Dear State of California,
You have embarrassed yourself in front of the rest of the country, so much so that even Jon Stewart has made you the brunt of his jokes(love you Jon :D). Taking away the right of a homosexual couple to get married and yet making sure that chickens and pigs have enough leg room LMAO! wow.
To see the commercials now of how influential and accepting California is makes me laugh, like a joke you never ever ever get tired of. The State with one of the greatest economies in the world, one of the most liberal of states, a state whose influence can spread across the nation; whats that saying??? As goes California so goes the rest of the country.
OH and the Irony of it all, from what i hear the reason prop 8 passed was because there was a record turnout of african american voters….as Jon said ” It looks like the Oppresses have become the oppressors”
Well California good job in embarrassing yourself better check on those chickens i think they need their pillows fluffed again
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The real irony is that our first African-American president, Barack Obama, could have perhaps turned the tide and advanced civil rights. Instead, he publicly stated that he opposed gay marriage BUT supported SEPARATE BUT EQUAL laws to cover gay domestic partnerships. This from a man whose own parents’ marriage was invalid in many U.S. states at the time of his birth. Doh! Oh well, on to the meat…
TO ALL WHO OPPOSE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE:
I think you’re good people, like me. I pay my taxes that support my schools and religious institutions so they can give back to the community. I don’t hurt anyone and only try to help. I oppose people who try to infringe on religious freedoms, and I don’t seek to infringe upon what “marriage” means to you. I appreciate that most of you DO approve of ‘domestic partnerships’ and ‘civil unions’ for gay people, but please listen to why that doesn’t work.
The federal government gives married people about 1000 rights. The state gives them about 400 additional rights. The reason the government is involved in marriage at all is to promote and protect stable, happy families as basic units of society. Obviously marriage is not solely for procreation, as we do not remove that right from you if you are infertile, elderly, or choose not to have children. When you marry, you are automatically entitled to those 1400 rights, including the right to visit a spouse in the hospital, be added to your spouse’s insurance policies, acquire property with your spouse and automatically inherit it if your spouse dies, and many more. These 1400 rights are not simply and easily written up in a single civil document, nor always enforceable; for instance, a person under a state’s domestic partnership can’t force the IRS to give him the tax benefits afforded to married couples. It is extremely complex and doesn’t always work; I am aware of gay people whose partners died and the deceased’s hostile family successfully asserted their ownership of everything in spite of the contract, leaving the survivor destitute. Imagine children being involved, and a deceased partner’s hostile family takes your children from you because your civil contract didn’t stand up in court proving you were next of kin! In Arkansas, the majority just voted to prohibit unmarried people from adopting, meaning a gay person can’t even adopt their partner’s children to ensure that if their partner dies the children will remain with the surviving parent they love!
‘Civil unions’ and ‘domestic partnerships’ permit OSTENSIBLY most of the 400 state-afforded rights of married couples, but NONE of the 1000 federal ones, and I can tell you from personal experience that the state ones are NOT equal. Just one example is that to get on my partner’s insurance policy, we had to provide our certificate of domestic partnership, copies of financial records proving we had co-mingled finances and lived in the same home for at least two years, and more. If I died, my partner would have to wait at least two years to add her new partner to the policy to prove the relationship was ‘real’. Married people don’t even need to provide a copy of a marriage license, and if their spouse died today, they could add a new spouse tomorrow. This is only one example out of MANY.
Other rights are specific to helping children of married people, including ensuring automatic inheritance rights, the right of a non-blood related parent to pick up a sick child from school, alimony and child support to help with their care in the event of divorce, and many more. No matter the makeup of the family or how it comes to be — be it traditional nuclear, or grandparents raising their grandchild, or a blended family resulting from divorced people remarrying, or single parents, or adoptive parents, or childless couples, or gay couples — ALL of these people deserve the same rights so they have the best chances of happiness and contribution to society.
What I would like to see the FEDERAL government do is create one proto-marriage type of relationship (’civil union’?) that applies equally to all people who want it, including granting them all 1400 of the rights and responsibilities that “married” people currently enjoy, and then simply leave the word “marriage” for religiously-inclined people who want to further consecrate their relationship according to their religions. I think that is what the MAJORITY of us all want. Unfortunately, the federal government is currently leaving the issue to states to decide, so we are stuck wrestling for the one word that currently encompasses all 1400 of those rights, and that word is “marriage”. Granting the existing rights encompassed by one word to a minority is a lot easier than changing 1400 laws to encompass them. That’s really all there is to it, see?
