May 16, 2008
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Gay Marriage
"If you don't want gay marriage...don't have one."
It seems like yesterday that my friends and I rampaged the rough suburbia residential streets of the Silicon Valley yanking out the "YES ON PROP 22" signs from people's lawns and then making quick getaways. It wasn't much, (and I'm pretty sure it was illegal) but it was the one of the only things that we as 17 year-old (read: unable to vote) high school seniors and the founding class of the GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) felt we could do. -- Looking back, I'm sure we could have done more productive things -- but I have to say, it sure helped us let out some steam.
Anyhow, as you guys have probably heard, the amendments made by Prop 22 in the 2000 elections to the California constitution have been overturned... Meaning the ban on same-sex marriage is, for now, gone.
I was on the road yesterday when I found out I (embarrassingly) actually cried tears of joy. Perhaps because I'm on my way to getting married myself, it makes the victory even more poignant to me.
I'm so happy that all the people I have met and known along the way can get married and be able to feel the way I do. It's amazing being engaged to the man I love, and I know it's going to be even more wonderful spending the rest of our lives together as a family.
I know would feel like I was losing something if my marriage vows were called a "domestic partnership"... Even if I knew everything was exactly the same. The connotations hold different weights. (For example, making love, having sex and f***ing could all be talking about the same thing, the same event, but you can't tell me that they evoke the same feeling).
Separate is not equal... and I don't think separate can be equal. Not for colored people who wanted to use a restroom or ride at the front of a bus...It wasn't for women who wanted to vote... and it isn't for gay people who want to get married.
Interracial MarriageIn 1959 a trial judge sentenced an interracial couple to a year in prison for leaving the state to get married, and then returning to the state as a married couple. He stated:
"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red,
and He placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference
with His arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The
fact that He separated the races shows that He did not intend for the
races to mix."How different and unforgiving would our world would be if that ruling hadn't been overturned by the US Supreme Court as unconstitutional.
Concluding I know that it's going to be a hard road to keep the California Supreme Court's ruling in place. There are a lot of dissenters, and a new amendment to counteract this overruling will almost certainly be on the ballot in November. I'm not as worried this year, though, and I probably won't be pulling signs off people's front lawn any time soon...The difference this time around? I can vote...which (I think, anyway) makes a much larger difference.
Holy crap, I wrote an essay.
la pride parade 2005
Comments (14)
Good job though. I guess had I been 17 in Cali that year I would have been doing what dogs do on front lawns after grabbing the signs.
Makes it so much more intimate.
@GhostBenjimon - Haha, yeah, girls have to squat, so it takes a while longer... no non-messy way of having a quick getaway
i think if two people love each other regardless of gender they should be able to express that love and if getting married is a symbol of their love then they should get married. And should be able to.
@rianahntr - Word
@GhostBenjimon - I meant squatting. I would take my time and do it at 4am. Oh well, next lifetime perhaps. It is true doggies pee, but we only get upset when they crap.
Good for California. Too bad the rest of the country (most of the states..) is still in the dark ages.
@scorpionictoo - It only takes 1 state to set a precedence
It gave me warm fuzzies when I found out this morning. It's about time.
@shi - I'm glad to see times are changing. Hopefully we can keep evolving. [no thanks to GW! haha]
now that I can marry, I'm going to marry a lesbian
@erictheho -
GIVE THAT MAN A NOBEL PRIZE.
I know - isn't it great?
hi kim,
i post this in your latest blog entry so u can find it easier. i dont know whether u sell some of the stf (bags, dolls, drawings) that u put on ur blog. if u do how do i buy them?
my email: dthu013@ec.auckland.ac.nz
regards
i don't like the term gay marriage. i still think marriage is a between a man and a woman. but... i think in the legal system, there should be equal rights for gays, like call them same sex unions or something like that. my beef is with the label, not with the rights. if gays want to be able to get sig other tax breaks and dependant tax breaks and estate rights, they should be entitled to have them for same sex unions.