So, yeah, some of you are sad that Obama won, but hey - at least it's balanced out by the fact that all those pesky gays won't be getting married anytime soon and wrecking your traditional lives with all their wedding festivities. Sorry, no champagne for you!
I mean, especially if you're straight and already married, that would TOTALLY just wreck whatever empire you've already built. DAMN YOU, GAY PEOPLE, wanting to have the same potential to end in divorce as everyone else! What were you thinking?!?!
:headdesk:
In the meantime, we've gained about 12% more tolerance than we had four years ago. Baby steps, apparently. It *is* progress, seriously (and how awesome are we for finally growing up enough to be okay with having
::whisper:: A Black Guy For President)... but that doesn't mean it's okay to just turn a blind eye now.
I don't care if my president is a green polka-dotted tranny with a fetish for midgets in girly clown costumes - I just want to start with the rest of the world not hating us (and each other). Whoever can fix that, GET ON IT.At this rate we might even be okay with some girl walking down the street holding hands with another girl. Or maybe a guy holding hands with a girl who is a biological guy, but really just likes to wear dresses and hopes you'll call him "Miss".
Is that it, Yes On 8 people? Is that what's really bothering you? The thought of TWO DUDES KISSING? Because honestly, let's look at some of you folks who are straight and have been married thirty or forty years. (Apparently the majority of supporters are over 55 years old.) When was the last time you walked down the street holding hands with your partner? When was the last time you had sex? Hell, when was the last time you told your husband or wife that you loved them? Maybe that's what's bothering you. Maybe you don't want to give the lesbian couple across the street a chance to wreck your 'traditional' marriage, because you know you're doing a fine job of that already.
I mean, you talk over the fence to them about how maybe this winter the frost might kill those bulbs if they don't get them in early, or if they saw the score of that one game, or isn't this economy just going right to hell in a hand-basket, but that's all. You know they've been together six or seven years and you know that they're a real nice couple, but maybe you see them uncomfortably refer to themselves (in front of other people) as "my roommate" or "my friend". Maybe when they catch you seeing them hugging just a little too long they quickly break apart. Maybe when you talk about how excited you are for your ten-year wedding anniversary, you just kind of ignore that small glint of sadness in their eyes.
In case you didn't know: schools aren't required to teach about any marriage (this has been confirmed by the California Superintendent of Schools), and haven't been formally doing so for ...quite awhile now. Remember Home Economics? Do we even have that class anymore? I don't know about you, but all I really learned in Home Ec was how to sew a pillowcase, and in Wood Shop I once made a pretty awesome duck-shaped basket. However we never learned anything about telling Little Johnny and Little Jimmy that they couldn't get married to each other, but if one of them wanted to buy a ring for Suzy that was fine. Maybe I skipped that class? Honestly here though........ the only thing I can think of that is an actual "class on marriage" is that in some colleges they have child/family development courses, but I don't think anything like that is taught in any pre-college schools. If I'm wrong then PLEASE show me where, but in fourteen years of classes, none of mine were ever to teach me the rights or wrongs of marriage.
Anyway, there's no way marriage can be tougher than trigonometry.
I digress.
This proposition is basing itself on a book that doesn't exactly apply to everyone (and is also supposedly based on Love Your Neighbor As Yourself). Non-gay people who hate gay people will continue to do so unless we can break that hate down. Maybe you don't "HATE" gay people, maybe it just makes you uncomfortable. If you are uncomfortable with same-sex marriages and voted No, you are to be commended. You're breaking the mold and saying, "I don't like this, but it's not my place to say who should love anybody, I'm not perfect." Go you! However, for those of you who supported Prop 8, why? Honestly, you don't even have to say anything out loud or type a response, just ask yourself why you denied someone the same chance that you have. Did you do it because somebody told you to? Did someone tell you we will have to pay same-sex taxes? That sounds a little scary, so I need to go look.
You all realize this means I have to be 'tolerant' of looking at the YesOn8 website (protectmarriage.com), but I DID IT (with little complaint). You have to look at both sides if you want to try and have a solid argument.
PROP 8: (as copied from the
California Voter Guide)
ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME–SEX COUPLES TO MARRY. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.[This proposition] changes the California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California. Provides that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.
