A couple things from your friendly local Gaymerican:
- I think with all the talk about Prop 8, people forget that California (yes, California!) has banned gay marriage before (in 2000, I think?). They've just been going back and forth so many times with banning and permitting it in the past several years that people thought it might actually stick around this time. The measure passed by a very small margin, and was only so publicized because they spent ridonculous amounts of money on it. - CA still has civil unions. A lot of US states don't even have that, and have even banned them outright. Virginia is the most aggravating of all, where they won't even recognize the unions of other states. (So if you and your partner, legally unionized in NJ or married in VT, get in a car crash in VA, you have no say at the hospital. And until 2003, you could be arrested for having gay sex in twelve or so states, which is why I didn't go to college in VA.) - Since when are we in the business of taking rights away from people? Don't forget, this is the country that gave us slavery, welfare-to-work, NINA and Jim Crow laws, immigration quotas, salary caps for women, criminalization of religious and sexual minorities, the Trail of Tears, unequal representation for Puerto Rico, segregation...
Don't get me wrong, I'm pissed off about it too. But I'm bitterly cynical as well, having seen this roller coaster going on and on and on for the past five or six years. And though it's intensely frustrating, we have made big strides: like I said, the Supreme Court decision in '03. You know what, I'm going to Wiki the states, hang on...
Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia
Before 2003, it was illegal in those states to have CONSENSUAL ADULT sex with someone of the same gender IN PRIVATE. And it was a felony in some of them, so you could do jail time if someone broke into your bedroom with a policeman. (Which is what happened in Texas, which is why the Court overturned all of them at once.) There's some really fucked up stuff like that in our past, but it's slowly, painfully improving. The important thing, I think, is not to let the outrage and anger consume you (though I certainly encourage feeling it, like you said: it's good to be angry for change). Yes, Proposition 8 has passed (for now, that is; we'll see what happens next year)...
...but in the meantime, we have a Democratic President, House, and Senate for the first time in many moons. Live for hope!
P.S. Something I think is way more fucked up than even Prop 8: Arkansas apparently just passed a measure banning adoption by unmarried people/couples. Obviously they were targeting the LGBT community, but... well, think about it for a second. ANY unmarried people. Even the straight ones.
Let's have a look at the homeless child population in Arkansas over the next few years, hm? You can't use a blanket to put out a candle.
no subject
- I think with all the talk about Prop 8, people forget that California (yes, California!) has banned gay marriage before (in 2000, I think?). They've just been going back and forth so many times with banning and permitting it in the past several years that people thought it might actually stick around this time. The measure passed by a very small margin, and was only so publicized because they spent ridonculous amounts of money on it.
- CA still has civil unions. A lot of US states don't even have that, and have even banned them outright. Virginia is the most aggravating of all, where they won't even recognize the unions of other states. (So if you and your partner, legally unionized in NJ or married in VT, get in a car crash in VA, you have no say at the hospital. And until 2003, you could be arrested for having gay sex in twelve or so states, which is why I didn't go to college in VA.)
- Since when are we in the business of taking rights away from people? Don't forget, this is the country that gave us slavery, welfare-to-work, NINA and Jim Crow laws, immigration quotas, salary caps for women, criminalization of religious and sexual minorities, the Trail of Tears, unequal representation for Puerto Rico, segregation...
Don't get me wrong, I'm pissed off about it too. But I'm bitterly cynical as well, having seen this roller coaster going on and on and on for the past five or six years. And though it's intensely frustrating, we have made big strides: like I said, the Supreme Court decision in '03. You know what, I'm going to Wiki the states, hang on...
Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia
Before 2003, it was illegal in those states to have CONSENSUAL ADULT sex with someone of the same gender IN PRIVATE. And it was a felony in some of them, so you could do jail time if someone broke into your bedroom with a policeman. (Which is what happened in Texas, which is why the Court overturned all of them at once.) There's some really fucked up stuff like that in our past, but it's slowly, painfully improving. The important thing, I think, is not to let the outrage and anger consume you (though I certainly encourage feeling it, like you said: it's good to be angry for change). Yes, Proposition 8 has passed (for now, that is; we'll see what happens next year)...
...but in the meantime, we have a Democratic President, House, and Senate for the first time in many moons. Live for hope!
P.S. Something I think is way more fucked up than even Prop 8: Arkansas apparently just passed a measure banning adoption by unmarried people/couples. Obviously they were targeting the LGBT community, but... well, think about it for a second. ANY unmarried people. Even the straight ones.
Let's have a look at the homeless child population in Arkansas over the next few years, hm? You can't use a blanket to put out a candle.