Guest blogger, pinko commie faggot extraordinaire
Collin blogs daily at Modern Confessional
Yesterday, the California Supreme Court said it would hear appeals that challenge Proposition 8, which outlaws gay marriage and writes discrimination into the state’s constitution. And while the court will hear the appeals, it refused to block the implementation of the measure. That means no more same-sex marriages are allowed and the18,000 couples who were wed over the last five months are in legal limbo.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed legal challenges to the vote, but it could be March before the court takes up the issue again. That seems like a long damn time to me. Human and civil rights should have never been put on the ballot in California and it shouldn’t linger on a court docket either. It’s especially unfair to those married couples, who are awaiting an uncertain fate.
I joined about 1,500 protestors on the steps of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta this past weekend, although if you listened to FOX News there were only “about 300″ of us. The FOX fuckers believe that underreporting the number of protestors will diminish the massive backlash against Prop 8. The Saturday protests around the country are being called “Stonewall 2.0,” which is hyperbole, but it’s hard to ignore the uprising of the GLBTQ community over this issue.
The whole “gay marriage” question didn’t mean very much to me until recently. I’m a confirmed bachelor (how quaint), and marriage as an institution is overrated, but like any flaming liberal, I believe people should be allowed to marry, love, hate and divorce anyone they like. After Georgia wrote discrimination into the state Constitution banning same sex marriage in 2006, I realized that “gay marriage” is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to human and civil rights for GLBTQ persons. Now, there are rumblings that Georgia will try to ban gay adoption during the 2009 session, bolstered by a ballot measure that passed in Arkansas on Nov. 4.
Bush and Co.’s eight years of pandering to the Christian whackjobs have emboldened the religious right to try and push the GLBTQ back into the closet, and since I tore the hinges off that door when I was 16, I have no plans to go back. My fear is that the GLBTQ community will lose interest in this fight because, let’s face it, there are a lot of flighty queens out there just caught up in the drama. There needs to be sustained pressure on the government and legislators in all states so that the issue remains front and center.
A big shot in the arm would be the Democrats gaining a majority in Congress. I say piss on the “checks and balances” theory bandied about the losing GOP. We’ve been under the Republican thumb for years and now it’s time to reverse the polarity. That means Georgia’s Jim Martin needs to win the runoff against Saxby Chambliss (a right wing nut of the highest order) on Dec. 2 and Al Franken needs to win in Minnesota after the recount. Although democrat Mark Begich has finally won against Ted Stevens in the US Senate race, it still boggles my mind that more than 100,000 would vote for a convicted felon to represent them. Maybe we should encourage the secession of Alaska from the union. Something in the snow ain’t clean up there.
Another brave hope is - and I know this isn’t polite - that two or three of the U.S. Supreme Court judges will die. Okay, maybe not die, but at least retire so Obama can bring some sanity back to that bench. Maybe with a more liberal-centered top court, we will finally see civil rights for all people. No matter who they choose to love.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I believed that the people were fooled into voting yes for Prop 8. Rallies show support, but education is the way to go. It’s a disgrace.
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Yes, yes, yes, to gay marriage, to equal civil rights for all. Isn’t the US about expanding freedom? Great post, Collin, full of invigorating words to charge us forward. We need to get involved, now is the time, gay or straight, whatever our ethnicity, religion, or age.
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I hesitate to poke my nose in here, for fear of being attacked, but here goes:
First, I am a straight, 29-year married, suburban, conservative life-long republican and I support gay marriages– my feeling, as a conservative, is that the same government I want out of my pocket I also want out of my–and your- bedroom. Is my neighbor going to pay his taxes, take in his garbage and help out around town? Then what the hell do I care who he loves? Not my place.
Second, I think the big problem here is that Americans generally don’t like Courts ordering them around–there is a HUGE difference between battles that are won through public opinion and the legislature and those won in a courtroom. See gambling v. abortion.
Third, it wasn’t Republicans who passed Prop 8, my friend. In California, that prop doesn’t pass without Democrats and independents–so you can’t blame it on W and the conservatives. Conservatives may have supported Prop 8, but it was your friends who went into the booth and pushed this baby over the goal line.
Fourth, Dems already controlled the Senate and the House–and I didn’t see any bill put on the floor (maybe Republicans could have filibustered in the Senate, but Reid and Pelosi didn’t even try). And don’t forget, Clinton didn’t move on this issue, even when he had both the House and the Senate, and The Great One has come out against gay marriage, if I’m not mistaken.
I think peaceful protest will help. I think trying to reach out to people you think oppose you instead of branding whole swaths of people will help. I think appealing to America’s sense of fairness will help.
Truthfully, and here’s where I’ve been blistered before– I think things like the Halloween Parades, disrupting Church services, blood on the steps, signs filled with anger–all hurt. Gay America’s best argument, to me, has always been, we’re one people and I’m just like you just like him just like her.
Anything that highlights differences rather than similarities just drives the wedge deeper.
Nobody should have to beg for a basic human right, so I’m with you 100% (in fact, I used to cop out at gay unions, but I’ve been persuaded). But the truth is that the movement is losing in places it shouldn’t–so maybe it’s time to change strategies.
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Although I can’t speak for all gay Americans, I think a federal law allowing same sex civil unions would be welcome and quell much of the protest. And it would also be nice if the Christian right wing legislators would stop bringing bills to statehouse floors stripping the GLBTQ community of human rights.
As for Prop 8’s passage in California, with the Mormons and other organized religions whipping up the fear and loathing factor with millions of dollars in misleading advertising, I’m not surprised that many Dems and indie voters supported Prop 8. The opponents of Prop 8 did not do a good job countering these negative ads (many of which pandered to parents with a message that children were going to be forced to learn about homosexuality in school). I’m also pretty sure a good number of voters had no idea what they were voting in favor of thanks to the awkward wording of the proposition.
No where in the post did I blame W for the passage of Prop 8. What I blame him for is pandering to the religious right and emboldening them to strip others of their civil rights. He and his cronies are most definitely guilty of that. I agree that Clinton could have done much more to try and advance civil rights to the GLBTQ community, but at least their weren’t as many roadblocks in the 90s. There seemed to be a natural progression of the GLBTQ community slowly being assimilated into the fabric of American life, and then Dubya and Co. arrived and turned back the clock.
It’s time for this country to take a hard left for a bit, because we have swung way to far right.
I followed the trail here from Collin’s blog and this is a great post, Collin! I still can’t believe rights were taken AWAY from people in California, much less that it’s so important to KEEP them away in other places. I think the wording of Proposition 8 was tricky, too. It didn’t say “Same gender marriages should not be permitted’, but rather ‘marriage is a union between….well the exact wording isn’t at the tip of my brain here before dawn, but it would be easy for a large group of people not up with the news to simply think they’re voting for the sanctity of marriage and that’s it.
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