I understand many of you are afraid that legalizing gay marriage will lead to your children being forced to learn in school that homosexuality is “normal”. I will be the first to agree with you that homosexuality is NOT “normal” - the parts don’t fit and we can’t make babies. But consider that in one out of every 100 live births, a child is born with ambiguous genitalia (intersexed). If God creates 1% of babies that way, why do we then do surgery to “correct” them to one sex or the other and make them “normal”? God made me abnormal too - I’m among the small percentage of people whose wiring is crossed so I’m attracted to my own sex. My abnormality doesn’t lead me to hurt anyone. The worst law I’ve ever broken is the speed limit. Learning that homosexuals exist isn’t going to turn any child homosexual, but it will help the small percentage born with this abnormality to feel less alone. That’s really the worst that could happen. All the same, currently in California no child can be forced, against the will of their parents, to be taught anything about homosexuality at school.
As for the slippery slope arguments that legalizing gay marriage will automatically lead to legalizing polygamy or incestuous marriages, those forms of marriage existed throughout most of recorded history but are too impractical or undesirable for the vast majority of Americans to even consider today. As for legalizing gay marriage leading to legalizing people marrying pets or children, these can’t even give informed consent. Please stay off the slippery slope; the ONLY topic we’re asking you to agree on is legalizing gay marriage.
We gay people and our families are being hurt by laws as they stand, and all we are asking for is the concession that the word “marriage” include us so we may enjoy its rights - and responsibilities. I will leave you with the words of Mildred Loving, who wrote this forty years after her 1967 legal case struck down laws barring interracial marriage:
“Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the ‘wrong kind of person’ for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry.”
Peace.
Paula on November 7th, 2008 at 7:10 am | Link
Fantastic post. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a better argument for the ideas you presented. Regarding Obama, however, consider the fact that if he had publicly expressed support for gay marriage, he may have lost a large swath of the voters who gave him the edge over McCain. (It’s a sad fact that African Americans, for the most part, have little regard for homosexuals. This was evident in the Prop 8 vote.) You and I both know that he supports gay rights and gay marriage but in this case the “end” (his election and forthcoming progressive governing) justified the “means” (his public stance on gay marriage.)
Brandon Walker on November 7th, 2008 at 11:43 pm | Link
The reason Prop 8 passed is good ole religion financed it and spread it’s lies among a small minded people. When religion is no longer a factor in this country will be the day EVERYONE is equal and has equal rights. We’ve had to deal with propaganda for far too long.
I feel like Obama will make equality a priority once in office, or at least I hope he does. He comes from a lifetime of name-calling and being looked down upon by his peers. Growing up multi-racial in a white middle-class home with his grandparents has hopefully taught him that we are all humans despite our choices.
Has anyone seen the commercials on youtube regarding Prop 8. RIDICULOUS, how anyone could be so small of mind to vote yes on this is beyond me.
Donovan on November 9th, 2008 at 6:11 pm | Link
I think people who voted YES on prop 8 are bigots. In a secular society how
can someone use Religion as an excuse to take rights away form a certain
group of people. If you have such convictions I hope you are using them during
your day to day affairs and not just when you feel like it.
anonymous on November 12th, 2008 at 3:35 pm | Link
The reason prop 8 passed is cuz the parts just don’t fit. You complain about equal rights. Well you already have equal rights. You have the right to marry someone of the opposite sex. Everybody does not just select few people. Again I will state you have the right to marry one individual of the opposite sex! If you want to play games other than that your welcome to it in the privacy of your own home. If you do not CHOOSE to marry someone of the opposite sex then you are welcome to not get married as is everyone. There is no equality here there is merely choice.
Marriage is an institution defined by God and you as a simple mortal cannot change the word of God.
You want civil unions or whatever go for it! You simply cannot marry as God did not give you that right, you cannot marry and have the rights to bear children because the parts do not fit! Simply facts restrict you from certain activities. Want those rights live like God intended!
mark on March 3rd, 2009 at 10:16 am | Link
1. Obama is NOT African-American. He is bi-racial. By your racist logic, since he is 50% black, is henot 50% white? Yet you emphasize the Black part only.
2. Muslims also oppose homosexuality, prolly more so than Christians. But nobody challenges Muslims if they know what;s good for them. It’s easier to attack Christians.
3. Not ONE religion is pro-homosexuality. No, not one.