Summary of Legislative Analyst's Estimate of Net State and Local Government Fiscal Impact:Over the next few years, potential revenue loss, mainly from sales taxes, totaling in the several tens of millions of dollars, to state and local governments.
In the long run, likely little fiscal impact on state and local governments.
......SO......
A) Children will not be taught in public schools about marriage in any form, something that the California Superintendent of Schools has not been and will not be required.
B) People will have to "be forced to not only be tolerant of gay lifestyles, but face MANDATORY COMPLIANCE regardless of their personal beliefs. (That sounds harsh! Are guns going to be involved? Is this 1984?)
I'm pretty sure folks will try to keep the orgies in the streets to a minimum.
Another argument is: "...while gays have the right to their private lives, they do not have the right to redefine marriage for everyone else."
I thought that marriage was a union between two people who loved each other? You go down to the courthouse, get your license (sometimes take a blood test), and ta-da. Oh, except for gold-diggers (who are in it for the money), girls who get pregnant just so they can get married, and pre-arranged marriages. Oh, and guys who get married so they can get hit on more (because wearing a ring apparently means that will happen?). Oh, and what about the women who get married because they've been together ten years and she knows he promised to stop hitting her if they get hitched? No, wait, we don't talk about that. So there's that..... oh, and ANYBODY ELSE WHO HAS THEIR OWN DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE.
Gay people getting married doesn't mean proposing to your dog next. Uh, hello, same-sex isn't the same thing as looking outside your species.
So now that we've looked at what "Yes on 8" is worried about happening, let's see what else we've got.
No same-sex taxes. Okay, we're not losing money. Lawyers, wedding planners, officiants, caterers and everybody else involved in special events or weddings are, but not you. What about the churches?
Churches have ALWAYS had the right to deny a couple to get married... ever wanted to marry a Catholic person that attends services? Have fun taking those marriage counseling classes. Have fun converting to Judaism if you want to marry a devout Jewish person. Okay, let's skip all that... if you want to marry OUTSIDE the church and have religious families, have fun telling them. You want to have your wedding in a field, on the beach, in the mountains, in Vegas, and somebody's family is all bent out of shape. Then you have to redo the seating arrangement like TWELVE times because Becky can't sit next to your mother's best friend and she tells you like a week before that she's bringing a freaking DATE. Good job, Becky.
Gay people, you see what you're getting into? Oh wait. Well, someday you get to look forward to this.
The Yes On 8 ads say "think of the children"... what happens when your daughter grows up and tells you she loves another girl? Or your son says he loves another boy? Are you going to disown them? Are you going to abandon them as a parent, and say "You are no longer my child?" Are you going to tell them you created them, so you can deny them a wedding and a chance at a solid, loving relationship? Are you going to tell them your own marriage or relationship is perfect? Are you going to force them to be hateful towards you and everyone who doesn't want them to love who they want to love?
ASK YOURSELF WHAT YOU WILL DO, SUPPORTERS OF PROP 8.
If you supported same-sex discrimination and are not married, not in a relationship, childless, and are perfectly content as such, ask yourself why you are denying someone else a chance to be happy. Why? ASK YOURSELVES WHY. They aren't hurting you. They aren't "contagious".
I promise you, allowing gay people to marry does not make you gay.As for my own opinions : my current relationship has never been perfect; our moments of good and bad are many. However who are we to deny anyone else those same chances? Who are we to tell people who to love? We are not perfect; who then are we to step up and say, "I am better than you and want to tell you that you cannot love someone because they are the same gender"?
Loving someone enough to say "I want to marry this person" is NOT wrong, and I don't care what any translation of any handed down story says.
It also says "love your neighbor", it doesn't say "love your neighbor... unless they're the same sex". Loving someone of the same gender does not make you less of a person. We are all human, and we all deserve basic human rights: food, shelter, resources, love.
Those in doubt, feel free to cast the first stone.
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Also: Here is the list of all of the organizations, businesses and individuals that helped fund the Yes On 8 proposition: http://www.californiansagainsthate.com/dishonorRoll.html
Those folks are obviously very proud of having the resources to donate $5,000... $10,000... some even upwards of A MILLION DOLLARS towards such a cause, let's take a nice peaceful stance and get their names out there.