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Gay Rights or Animal Rights? It´s Not One or the Other

Mark Hawthorne
November 11, 2008
As the post-election celebrations gave way to morning-after punditry, some observers of California´s hotly contested ballot measures were left scratching their heads. Proposition 2 passed, so we´ll have a phasing out of battery cages for hens, gestation crates for pigs and veal crates for baby cows. But Proposition 8, the initiative to ban the marriages of same-sex couples in the state, also passed.

That a ban on gay marriage would be approved in a bastion of progressive thinking like California was certainly outrageous. Yet so are the comments now being made by the news media and some disgruntled Prop 8 opponents: "Chickens rank above gays with California voters," "Californians Like Chickens More Than Gay People" and "California: Giving more rights to chickens and pigs than people...?" are just a few of the news and blog headlines that range from the hurtful to the patently absurd. It is ridiculous to suggest that any animal imprisoned in a factory farm—where he or she will endure a brief existence followed by a terrifying death—enjoys anything resembling a life, while gay people, though certainly discriminated against, have an abundance of rights and freedoms.



Although I certainly understand the anger caused by the passing of
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Mark Hawthorne

Mark Hawthorne is the author of Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism. Mark adopted a vegetarian lifestyle soon after an encounter with one of India´s many cows in 1992 and went vegan a decade later. He recently worked with thousands of other activists to help pass California's Proposition 2, an historic ballot initiative that will phase out the use of battery cages, gestation crates and veal crates in the state by 2015.

Mark was a contributing writer for Satya from 2004 until the magazine ceased publishing in June of 2007, and his articles, book reviews, essays and opinion pieces have also appeared in VegNews, Herbivore, Vegan Voice, Hinduism Today, Utne.com and many daily newspapers across the United States.

Mark is a volunteer for Animal Place, a vegan education center and sanctuary for farmed animals in northern California, where he serves on the outreach advisory council. He is also involved in rabbit rescue and shares his vegetable crisper with five rescued rabbits. Much of Mark´s writing can be viewed online at www.firstprecept.com.