I watched Milk (finally!) this past weekend and found myself furious all over again with the passage of Prop 8 in California (well, I guess it’s more like still furious).  How, in 30 fucking years, have we not advanced in our thinking of human and civil rights?  What compels people to think so differently, cruelly about another person?  Are they that intimidated?  And what is it, exactly, they are afraid of?  (They should be afraid of themselves, these jackasses!)

I am not arguing one’s right to have personal or religious feelings about this issue.  I don’t believe churches should be forced to accept marriages its faith deems unacceptable or not possible.  (Then again, I don’t really believe in church, but that’s another rant-and-rave).  But, no matter what people believe about right and wrong under the noble name of religion it doesn’t give anyone the right to tell the rest of us how to live our lives.  These idiots don’t stop to ever consider the bigger issue with these movements.  They don’t seem to even have clue about the piece of freedom they are trying to take away–and in this case have succeeded in doing!

When will the law tell us how many children we may have?  How we can dress? What we can eat?  Sound ridiculous?  So does taking away the right of the gay community to marry.

I sat at a wedding and watched two people very much in love make marriage vows to each other just three days before this ridiculous amendment to our state constitution passed.  I thought:  I wish it were possible for people of all beliefs to have attended that wedding and seen the genuine sharing and honest determination of this couple to commit to life together.  I wish they could have listened as they took their vows and heard the nervous tremble so many have at that moment in their voices.  I wish they had not just witnessed but felt the happiness and celebration of this day as we all did.  I wish they could have seen it for what it was:  two people brave enough, crazy enough, hopeful enough getting married.
But they only see two men and think they have no right to be this way.  Is this couple any less human?  Have they any less heart?  Are they any more incapable of realizing what they are getting themselves into than the rest of us foolhardy lot who marry the one we love?  No.

I almost think that if the supporters of Prop 8 were on a mission to save people from themselves (which would be totally futile, of course) in making the huge mistake of getting married I could live with that.  I would certainly laugh at it at least.  But that’s not it.  They actually think they are saving the sanctity of marriage, of family, by telling us who we are allowed to marry.  They are dictating that one group receive the right to marry and denying it to another.  How did we get so far as to elect our first black president and then let this happen?

It scares the hell out of me that none of these people seem to realize the action they have taken. I mean, sure, they realize they are banning together and saving everyone from the awful reality of gay marriage, that they are “preserving family”.  None of them seem to recognize, though, that they are telling people what to do in their personal lives, that they are taking away not just the rights of the gay community but of everyone–even themselves. Sometimes I just don’t get it.