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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyMay 26th, 2009
USA Today has an collection of responses from both supporters and opponents of marriage equality. Interestingly, no one seems pleased.
Supporters of marriage are saddened but most look forward to the day when same-sex marriage is recognized in our state. Senator Diane Feinstein:
I know today\’s decision is a tremendous disappointment for many people. But I also know that the opinions of Californians are changing on this issue, and I believe that equal marriage rights will one day be the law in this state. This is already the case in Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont. So, I believe this issue will come before the voters again, and I am very hopeful that the result will be different next time.
Opponents are all indignant that those 18,000 couples who joined before God and man have not been stripped of their legal recognition. Anti-gay activist Mathew Staver:
He said the court’s decision to let stand the 18,000 marriages “makes absolutely no sense and is not consistent with rule of law.” He compared it to the 13th amendment that abolished slavery and noted there were “no grandfather rights” in that and that the same-sex couples’ marriages should not be recognized.
And of course there is the opinion of the raging homophobe who selected the picture to accompany the story. Because nothing embodies the debate over marriage like a picture of a man in a nun’s habit. Really, if it were left up to me, that person would be fired.
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Chris
May 26th, 2009
Are you not familiar with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence – http://www.thesisters.org – only one of the most active GLBT rights activists of our time….
GreenEyedLilo
May 26th, 2009
“Oh, waaaaa, someone’s not getting discriminated against! They’re not being punished for being gay!”
I swear to all the Gods that ever knew human worship, the “Liberty” Counsel would represent a straight man who mugged a gay one.
Slavery! This makes me angry all over again. I’m glad he’s upset, I really am!
Ephilei
May 26th, 2009
@Lilo
It did happen with whites who killed blacks just a few decades ago. That was a motivation for racial hate crime legislation.
Emily K
May 26th, 2009
How typical.
Whenever we make parallels to the 1960’s Civil Rights movement wingers are eager to say that being Black is not the same as being gay and that we have no right to “hijack” their movement (because the fight for equality can only be owned by specific groups of people).
But when it works FOR their “case” rather than against it, out come the parallels to the fight for Black Liberation and Civil Equality.
I’m glad that if the decision couldn’t be one to gladden the hearts of gays, at least it’s one that doesn’t please the anti-gays.
Tony
May 26th, 2009
“No one is happy with the decision”
What are you basing that on? Conservatives like Andrew Sullivan and the founders of GOProud have come out with strong statements supporting the anti-gay decision of the Court. These are respected gay academics and their opinions hold a lot of credibility.
Mark F.
May 26th, 2009
This decision is not anti-gay. The court (including 3 members who signed the original marriage decision) stated that the California Constitution can be legally amended by initiative to take away some rights.
Tony
May 26th, 2009
Mark F., that was my precise point. The fact that the Justices ruled that the voters in California have every right to strip homosexuals of civil rights is NOT ‘anti-gay’ or ‘homophobic’ at all. The majority of California voters have strong spiritual values and the fact that they support pro-family values, just like Carrie PreJean, in no way suddenly makes them scary ‘homophobes’ or ‘bigots’. These are our friends and neighbors and they deserve respect.
----
May 26th, 2009
“These are our friends and neighbors and they deserve respect.”
They deserve to be deprogrammed from their fanatical and misguided mindset.
Jason D
May 26th, 2009
Tony, I thought you were being sarcastic, but on the off hand you’re not:
“The majority of California voters have strong spiritual values”
And what, bigotry is a lark? A fad? Something people come up with when they’re bored at work or stuck in traffic?
“and the fact that they support pro-family values,”
There’s nothing pro-family about preventing parents with children from marrying. There’s nothing Pro-Family about pushing a narrow, exclusive definition on everyone.
“just like Carrie Prejean in no way suddenly makes them scary ‘homophobes’ or ‘bigots’.”
Oh, indeed it does. It absolutely does. Spinning it to make it sound nice doesn’t change anything.
I’m sure there were plenty of slave owners who treated their slaves with respect, and dignity, and didn’t beat them at all. They may have even become friends with their slaves — and yet didn’t think they were real people who deserved their freedom. I’m sure there were plenty of men who treated their wives, sisters, and mothers with utmost respect and yet still didn’t think women should vote or own property.
