I've been collecting lots of links and thoughts about California's Proposition 8's passage... it was a dark shadow on"Obama Day" joy for me, and much worse for so many of my friends who are in the GLTB Community. I've been thinking about what to write, what to say about this... then I saw "Prop 8 - The Musical"! Ha! Say it with humor - that's the ticket!
What it comes down to, for me, are a few key points:
- It's an issue of equality, not sexuality - equal rights under the law for all people
- Most of the opposition to gay marriage comes from religion, and we have a separation of church and state in this country
- Even if you feel it is wrong, based on your religion, you do NOT have the right to legislate your religion, to enforce YOUR religious beliefs on those who don't share them (or even on those who do)
Here is a collection of serious articles which emphasize these points, some of which I've shared before, but which bear sharing again:
Why churches fear gay marriage | Salon News
Richard Rodriguez' thought-provoking article -
"While conservative churches are busy trying to whip up another round of culture wars over same-sex marriage, Rodriguez says the real reason for their panic lies elsewhere: the breakdown of the traditional heterosexual family and the shifting role of women in society and the church itself. As the American family fractures and the majority of women choose to live without men, churches are losing their grip on power and scapegoating gays and lesbians for their failures."FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right: Prop 8 Myths
This is interesting - I trust Nate Silver's take on statistics, and it looks like prop 8's passage may be more generational than race/religion-related. I mean, of COURSE it's religion-related, but within same race/religion groups, voters over 65 voted more for and younger voters voted more against. That makes more sense to me. And is, in a way (as stated in the article), more hopeful for the future of equality.
YouTube - The West Wing - bible
President Bartlet totally PWNS the "Dr. Laura" character, Jenna Jacobs, on Old Testament Biblical Law. Awesome. Homosexuality is an abomination, and also... death is the punishment for working on the sabbath, selling your children into slavery is condoned, the punishment for planting two different crops side by side is stoning, mixing two types of thread into one fabric is punishable by burning, etc, etc - just awesome.
Utah Legislators Call Mormon Leadership’s Bluff on LGBT Rights
This will be interesting. But even if they DO support "equal" rights in these areas - haven't we learned? Separate is NOT equal.
Gay marriage is a question of love - Countdown with Keith Olbermann- msnbc.com
This is powerful, and I have to say that I like ~reading~ Olbermann much more than watching him. There is a link to a video, too, if you like watching/listening better. It's all about honoring LOVE. Honoring commitment. HONORING marriage for what it ~should~ be.
Why Gay Marriage Was Defeated in California - TIME - Annotated
In this case, fear, unfounded fears fanned by propaganda of religion-based beliefs, won out over hope and fairness. So sad, and so ironic that African Americans, who voted in record numbers for a candidate that gave them hope, also voted against equal rights for another group, crushing ~their~ hope.
- a remarkable story about Rick and Pam Patterson, a Mormon couple of modest means — he drives a 10-year-old Honda Civic, she raises their five boys — who had withdrawn $50,000 from their savings account and given it to the pro-8 campaign. "It was a decision we made very prayerfully," Pam Patterson, 48, told the Bee's Jennifer Garza. "Was it an easy decision? No. But it was a clear decision, one that had so much potential to benefit our children and their children."
- It is my fervent hope that at least one of their children, who they think they are benefiting by taking away the rights of others, IS gay, and someday wants to marry their same-sex soul mate. Only then might people like this see the error of their ways through the blinding veil of their dogma. - post by naturegeek
- African Americans voted against marriage equality by a wide margin, 69% to 31%
- So, African Americans, who finally have realized a dream with this election, vote for others to have their dreams deferred. This is painful. - post by naturegeek
- The irony. Ugh. - post by naturegeek
- David Paterson, is one of the nation's most eloquent pro-marriage-equality representatives. He is also, by the way, African American. Perhaps he can help bridge the gap between gays and blacks that widened on Nov. 4
- Let's hope so! - post by naturegeek
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
