California, I Hate You

I'm angry. It's 2009 and we're still trying to keep people down. We're still trying to keep rights away from people that are different for us. How absurd to even put something like this up to a popular vote. Is not The Constitution devised to protect the minority from the majority? We should never vote to take away the rights of others. Let's put interracial marriage bans on the ballot in the Deep South and see how well the measure fares. I bet it would get a lot of support -- even though it's absolutely absurd. You can bet that if anything like that ever happened, and passed, the Supreme Court would step in and rule it unconstitutional. Apparently, the queers still don't matter as they should.

I find that it's time. It's time to stop arguing over language and what "marriage" is. It's time to stop arguing about what the bible says or doesn't say. And it's time to stop taking the rights away from minorities.

Marriage, civil union, domestic partnership. I'm done arguing over what we call it. Some might argue that it is discriminatory to call it anything but marriage -- maybe it is, but I don't care. I don't care what we call it. I want two homosexual people that want to spend the rest of their lives together to have the same rights as two heterosexual people that want the same. So they can file their taxes jointly, so their children aren't taken away if one parent dies, so they can make medical decisions for each other if needed, so they can see each other in the hospital, so they can show their love for one another through the willingness to not only take a vow, but sign documents that make it difficult for them to part without going through divorce. I'm not making a concession, I'm saying that I'm worrying about getting the rights now...and worrying about what we'll call it later.

Leviticus, Romans, whatever. I don't care what the bible says about homosexuals, I don't care what it says about straight, gay, or interracial marriage. Not only is it not a religion I subscribe to, but this is (supposedly) not a country that uses the bible to make laws. Freedom of religion and freedom from the tyranny of religion. If you're worried about god, be sure to join a church that doesn't marry gay people. Simple. Just please stop telling me who your friend in the sky told you is/isn't allowed to get married. I just don't care.

I'm also not interested in the sanctity of this institution you've created. Over half of your marriages end in divorce. You let people drunkenly marry one another in Las Vegas (only to part hours later). You let people to marry solely for tax benefits. You let people marry for money. You let people marry because of surprise pregnancies. You let people to marry because of familial pressure. Over half of your marriages end in divorce, others are just plain shams. You don't care why a couple is getting married, just as long as they are made up of one male and one female. That's just bullshit. You guys made a mockery of marriage. The gays aren't capable of doing anything worse than what you have already done.

Now, I suppose there's a question as to whether or not marriage is a right. Let's clarify, there's a question as to whether or not being permitted to marry the person you love is a right. It is. It is because there are myriad benefits associated with getting married. I don't have to lay these out, you know them. When you speak directly to a specific group of people that is different from you, and say, "You are not allowed to do what we are allowed to do," you are discriminating and taking rights away. Stop it.