Bigotry, fear take many forms. Sometimes it’s a foaming-at-the-mouth lunatic, sometimes it’s smiling and insisting on holding the door for you. Being nice doesn’t make bigotry less harmful, saying “no offense” doesn’t take away the offensiveness.
” These are our friends and neighbors and they deserve respect.”
They should start by giving respect, and acting like friends and neighbors.
At no point has the gay community or advocates called for divorcing straight people, not letting straight people have certain jobs, or living in certain areas. We have never suggested that someone’s straightness should be a factor in whether or not they are a suitable employee. We have taken no action to toss them out of their homes, or make it okay to attack them for flirting with their significant other. We have not tried to stop them from marrying or having any sort of government recognition. We haven’t proposed or passed any amendments to this fact. In short, we’re not the ones who have trouble with the concept of friendship or respect.
Mortanius
May 27th, 2009
No one happy with the decision? Of course not. In the “My way or highway” mentality of people on both sides, no one will ever be happy with any decision.
However, the decision, which makes both sides unhappy is an opportunity to work together. It isn’t going to be easy, but like H. Milk would have said and is probably saying from his grave. We need to start having conversations with our coworkers, friends, neighbors, etc, to let them know we all have a common humanity, the ability to love and be loved, our dreams of the pursuit of happiness. As the “majority” comes to understand that gay people are not a threat or some demonized faceless menace they are told about in their churches and political hacks they will come to know us as friends, neighbors, coworkers, and plain human beings with a face and a name.
This is an opportunity to reach out to the multiple parties involved and find our common ground and work towards a common goal of equality for all individuals. My challenge to those on both sides of the fence, put aside what you’ve been told, your predispositions and open a dialog, an honest dialog towards understanding and acceptance that gay people and straight people want the same thing, to love and be loved, to share the same rights, not special rights as every human should.
wackadoodle
May 27th, 2009
“The majority of California voters have strong spiritual values and the fact that they support pro-family values, just like Carrie PreJean, in no way suddenly makes them scary ‘homophobes’ or ‘bigots’. These are our friends and neighbors and they deserve respect.”
I’m so sick of this crap, they’re bigots. anyone who denies that can also sign my petition to make sure christians never ever marry anyone they love, because stealing things from people who have done absolutely nothing to you isn’t bigoted as long as you screach about it being your beliefs.
Ben in Oakland
May 27th, 2009
Tony; I don’t think you have really thought this through. You certainly weren’t paying any attention to the yes on 8 campaign. It was lies, deceit, and fear-mongering from beginning to end. What you see as a difference of world view, I see as just plain old prejudice. It sounds nicer, it looks nicer, it may even be deemed as compassionate, but the dark heart of bigotry is still there.
One of the lies they told is that religious freedom is threatened if I am allowed to marry. Can’t happen–not in this country. A lie is at the very heart of the argument. And the lies make all motivations suspect.
How would you feel if you had to ask 16 million people for permission to marry your beloved? How would you feel if the love and commitment your bear your beloved would be, at best, diminished and devalued as unimportant? Or at worst, denigrated as sick, sinful, and dangerous, and such a threat to family, freedom, and society, that a constitutional amendment must be passed to protect them? Because that is what yes on 8 did.
How would you feel if you were told that second-class citizenship was good enough for you? There is a name for it when the majority imposes on the minority that which it would not accept for itself, and that name is not The Golden Rule.
The biggest lie, which you unthinkingly repeat because you don’t understand it, is that this is about pro-family values, as you put it. Does that mean that we are anti-family, that we attack families, that we don’t have families?
This is not about pro-family. what we want for us, our friends, and OUR FAMILIES is exactly what you get from our government: the same dignity, the same respect, and the same equality before the law that you demand for yourselves. That’s all of it. Our lives and families are every bit as valuable as yours. We do not ask you to approve of or accept gay people, or our relationships, or to be a part of our lives. We are not attacking your marriages, your families, your relationships, your faith, or your rights, or preventing them from being legally protected. So in what way are we anti-family? Because we are not heterosexual? Or because we are really just not quite full members of the human family? And how is that NOT bigotry?
We just want the same rights and protections that you have. Nothing more.
and nothing less.
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