Deirdre Bourdet, left, and Leslie Caccamese spent Saturday with hundreds getting married in San Francisco, March 2004.

There are so many reasons that I’m proud to live in California, and a few that make my stomach turn.  I’ve used this blog to show my support for the rights of gay couples wanting to get married in California, and although I thought that I’d done my piece to help, seeing the press today brings tears of frustration to my eyes and renews the anger that I feel towards the majority of Californians that consider it acceptable to legislate discrimination.  Where is their conscience?

Right now my biggest hope is that I won’t have to explain to my daughters that we live in an environment that discriminates against people because of the color of their skin, where they go to church or their sexual orientation.  I hope that my daughters will know that all Americans share the same rights and privileges under law because we, as a country, have voted to maintain those rights.  Ultimately, I hope that our “don’t ask, don’t tell” military will continue to defend those rights so that someday it might be possible for all world citizens to share those same rights.  For now, I’ll tell them that how Connecticut does it is right and that California will catch up at some point in the future – hopefully sooner rather than later.

Reading through some of the political pieces that are out there and even trolling through craigslist.org, the arguments against gay marriage are so far out there it’s difficult to completely understand how people can put those words together and still sleep at night.  Seriously, to clarify for those of you looking to support the ban on gay marriage, this isn’t going to get rid of gays, force your children to be homosexual, teach gay sex in school, or change what it means for you to be married to your husband or wife.  It’s not going to change anything for you – other than allowing you to sleep at night because you know that you’ve worked to uphold the constitution.  If your religious beliefs that are impacting your beliefs of what constitutes husband and wife, I would recommend that you look really deep and make sure that the institution that creates your church is translating the words of the bible correctly and not interpreting them to meet what the church wants to continue their stranglehold on it’s flock.

For those of you that continue to support equality for everyone and the rights of gays to marry, I applaud you and wish you success.  I will continue to fight from my stand here and in the community until we have distanced ourselves from the blight of discrimination.

Ranter

One article I read quoted some idiot man saying, “God says marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman.”  What?  Are you kidding?  Come on people – I don’t care what your religious convictions are, God didn’t write the bible and if he’s talking to you, I have a jacket I’d like you to put on.  Marriage, as we’re talking about it today, is a civil and judicial process, and accordingly it has nothing to do with church, God, or your beliefs.  Separation of Church and State, remember?

These Catholic and Mormon churches have a captive audience to preach to every week, and I’m wondering how they feel about the homosexuals in their midst and congregations.  Are these people less worthy of savior and God, to the point where they should be treated differently?  I believe most preists would say “No, they’re equally worthy, but…  It’s that “but” that’s disconcerting to me, beause it’s really saying that everything in the preceding statement is untrue – and that’s how the churches are coming across.  Mormons believe that polygamy is an acceptable practice, ultimately creating a significantly larger problem for the people and finances of this country – why is that any more okay?  Marriage is between a man and a woman and another woman and another woman.  Yeah, I think I remember seeing that in the bible, too.

This is about civil rights – it’s no different than women’s rights, the rights of blacks, or the rights that we, as a country, afford to foreigners in our country.  It’s time for us, as a race of people, to stand up for equality regardless of our differences and stop hiding behind religion, heritage or the bible when we don’t like something.

Ranter

It’s obvious from the polls and from the results that Californians don’t understand the ramifications to a large number of Californians.  They claim same sex marriage is a religious issue and I’m calling bullshit.  This is an issue of human rights and all you Catholics and Mormons out there that are supporting this belief that it’s okay to legislate discrimination need to start voting with your conscience, because your child-molesting, polygamyst lifestyles are next.  If you’re going to bring together church and state it’s only a matter of time before the state tries to make decisions about your lifestyles and right now I can’t wait to cast my vote on that issue.

One of the Proposition 8 strategists, Jeff Flint, is quoted as saying:

“I think the voters were thinking, well, if it makes them happy, why shouldn’t we let gay couples get married. And I think we made them realize that there are broader implications to society and particularly the children when you make that fundamental change that’s at the core of how society is organized, which is marriage.”

From my perspective – as a straight, married male with two young children, that sounds like a load of crap.  Society isn’t fundamentally organized by marriage – it’s organized by equality.  Even the churches preach that we should treat everyone equally – except the homosexuals, I guess, they should be treated differently.  I’m surprised they can still come to church… I guess that’s probably next.  I’m not a religious zealot, and I don’t believe that this is really what any God would approve of.  The Maker isn’t going to make people worthy of less than any other people.

At the same time this was happening in California, Florida and Arizona quietly passed similar legislation with similar bullshit reasoning.  And, I really hope, when all this plays out over the next few years that the American public will begin to realize that the things we hold most dear – the democracy, equality, and right to free speach and religion – can be taken away based on race, gender, sexual preference and religion.  Don’t think it can’t happen, because the more we take away from one group of people the more likely it is that everyone risks losing something.

Ranter