The anti-gay nutjobs in California are at it again this election year. Prop 8 would amend California's constitution to take away the right to marry a same-sex partner. Not only do they want to take that right away, they want to put it in our constitution. Bigotry as the supreme law of our state. Yech.

But here's the other thing that's bothering me: The main thrust of the television campaign is several ads focused on the idea that second-graders will be taught in school that "boys can marry boys and girls can marry girls."

That message ignores the facts that (1) our schools barely have the time and resources to teach reading and math, much less this stuff, and (2) your kids might have friends or classmates whose parents are same-sex couples, married or not, and you can't prevent them from noticing that and talking with their friends.

But you know what else that message does? It does EXACTLY the thing it purports to "protect" us from. My daughter--a second-grader--learned that "boys can marry boys and girls can marry girls" FROM WATCHING A PRO-Prop 8 AD. Hello? How do they not get this? If they don't want it taught in schools, how is it better to be teaching it on TV???

For my daughter, it was no big deal--she asked me about it, and we discussed why I think people who love each other and want to make a marriage and/or a family should be able to get married. I told her I would have been really sad if her dad and I had not been allowed to get married. And I told her that when she grows up and is old enough to vote on questions like this, she'll have to make up her own mind about them.

I remain completely mystified about why some in California are so obsessed with banning same-sex marriage. The best way to "protect marriage" is to work hard on the one you're in (if you're in one); nobody else's marriage or relationship has any effect on my marriage with my husband. Why can't these nuts just mind their own business?