

UCSF Today invited readers to express themselves about last week's historic election results. Please note that the comments expressed below are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the University. Sandy Caughlan, Computer Support Specialist, Department of Family & Community Medicine I cannot tell you how disappointed I am in 52 percent of Californians. Thankfully we have a government in place that looks at items of discrimination and disallows them to be a part of our constitution -- whether you believe that same sex relationships are wrong or not. That belief has no place within the government. That is why we have the separation of church and state. A marriage license is a legal and binding contract, much like purchasing a house and getting a loan from a bank. In the bank scenario it would be like the bank coming back to me and my wife saying, “Even though you have made your payments and have been in the house for 6 months, we are sorry, but you no longer own your house. It is against the law that two women purchase a home in California. So pack your bags and get out. Oh by the way, we will be keeping all the money you put into the house. Have a nice life.” Do you know how absurd that would be! I am an American of many generations and I am being discriminated against because I love a woman and I have married her. We do not have the same rights as the people around us and yet we pay the same taxes and support many of the same causes. I just don’t understand how people think that being gay is a choice. I don’t choose discrimination, 52 percent of Californian’s and many Americans are choosing it for me. Martin Fritz, RN, Department of Psychiatry, LPPI-AIP My feelings are mixed regarding the election results. The election results are a resurgence of hope that has been absent the last eight years regarding President-elect Obama. Hopefully, the rights of the individual citizen will be restored over corporate interests. However, I am deeply disappointed, saddened and angry that Prop 8 was passed. [It’s] a measure that crossed the boundaries of separation of church and state and violates my rights as a citizen. Sadly, even in 2008, America's elections can still be trumped by ignorance, fear, discrimination and intolerance. Chance Kaleimakalii Ramos, social work associate, Department of Psychiatry One upside to Prop 8 passing is the fact that I won't have to dodge the "when are you getting married" question, at least for a while! I'm usually not a political person, but I was concerned that Prop K would pass as I tend to believe that most voters do not fully educate themselves on the propositions and SF being ultra liberal. Prop K was often misunderstood as legalization of prostitution when in fact it was to decriminalize prostitution which is a major difference. Voters who said yes to it were thinking that it would help sex workers when in fact it would have done the opposite. This prop had no provisions for services of sex workers, would inhibit the police's ability to investigate prostitution rings with minors and indentured servants involving immigrants who are forced into these situations, and cause SF to become a magnet for prostitutes and pimps -- why solicit your services in Oakland with the fear of arrest when you can cross the bridge and do so without any repercussion? I'm all for rights of sex workers and in fact believe that prostitution should be legalized and thus regulated -- workers monitored for STDs/HIV regularly, the johns and workers have a safe environment, and workers starting a relationship with the IRS, like the rest of us. I'm just glad that SF voters thought this one through. And the prop to rename the sewage plant was just silly, an embarrassment to SF and a waste of a ballot measure and not to mention our time -- there are other ways to express anti-war and anti-Bush sentiments and this was not one of them. Naomi A. Schapiro, RN, MS, CPNP, associate clinical professor, Department of Family Health Care Nursing One of the most hopeful parts of the election campaign was the way that young people were inspired and active. All evening our daughter was calling us from college in New York, so excited about Obama winning Pennsylvania, then Ohio, then Florida and finally a victory speech ¬and each time we were glued to the set, tears in our eyes, so excited ourselves. The next day, she called so upset about Proposition 8, and I had to reassure her that we were still married as far as we were concerned, that we were still her parents and nothing was going to change in our daily lives. But both she and we knew that one of the reasons that Proposition 8 carried was the voter response to the TV ads using children, and they were effective because thousands of voters think we, her two moms, should not have been able to raise her and her sister, and that teachers should not have been telling her class that all kinds of families are OK as long as they love each other and their children. Painful as that is, it shows there is a lot of work to do.