If you feel that it’s real I’m on trial
And I’m here in your prison
Like a coin in your mint
I am dented and I’m spent with high treason
Elton John ~ Take Me To The Pilot
California Proposition 8 which passed with 52 percent of the vote, overrides that court ruling by defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Thirty states now have adopted such measures, but the California vote marks the first time a state took away gay marriage after it had been legalized.
Gay-marriage bans also passed on Tuesday in Arizona and Florida, with 57 percent and 62 percent support, respectively, while Arkansas voters approved a measure aimed at gays that bars unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents.
Massachusetts and Connecticut are now the only states to allow same-sex marriage.
Even as black voters overwhelmingly backed Barack Obama — a gay-rights supporter —
in the presidential race, 70 percent of them voted against gay marriage, compared with 47 percent of white voters.
Denise Fernandez, a 57-year-old black woman from Sacramento, said she voted for Obama and Proposition 8. “I believe a Christian is held accountable,” she said.
“I’m really OK,” said Diana Correia of Berkeley, who married her partner of 18 years, Cynthia Correia, on Sunday in front of their two children and 80 relatives and friends. “I hope the marriage holds, but we are already married in our hearts, so nobody can take that away.”
Tags: Announcements
LBea wrote,
I think this was a near miss here in CT. The poopie-asshat-people didn’t have enough time to gather their forces. But they spend an amazing amount of money on signs. Vote Yes was plastered all along the route to the polls.
I’m extremely proud of the citizens of my teenie tiny little state today. We may be small, but we’re mighty.
Link | November 5th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Anne Douglas wrote,
Being unable to vote I wasn’t up with the play on all the propositions on any of the ballots. Not a very good reason, but there you have it. So I went and looked up the props and get a better background.
What gets me is all those ‘poopie-asshat-people’ (I couldn’t say it any better than LBea) that voted yes on these props have done more than beat down ‘teh gheys’, but have in fact made their own lives/lives of their friends a misery but have yet to realise it. (Or at least in FL where it’s wasn’t just a prop about same sex marriages but also long term partnerships for hetero couples).
Chickens will come home to roost on this one in Florida when people start realising they have no rights what so ever when it comes to their common law spouse (I know that’s not an appropriate term, but the best one I know) when it comes to sickness, death, property, health ins. All for Christian and family ideals.
Frankly, I can’t see, and have never been able to see, how you, the postman, or the man on the moon being gay affects my family in the slightest. Just because, or my minister told me so isn’t a good enough reason in my book. Sexual orientation should not make you a second class citizen. (Barring rapists and paedophiles – yeah I know, contradict myself much?)
Link | November 5th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
I am shocked and saddened and I feel betrayed.
I am pretty simplistic politically.
After the assassination of Harvey Milk I helped a young politician by the name of Dianne Feinstein from the Board of Supervisors become mayor of San Francisco. She spoke of unity with grace and intelligence during a time of turmoil in the Gay Community. I believed in her and she believed in our community. She would later as a Senator be instrumental in protecting Gay Rights and those with HIV from the likes of such inhuman trash as Senator Trent Lott.
I watched my friends die as Ronald Reagan turned his back on us for 8 years.
20,849 were dead from AIDS and 36,058 had contracted HIV before he would even use the word. But the insult was his close friendship with Jerry Falwell and Pat Buchanan who stated time and again that we deserved to die. I will never vote for a Republican as long as they continue to have any ties to the Religious Right.
Now this. in the middle of the most incredible event in our history. To find that Christian Minority Democrats actively voted to strip us of our rights while I was voting to support theirs… Is the Religious Left now on the rise in the Democratic Party? Is this the future of our politics? An election based on how many Bible Thumpers you can manipulate out of fear instead of intelligent truthful discourse?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .
I believe in the separation of Church and State.
Link | November 6th, 2008 at 3:48 am
Treva Harte wrote,
I’m a tad older than you. Been waiting on the Equal Rights Amendment that much longer. Listened to a lot more of the BS on why it shouldn’t happen. Probably will hear a lot more.
Link | November 6th, 2008 at 6:54 am
LBea wrote,
You know, it pissed me off that many voters IN LINE at the firehouse on Tuesday didn’t know what Question One was about. So they assumed “yes” was a good thing. My neighbor was joking about not knowing what to vote because he didn’t understand the question. I was close to smacking him in his big stupid head. These are the voters who most make a difference because THEY SHOULDN”T VOTE ON ISSUES THEY DON”T UNDERSTAND.
ahem.
About bible thumpers, TPig. I agree that the majority of the problem stems from this kind of idiocy. However, there are some religious folk who support the rights of all people. We may be far and few between, but we are here. And, at least in my tiny corner of the world, we’re working to make our voices heard.
The fact that the folks who should have carried that vote in California fucked everyone is appalling. I’m so sorry. I think many of us are in shock.
Link | November 6th, 2008 at 7:08 am
Lauren Dane wrote,
The issue is, quite baldly, of equal protection. It is not about what anyone’s faith holds. Marriage is not governed by the church, it’s governed by the state. Counties issue marriage licenses and dissolution decrees too. Marriage has been about the ownership of property and children since there’s been government. Churches do not govern marriage, period. You can get married in a church, you can do one of those “pact” marriages too, but you can break that pact and get a divorce because the church isn’t the law, the state is.
The 14th amendment to the US constitution holds that the laws of the nation should apply to citizens equally outside extraordinary circumstances (felons and voting is one for instance). So separate is NOT equal and bans on gay marriage are, in my opinion, a violation of equal protection.
My belief is this – you can hold your religious beliefs and not enter a gay marriage. Problem solved. But you cannot use your faith to circumvent the constitution.
Sorry this turned out so long, this is a hot button issue of mine.
Link | November 8th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Ann Somerville’s Journal » Blog Archive » Proposition 8 and the idiocy of bigotry wrote,
[...] fight against racism isn’t over. Even though Prop 8, ironically and disappointingly, had strong African American support, I believe one day, just as one day future generations will look back and wonder at all the fuss [...]
Link | November 11th, 2008 at 6:24 pm